If you have never worked with models before, you are missing out! It’s a great vehicle for practicing with new lighting gear or exploring new direction in your work. I love working with models to strengthening my boudoir portfolio. I won’t publish client images from boudoir sessions and model shoots give me images with which to market. It’s also super fun and I experiment in every way I can imagine.

Earl Christie and I recently got together for a model shoot up in Maine. We wrangled our models using our tried and true (un)patented model system. We’ve been running models shoots in ShootStyle over the years and I wanted to share what works for us.

We use Model Mayhem, and love it. There’s a great community there and getting to know the models and other photographers has been fun and useful. :) There is a basic free account, which has some restrictions on numbers of images you can post on your portfolio and numbers of conversations you can start in a 24 hour period, but over all, I highly recommend opening an account.

Casting call:

When you are ready to get going, start by creating a casting call. Here is where you can specify who you are looking for and talk about the shoot a little bit. Go big! ShootStyle has managed to score some amazing locations, so we link to the venue. Even if you don’t have links to the space, be descriptive. Include links to your work too. Describe what you are looking for and be very specific about what you will be expecting from the models. You can imagine, some of the situations that have been posted have been sketchy, to say the least. Describing everything in as much detail as possible is going to allay any worries your models will have answering your call.

Throw down some cash if you can. You are much more likely to get models with a little bit of experience. Working with a model who has experience is fantastic when you are just getting going, they will help guide you in common practices in the industry. It also greatly reduces last-minute cancellations. But if you are short on cash, you should be able to find some models who are willing to do TFP (trade for prints, or these days, trade for files).

Some models prefer to bring an escort. Since ShootStyle so often does group shoots, with multiple photographers and models, we designate a room for escorts to hang out so as keep our models as comfortable as possible. If you are willing to have an escort present on the day of the shoot, indicate this in your casting call. Many photographers don’t like the extra person, so if you demonstrate your flexibility, this may win you some points.

Spread the Word:

You might think that once you’ve gotten your casting call up, all you have to do is sit back and answer the flood of emails about to come your way. It’s probably not going to happen that way.

Start searching for models on Model Mayhem that you want to work with, and personally invite them to look at your casting call. I look for models that are older and curvier than the typical model since I am looking to build my boudoir business, and want to find models closer to my clients age and body type. I usually settle for older or curvier. By “older”, I mean pushing thirty. And “curvy”, is anyone over 130 pounds. Being much older and much curvier than that, I have to laugh. But the truth is, this field is full of 98 pound 19 year old aspiring models.

If a model lists another way to get in touch, use it! Facebook, email, form-spring, anything! You are looking to carpet bomb your casting call to get as many eyes on it as possible.

Confirm Confirm Confirm:

Once a model expresses interest, get a cell phone number and an email address. We won’t confirm a spot on the day until we get those. You don’t want to run into a situation where a model has changed her mind about participating, but doesn’t bother to tell you.

Once we confirm with the models, we send them an email with all the information they need. We provide a google map link to the address, a street address, our starting time, what to expect when they arrive, clothing and make-up to bring, and if snacks or drinks will be provided. Include at least one phone number they can reach you at on the day of the shoot, and tell them to expect a phone call the evening before the shoot. If you are doing boudoir work, they must bring a photo ID with proof of age!!

We also ask them to reply to us when they’ve received the email, which also lets us know they’ve read it.

Don’t forget to make the call the day before the shoot! You may have to do some last minute changing around and this gives you a chance to tell the model how excited you are work with them, you can remind them to bring their ID. It also lets you know if you need to scramble to find another model.

On the Day of the Shoot:

While you are shooting, keep checking in with the model to make sure she is comfortable. Avail yourself to collaboration. Often the models get a particular portfolio going in a particular direction, and they may want some variety. If you can do it, it’s great to be able to meet their needs as well as your own.

Make sure you have a release all made up for the models to sign. It shows respect to the models to offer to give them a copy. We take a photo of the models ID and keep it with the files. Keep track of these ID’s. And don’t let them get posted online. The ID has a models personal identification on it and you need to keep them safe by not inadvertently publishing their home address. (This happened to a model-friend of mine. If one is doing boudoir work, you can imagine how terrifying it would be to have your street address out there on the internet!)

Let the models know when you will be delivering their edited images to them. Give yourself double the amount of time you think you’ll need to deliver them, and try like help to deliver earlier. It can be a nightmare for models to get images from photographers. Don’t be that guy.

