Comunication tips, and conveying posing instructions to subjects

[House of Jubilee]

Ok, I understand, in my head what I want the pictures to look like but I am having issues trying to convey that to the people I am photogrpahing.

Maybe I am nervous about talking to people. What do you say? Do you just state what you want? Do you touch them and move them the way you want?

I have only done this a few times and I am thinking I am not good at it. I am very much a perfectionist and want everything perfect. I get frustrated when the pics don't turn out how I want them.

Any tips or advice?

[Briancd]

Not sure what you are after but some members on this forum use this guide to show models how they want then to pose instaead of trying to explain.
http://polisphotography.com/Imagesforweb/posing.pdf

[DaveG]

Ok, I understand, in my head what I want the pictures to look like but I am having issues trying to convey that to the people I am photogrpahing.

Maybe I am nervous about talking to people. What do you say? Do you just state what you want? Do you touch them and move them the way you want?

I have only done this a few times and I am thinking I am not good at it. I am very much a perfectionist and want everything perfect. I get frustrated when the pics don't turn out how I want them.

Any tips or advice?

The first thing that I'll say is that shooting groups is that it's almost like herding cats. The longer you take the worse the results. I try to make it as light as I can. I don't command, I encourage. Instead of "I'd like the mothers to come over here.", it's "Mom's. C'mon over. No purses!" And since everyone knows that mom has a deathgrip on her purse smiles break out all over the place.

I assemble the group so I can see everyone. Then I macro pose them. Get everyone closer together. Turn them a bit so that their shoulders aren't square on. Then at the camera postition I micro pose them. That for me usually means that the guys have their hands by their sides and everyone's head is tilted a little towards the middle. Guys will want to do the "hands over their parts" pose - which is probably a natural survival trait when the animal is nervous - so I um-pose that. And a head tilt towards the middle makes the people look like that WANT to be part of the group. Left alone and in this close proximitry to someone else subject's will pull their heads away. All day at a wedding I'm instructing the bride and groom to tilt their heads towards each other.

But I don't take ten minutes to do this. The group has a mind of its own and its impatient. Set it up, correct the pose and shoot. If you get finiggly with details you'll lose the smiles when the time comes as they are pissed at you.

Finally if you are shy, then work to get over it. If on the other hand you don't really like people then stop doing these kinds of shots. I KNOW that I'm no good shooting pictures of little kids, so I don't even try to do children's photography.

I've attached a shot to this where the B&G's heads tilt toward each other. Imagine the effect - or the lack of effect - if they were rearing away from each other.

[Big Mike]

An instructor of mine suggested using tear sheets...as in pages from magazines. (or use your own images, if you have something that you can use). You show it to the model/client and get them to emulate the pose. Pretty much the same as showing them poses from a posing guide/book. At least, this should get you closer than trying to describe it to them.

[House of Jubilee]

Thank you for your suggestions. It isn't that I don't like people. I am a people person and I love taking photos. My problem is my comunications skills. Putting what I really want into words.

I have heard that taking kid photos is harder that adults. I don't have a problem with kids at all. I have six of my own. I guess my nervousness comes from "taking command". I am uncomfortable with being in charge of other adults and am uncomfortable with the prospect of making them uncomfortable.

So I guess if I can get over that, I will start doing great since I already don't have a problem shooting kids.