Paul_K Offline Upload & Sell: Off
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I also had a peek at the pictures at your site, and for starters, they are an advert that it really isn't necessary to have the latest multimegapixel monster camera to get excellent IQ. IMO quite Impressive results for a almost ten year old 6 megapixel camera with standard zoom lenses.
That said, although I don't know your shooting style, I think that part of your problem is that you shoot too static and too focused.
If I look at your pictures of your models, it strikes me that although obviously most attention is given at the way they look and the area around the face, the rest is quite overlooked (the badly fitting dress of the model in the first set, the protruding belly of the model in the second set).
It seems to me that you are too focused on one aspect (the pose and facial expression), and consequently overlook the total picture (how does the figure of the model show, does she stand in a natural way).
To draw the line from the above to the posing, maybe you are too detailed towards the models with how to pose (you say you take examples of images on your phone to use during a shoot and expect/want to get that look and pose from the person in front of the camera).
You say you have little experience with shooting people (although your site seems to indicate otherwise) so I assume that you don't work with very experienced models either.
Problem in my experience then is that if they are instructed too detailed, they will forget anything they know and can, like spontaneity and suppleness , and consequently stiffen up and in a mechanical way try to do exactly what they think you want them to do.
I agree that showing your models pictures of what you have in your head is an excellent tool to give your models an idea what you're after (hence the generally accepted practice of mood boards in styling and photography).
But you should not be afraid to let go of those ideas when things don't exactly work out like you want them to. Just go with the flow, relax and improvise, and shoot, shoot, shoot. After all, you're shooting digital so unlike the film days you don't have think about the costs of developing an prints.
And also, even if a picture isn't immediately what you want it to be, the click of the camera is far more comforting to a (beginning) model then (after only ten minutes) being (constantly?) told that 'this isn't it ' and to 'pose' in another way (although that said I'm absolutely no fan of the 'directions' you too often see in bad movies where the sweating photographer jumps around the model yelling ' Yeah baby that's it, give it to me, make love to the camera!! ' )
As for posing directions, when I try to give a model directions how to pose, especially for natural looking (outside) pictures, I always ask myself in the back of my mind ' would she stand like that if she were waiting for the bus?'
If not, ask your model to relax her shoulders, relax her face, relax her mouth, shift her weight on her legs to stand a bit more at easy, and tell a stupid joke to break the tension. And don't forget to relax yourself too, it's only pictures
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