Tuesday Tips #311 – Less Posing, More Directing

Any good photographer puts themselves on the other side of the lens regularly in order to remain in touch with how it feels to be the subject and to find what works and why. Even then, lets be honest — it still can be a bit nerve wracking. To ease the tension and ensure realistic emotions from your subject within the photographs you’re creating, get your subject out of their head and give them something to react to. Whether its telling them a story to elicit a reaction for from them or creating a character for them to channel while you’re shooting them, their version of reactions will unanimously be theirs because their mind will have been kept occupied with your creative directions.

“I haven’t planned a reaction on anything… If you do, you’ve screwed up.”
-William Hurt