Directing Models Research Continues

I am on my way. Yesterday I was doing some Google searches to find any tips that would help with my model directing. There were a lot of links that I found, but most of them were filled with pretty common sense stuff. I was not finding any information that came alive to me, or made me feel like I was making any headway until I found a link by Nicolas Henri. I have never heard of Nicholas Henri before, but I had come across his blog. Nicholas is a professional photographer and I could tell right away, when I started to read this blog, that I liked this photographer. It was not Nicolas' work that made me like him, even though it is fantastic work, but it was because of his obvious willingness to share with other photographers and help their growth into the best photographer we all can be. This is Nicholas' site that I had come across: http://nicolashenri.ch/blog/2008/08/directing-models/#more-115.

I started to read on about how Nicholas, as a professional, feels about models today and models he has had to work with. Nicholas said that models are having to work with some very bad photographers that teach them how to model in a very poor way. Nicholas states that it is always the photographer’s job to share what he is looking for in the model, but in a way where the model can act out an emotion. Too often we use adjectives to help get the models to look a certain way.

The night of the photo shoot at Rachael's house I was very guilty of the exact thing that Nicholas Henri was saying not to do. I would tell Desiree to look sad, angry, and emotional. What I learned from Nicholas is that I need to direct Desiree and treat her more like an actress. I need to tell her a story about herself, and put myself into the story if possible. This way, now the model can create an emotion through the story instead of trying to pull an emotion out of thin air. This is a brilliant idea, and cannot wait to try it. I almost came across this style of directing models and few times, but I would feel silly and would abort the idea. I am going to give this a few tries and will share some photos soon.

Check this link out though. It was one of the best well written blogs that I have read. I can't believe that it came from a photographer that cares about helping others grow in this craft of photography.