One of my buddies is a club promoter who has girls wear merch for his company and takes pretty mid photos with his phone.
I think I could do a better job with my camera and selfie ring lights, told him so, and he said to roll with him on Wednesday.
Where can I learn how photographing women works? I feel like there is an etiquette I don’t know and the special only trick I know is shooting from below the waistline - which I learned from a Brazilian dude.
Like, I just straight-up tell my girlfriend “stick your butt out” or “do a sexy pose”, but I feel like that’s probably unprofessional cause I would never imagine my anime cosplay photographer buddy doing that.
The only photographer commands I know are:"Turn your chin [direction]"and “Turn your hip towards me”
I was given, “Turn your hip towards me”, by a dude I know who throws photoshoots to replace what I normally tell my girlfriend. He made it sound like it’s the only move I need and explained that the models know more about posing than I do.
I also watched a YouTube video from a portrait lady, and she said you can tell people to, “sit comfortably”. I don’t know if that’s good for what we’re doing, though.
It helps to have them mirror what you want. Just be normal. Show them a pose, have them mirror you, tell them to adjust whatever needs adjusting (tilt your chin, turn your waist towards this way, elbows out, etc. etc.).
It’ll also help if you have a mood board with certain poses to either show your models or for yourself to do for them to replicate.
I also don’t know what to bring.
I have a Sony ZV-E10 with two kit lenses (55mm zoom and 16mm pancake), Sony 28mm f2, and an adapted Takumar 55mm f1.8.
Are there important applications for bringing the other lenses if I prefer the 28mm with Sony autofocus?
I also have a Pentax K-70 with a big 90’s DA* 16-85mm f2.8 lens, which probably looks more impressive, but the auto-focus sucks - should I bring it as a faster alternative to switching lenses like the sidearm in Counter-Strike? I’d also feel more professional bringing such a huge camera.
Don’t bring a camera because it looks “impressive”. Not familiar with those specific lenses, but I would always bring the 55mm for photographing people. The shorter focal lengths just aren’t flattering.
First and foremost: Be polite and respectful as you would be with every other person. Don‘t comment (not even as innocent compliment!) on bodyparts or looks. Communicate with your models what poses you wan‘t and plan your shot in advance.
Be as professional as you can and create a good atmosphere. If you are nervous: that is ok! Don‘t try to cover it with playing cool or pseudo funny.
Not native English, what does GWC mean? Girl with camera ?
“Guy with a camera”. Commonly used for “photographers” whose main goal is tricking women into posing with as little clothing as possible for pictures. Generally there is also a very low skill and knowledge level implied. Basically a creepy dude who bought and expensive (looking) camera in order to get women to undress.
I’m gunna go out on a limb and ask that you just don’t. This whole post gives me Andrew Tate in the making vibes. I mean. Youve decribed yourself as a “GWC”!? Women are people, man. Have you never spoken politely to anyone before? You told your buddy you could do this already? I’m not sure I believe you have a girlfriend to tell to “stick her butt out.” Are you trolling? Should this be on r/photographycirclejerk instead?
god you are such a fucking incel dude. your post history reeks of needing to touch grass. take you own advice and stop doing photoshoots with no plans.
I do SEO for a living, and y’all making me want to create a local lead generation system for other GWC’s to take market-share from real photographers out of spite. But not just any guys, dudes who took the Sam Dameshek course an Andrew Tate fan recommended me.
I don’t know who uses Google to find photographers, but they are probably total rubes, which makes this even more villainous!
And I’ll use AI to do it.
Hilarious. I can’t believe other people are taking this seriously.
I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you didn’t know what you were saying when you described yourself as a GWC. “Guy with a camera” is not used to describe an amatuer photographer, but rather a pointed insult used to refer to men who use photography as an excuse to get a woman alone and generally be creepy towards her. Tip number one is to always aspire to be the opposite of a GWC.
Second, taking good portraits, especially for fashion, is about more than having a good camera and good lighting. Being able to pose a model well is half of the art and takes just as much practice as learning how to use your camera. Models you see advertising high end fashion absolutely did not just improv off of “do a sexy pose.” You can practice posing by finding some reference poses online, and asking your wife/a friend to pose for you while you verbally try to direct them into replicating the pose. You’ll learn what kind of language works for you, and you’ll also get to see in real time how your poses change the character of an image. Character is important for fashion photography because your model needs to sell the story of the apparel.
Dude just show up and take pictures sounds like it’ll be fine
So. Much. Wrong.
No real model likes working with a GWC. They may do it because they have to, but I promise you they hate it and make fun of you behind your back.
Nobody is going to tell you how to shoot models. You have to learn from someone, even if it’s from watching a video. Giving them basic commands like they’re trained dogs just pisses them off and tells them you have no clue what you’re doing. Don’t. Do. It.
Find someone who shoots models regularly. Work with them and learn what you’re doing. And always, always, ALWAYS treat the models like people.
Source: Shot models for fashion magazines, artwork, ads and more for years. Have many model friends. Have been dating a model for years. Most GWCs just creep them the fuck out. If you really want to do it, learn to do it right. You will have a much better experience, and so will they.
A small addition for anyone else starting out/worrying about being a GWC:
If finding someone already experienced to follow around is not an option, it can be helpful to atleast have your first models be someone you already know/are friends with.It will help you with the “seeing models as people part” (and yes that sadly is a problem for some “photographers”), it will sensitize you to the models feelings and your impact on them as a photographer and it will also help you see the whole thing as a cooperation between people and not you posing your “puppet” to your own likings and exact specifications. Just keep in mind that between friends the comfort levels will obviously be different then when shooting with a stranger/new model, so adjust for that when making the switch.
Being friends with models has offered me a lot of interesting perspectives on my work and also taught me a lot of things. (Although please dont use shoots as an attempt to get close to people that arent interested)