3 ways to get better expressions out of your subject
July 28, 2019There comes a time in a photographer’s career that working with pretty people isn’t enough.
You can light better, have better costumes and getting a better make-up artist but at a certain point, the rawest form of people and what typically attracts attention is: emotions or expressions.
In this blog, I will present to you 3 ways to help your subject have better expressions or emotions for your photo project.
1) The first item : Build a mood board
You might wonder what is a mood board? A mood board is sort of like an inspiration wall (like Oprah) or elements you want present in the image you are creating. It can be many things. Clippings or images, a song, a movie sequence, a movie frame even. Everything that the senses touches can be part of the mood board. For our needs, we will select clippings, saved images of moods, poses we found cool on Instagram etc. With all of this in hand, send them to your subject and your team so they can physically and mentally prepare for their session. Planning those things really helps everyone reach what is on your mind.
Send also a song that matches the mood. Send a movie clip of that mood in action. With that in the mind of everyone participating in that shoot, getting better shots should be easier.
Pro tip: Build or get a Mood board template
Build a Photoshop template of a mood board and pre-populate the elements that are important to you. Here are a few good resources:
2) The second item: You should communicate often
Include your subject into your decision making. Describe your intent. Listen to their opinion. Be open to receive ideas. When you arrive on set, spend time pointing out things that you love on what you just created. For example: You will hear me say “Yes, more of that!”, “That’s a great pose” or “This looks really good”! I may sound like an 1980’s fashion photographer but the overwhelming majority of people reacts extremely well to those comments.
Remember, you are the director of this set. You own the set. You own the images. You have to help your subject’s performance. He/She relies on you to know how she’s doing and you rely on he/her to provide good poses. Work it.
3) The third item: Play within your subject’s strength
Most of us are good at a few things. And we have a typical range of emotions. To some of us, smiling comes easy to. To some (like me), we have a pretty stoic faces. To others, they are a special kind and can cry on demand (special = totally weird).
Always play within your subjects strengths. If your concept requires bright sunlit nature canvas and vibrant colors, avoid the stoic type. If your idea is dark and moody, a big smile would be weird.
Typecasting isn’t such a negative thing. An example, The Rock would be quite out of place in a dramatic love movie. Daniel Day-Lewis would be misused in a testosterone packed action movie.
Pro-tip: look before you book
Before booking your subject or when you are getting booked for a gig, try to take a look at the subjects Instagram or Facebook profile. What is posted is a good indicator of the strength of your subject.
I hope these were helpful tips to get better expressions out of your subject. For more resources, I taped this video (if you prefer to watch my pretty face :) ) plus share a behind the scenes video going through this article. Give it a listen and share your advice on the video!
Thanks for reading and happy shooting,
YvensB
Gear used on this shoot