Above all else:

Show mega-respect for the models. These models are putting themselves out there for you to practice your photography; it is a gift to you, even if you are paying them. The greater respect you can show the models, even in the face of last-minute cancellations, lateness or general dippiness. the easier time you will have with your shoot.

Have a blast out there! And I would LOVE it if you would let me know in the comments section of the blog what tips and tricks you have for working with models!

I beta-tested the new software for the RPG keys this summer and unequivocally love it. It’s the size of a fat TV remote or an old school calculator, and comfortable to use with one hand. You program the keys to trigger commands in a variety of photo processing programs. I use it exclusively for Lightroom, but it can be can used with Bridge, PhotoShop, Photo Mechanic, In Design, Aperture and Fundy Album Builder. The software for programming the keys is Romper-Room easy-to-use.

I have been using RPG keys on and off for the past couple of years, but it always seemed a little wonky. Some of the keys were in the wrong place for me. I know Chris and Tim Reilly personally and in a fit of frustration, I dashed off a whiney email to them telling them that their product was almost perfect (too bad). Feeding into my squeaky wheel behavior, I was invited to test the new version of the product. The guys thought I would find it a bit closer to perfect.

Ha! An understatement; by far! I adore the keys now and they are capable of even more than I had imagined. They are now completely customizable; any command or preset that you use in Lightroom can be programmed to use with the keys. I put in the commands that I use most frequently, sixteen in all, on the keys so I can hit each of them without using the option keys. The keys are now perfect FOR ME.

I have become a photo-processing super-hero.

First, I had to decide where I wanted each key, and which presets and functions were most important to me. After a wedding or two of practice, I rearranged the key positioning, and committed to memorizing the positions of all of the keys. Each key pops on and off and you get a whole array of common commands and presets as well as blank ones for your own presets. I took a jackknife and carved the surface of one of the middle keys. With a single key abraded, my keypad is now “braille”. Using the one key as an anchor, I can focus on the image on the screen and not the keypad.

I am now so familiar with the keypad that I’ve stopped thinking about the device in my hand. Just like typing or driving a car, I no longer go through the following thought process: “This photo is too dark and too green, I must bump up the exposure by two-thirds of a stop and add a little magenta.” Instead, I see the image and my fingers tap the increase exposure button twice and the increase tint button once. I tap the “next” button and I am on to my next image. Tap. Tap. Tap

My fingers are developing muscle memory; I have been FLYING through my processing, and can feel myself getting faster.

I can assign any key on the keypad to any preset I have selected. For example, I have an exact adjustment brush that I use for burning (very big, very feathered and very dark) and an exact brush I use for dodging (big, feathered and light). A quick tap on the keypad brings each brush up, ready to use. Release the key and it deselects. No need to move the slider, select the brush, deselect and grab another brush. Just tap: A brush for burning. Another tap: a brush for dodging.

With cropping, burning and dodging, I do need to use my mouse to define the crop or paint the mask. These are the only times that I need to use the mouse. And instead of a mouse I use a trackball. I sit way back from my desk, trackball in one hand, key pad in the other and process an entire wedding while watching a legal thriller or two. (so sue me)

The icing on the cake is that I can change the keypad at any point to do something different. I can rearrange it on a whim. And if I use the keyboard differently at different times in my process (I do) then I can export the key layout, to recall at a moments notice.

If you do a ton of processing, this is a fantastic product.

p.s. nerd alert: while writing this review, I found out that the keys can be programmed to use with any application on your computer. And by “program” I mean: you drag an application over to the RPG software and drop it. Drag and Drop – ta-da!

Our the second place winner was Kate Crabtree’s image of a girl with a red balloon. Nice rim light around woman’s dress, wonderful mood to this photo. Great positioning of the sun and the pop of the red balloon, and a perfect pose.

Michele Stapleton is back for another win with this fantastic silhouette of a man on a bridge. We found the yellow is intriguing, and want to know the story.

A great big thank-you to our participants, winners and most of all our generous sponsor, ProDPI for providing such fantastic prizes and for graciously providing an additional runner-up prize ($25 gift certificates)

Mark your calendars for early October when we run our next assignment. Let us know if the comments if you have a brilliant idea for our next assignment topic!

In this installment of our ever-popular assignment series, we bring you the phrase “Silhouette!”

