Posing everyday people or professional models in commercial photography situations

Modeling and posing in difficult situations

There are some situations that photographers are asked to photograph that just lend themselves to “not” faking it, but actually doing the task itself. This course of action has many benefits. First, your models will be so involved with actually doing the task, that their gestures will be more realistic than you could have posed. Secondly, you’re more likely to get authentic actions. For example, someone working with a tool is more likely to hold it correctly when actually using it and not just holding it for a photo. Sometimes, even real employees will do things incorrectly, just because they think that it might look better for the photo, when at the same time, you’re trying your best to make the situation look as authentic as possible. If they’re all caught up in doing the actual task, it keeps their mind off of posing and they’re less likely to “help you out” of the realism you’re looking for.

This was shot for a college recruitment brochure with actual students as models.

Ok, you hold the rope there you hold the rope like this ... Bend your knees...

I don't think so.

It's much easier and more realistic to tie the damn rope to a tree and tell everyone to "pull"! Take a picture and see what you don't like and fix it. Repeat until done...

These models were great. I just had them do their thing and document the process. Every once in a while, I'd yell a few instructions (very loudly :+)

This was for a retirement community brochure

This was a shoot for an in-house pharmacy, for a Supermarket chain.

It's like two in the morning because we have to have the pharmacy closed to work, and this poor two-year-old is toughing it out, barely able to stay awake. How do you pose someone like this? You don't. You just sort of position everyone and then let it happen. Make some tweaks and then keep it going until you have something you like. And then shoot a little more just to make sure.

I could pose people all day long and not get what I need for a shot like this. What's the solution? Just keep having them walk from the car to the plane (and back), about twenty times, each time making some improvements.

This Tec knows her business a lot better than I do, so I asked her to just go ahead and prep the patient jsut as she normally would. And then we did it again with a few slight modifications to make everything look a little more dramatic.

This was for a hospital, surprise, surprise...

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