Your assignment is to illustrate the phrase “Silhouette”. This might be a photojournalistic exercise or an artistic construction. We leave it up to you to define the phrase and how you will interpret it.

You are more than welcome to comb through your files for a photo that illustrates the term, but we would absolutely love it if you shot something for the assignment, special!!

Our assignment series is open to everyone. We’re hoping you’ll wanna play along.

The most creative entry wins! And WHAT, you may be asking, will you win?  A FABULOUS $150 gift certificate from ProDPI!

We will post all of the entries on our Facebook page, and post a few of our favorites on our blog, complete with a link back to your blog or website.

How to enter!

Images should be sized to 590 pixels on the long side. If you need help figuring that out, ask your favorite Shootstyler! And by all means, slap that logo on there if you have one! You can enter up to one photo a day for the duration of the assignment. Email your entry to:

assignment@shootstyle.com

We have an album on our Facebook fan page. When the entries start coming in, we’ll post them there first. Check in with us at Facebook if you are looking for some inspiration.

www.facebook.com/ShootStyle

The deadline is August 10th!

Let’s have fun doing this together!! Assignment series: “Silhouette!”

In order to get those last moments, when nobody remains but the father and daughter, I have to let go of the shot of the bridal party walking, one by one, down the aisle. I have to sacrifice the photo from the front of the father and bride walking down the aisle.

It’s hard to break away from our internal expectation of getting every shot on the magical shot-list we’ve seen printed out and copied over and over again for our careers. We tell ourselves that there are these must-have shots. But just as there is no typical woman, there is no typical bride and no universal expectations placed upon us.

When I began shooting weddings, it seemed natural to me to stay with the bride until the very end. Now I often second-guess myself and plant myself in the aisle for “that shot”. What if she asks me for it later?

It’s never happened. No bride has ever come to me and asked “How come you didn’t shoot my day another way?” or “Why did you shoot that like that?” I have trust from my brides and they hire me for my vision. Besides, this is a painless photo to miss in many respects. There will be a million photos of her from the front, from her friends, of her walking down the aisle. But nobody but me can get those last tender seconds between dad and bride.

When I have a second shooter working with me, I usually plant them in the aisle for the bride-from-the-front shot. It’s a happy gift to me that when I second shoot for other photographers, they leave me in the back with the bride and father. I love it when Dad looks at his daughter as  “his little girl” for the very last time.

I can still get this shot of the bride approaching the ceremony from behind.

And this shot of the groom looking at his new bride, layered behind her. I feel invisible from this vantage point, and that’s the way I like it.

I vow to take this chance more often this summer and get more of these precious moments between the dad and his daughter. What risks do you like to take or would you like to take on a wedding day?

~Andree

This weeks winner was a run-away favorite with our judges (us). Michele Stapleton won our grand prize, a 16×24 mounted print from our sponsor Gamut Prints, with her image of this little house-island. The image is very Tim Burton-esque and surreal. We loved it!

Our the second place winner was, unbelievably, a three-way tie between the following three photographers:

Jennifer Storer’s image seems very ghosty, and seems to tell a very deep story. She also mentioned to us in an email that she dragged the mirror into the field for the purpose of creating this image for the assignment. We do love that!!

Greg Hinson continues to wow us all with his HDR landscapes of Nantucket. As one of our judges said, we don’t know if he’s a good surgeon, but he sure is an amazing photographer! The water is so still, and the image is eerie.

David Lee (Allegro photography) self portrait reminded us of The Matrix and The Terminator, It’s sci-fi fabulous.

And last, but not least, we got another fantastic entry from Kerry Struble, of Birch Blaze studios. His image displays a really nice use of light. It’s simple yet dramatic. The person in this reflection makes us wonder what she’s thinking about, or if she’s about to jump in.

A great big thank-you to our participants, winner and most of all our generous sponsor, Gamut Prints, for providing such fantastic prizes and for graciously providing an additional runner-up prize (a full set of sample prints from their delicious line of papers) when we couldn’t make up our minds on the runners up. :)

Mark your calendars for early August when we run our next assignment. Let us know if the comments if you have a brilliant idea for our next assignment topic!

I brand myself as a wedding photojournalist. To my clients that means that I deliver images of genuine interactions and moments. Composition, framing, layering all add to the art, but my primary goal is capturing natural unscripted moments.

My first job is getting people to feel comfortable and “forget I’m there”. I doubt anyone truly forgets I am there, when I am two feet away from them with a wide angle lens click click clicking, but I can help them surrender to the process. I want them as close to feeling like I am a piece of furniture as possible. I don’t spend much time chatting with them, especially at the beginning, I just wander around and get in close and shoot.

I keep the camera up to my eye. A perfect facial expression, gesture or moment is fleeting; keeping the camera up increases the likelihood of grabbing that perfect frame. It also creates a physical barrier between me and my subjects, making them less likely to engage with me.

My camera’s lcd screen is set to automatically display the image after I shoot it. If my exposure is way way off, I can see that without taking the camera away from my face. Too bright or too dark? Spin the wheels. I know which direction opens the aperture and which direction speeds up the shutter, so I don’t need to take my camera away from my face to adjust my exposure.

A weirdo thing I do with the lcd is to use it as a tiny rear view mirror. When I have the camera up to my eye, I can take a quick peek at the lcd and see activity behind me reflected in it. I may want to move out of the way or I may want to turn around and shoot.

I use my ears to identify moments. I don’t listen so much to the actual words as much as the energy level. When I hear a squeal of delight, I spin and point my camera. I pay attention to approaching footsteps, dogs barking and children laughing.

Moments after the moment is often when the best stuff happens, keep that camera up and get the moment after. :)

In this installment of our ever-popular assignment series, we bring you the phrase “Mirror Mirror!”

Your assignment is to show us your best Reflection images. This might be a photojournalistic exercise or an artistic construction. We leave it up to you to define the phrase and how you will interpret it.

You are more than welcome to comb through your files for a photo that illustrates the term, but we would absolutely love it if you shot something for the assignment, special!!

We have our amazing sponsor Gamut Prints back along hooking us up with a fantastic Grand Prize of a 16×24 mounted print and for our runners-up, a set of sample prints for 2nd and 3rd place.

Our assignment series is open to everyone. We’re hoping you’ll wanna play along.

The most creative entry wins!

We will post all of the entries on our Facebook page, and post a few of our favorites on our blog, complete with a link back to your blog or website.

How to enter!

Images should be sized to 590 pixels on the long side. If you need help figuring that out, ask your favorite Shootstyler! And by all means, slap that logo on there if you have one! You can enter up to one photo a day for the duration of the assignment. Email your entry to:

assignment@shootstyle.com

We have an album on our Facebook fan page. When the entries start coming in, we’ll post them there first. Check in with us at Facebook if you are looking for some inspiration.

www.facebook.com/ShootStyle

The deadline is June 10th!

Let’s have fun doing this together!! Assignment series: “Mirror Mirrror!”

He wrote a little prose to go along with his image:

“Here Comes the Sun Simulator SCKBLD3000.
Because even the Queen of the Damned deserves a killer tan.
As powerful as the the sun, but not quite as deadly.
Guaranteed. Call 1 (800) TAN-VAMP.”

This image took creative liberties with the concept of what the sun is and we especially love that the image was shot for the assignment. Very creative work!

Our second and third place winners were also incredibly creative!

A big congratulations to Kerry Struble for this image of stone steps in Yosemite,

and to Greg Hinson for this image of Great Point Light on Nantucket.

And thanks to everyone who entered, the voting has gotten more and more challenging with each installment of our assignment series!!

It’s the end of Winter! Time for SUN!!! in this installment of our ever-popular assignment series, we bring you the phrase “Here comes the sun!”

Your assignment is to illustrate the phrase “Here comes the sun!”. This might be a photojournalistic exercise or an artistic construction. We leave it up to you to define the phrase and how you will interpret it.

You are more than welcome to comb through your files for a photo that illustrates the term, but we would absolutely love it if you shot something for the assignment, special!!

Our assignment series is open to everyone. We’re hoping you’ll wanna play along.

The most creative entry wins!

We will post all of the entries on our Facebook page, and post a few of our favorites on our blog, complete with a link back to your blog or website.

How to enter!

Images should be sized to 590 pixels on the long side. If you need help figuring that out, ask your favorite Shootstyler! And by all means, slap that logo on there if you have one! You can enter up to one photo a day for the duration of the assignment. Email your entry to:

assignment@shootstyle.com

We have an album on our Facebook fan page. When the entries start coming in, we’ll post them there first. Check in with us at Facebook if you are looking for some inspiration.

www.facebook.com/ShootStyle

The deadline is April 15th!

Let’s have fun doing this together!! Assignment series: “Here comes the sun!”