Are you hands on or hands off with your models?

In fear of looking like "that guy," I'm pretty much hands off with anybody I shoot portraits of. This makes it hard sometimes because if a subject confuses verbal instructions, he/she gets flustered.

What's your technique?

I'm a "demonstrator" I don't usually touch a subject and if I do, I always ask permission. Instead, I just show them what I'm looking for and then I verbally help them get things right. If you can give clear, concise directions, people are usually able to follow along quite well.

I'll either act out or show a picture I have on my phone. I never touch. Rarely I might ask to move a strand of hair back into place so I don't have to waste time in post later, but that's about it.

With someone that I've worked with before, we've already worked that out. With a newbie & "a strand of hair", I'll probably just do it using their comb, but I generally have someone else in the studio so that they would feel comfortable with it.

get one of these, you can pose it and not have to contort your body into odd positions.

http://www.amazon.com …BMZIE/ref=pd_si​m_sbs_ac_3

Heck yeah, I practically maul my model but she is going to share my last name in three months so she likes it.

Higgs Boson wrote in post #13943794
Heck yeah, I practically maul my model but she is going to share my last name in three months so she likes it.

Ha! I take photos of my kids .... so, yes! I'm constantly hands on touching or chasing after my models.

What is the big deal about touching your subject. If I am having trouble getting them to move their head or shoulders to the position that I want I will simply guide them into place. If one is truly doing a professional photo shoot then there shouldn't be a problem. You have to act professionally and if that means showing them how you want them to pose or touching them to get them there then I don't see a problem. I know a couple of guys locally that use this ruse as a means to something else and that is why I always insist on a third person being present when shooting, no matter what the context of the shoot is.

Touching the client is only a big deal if you make it one.

Depends on the client and style of shooting.

Some of the shoots I do for some of the stores, I am the stylest as well as the photographer. What clothes we will be useing is picked by the store owner. But she is almost never on set. So I have to take the place of a stylist and make sure the clothing "behaves" and looks its best. 99% of the time this is nothing. But there are times I have to pose the model then adjust the clothing to look its best in the pose (getting rid of wrinkles from bending mostly) This may mean I have to tug a bit on a hem to smooth the fabric. Or tug and tape clothing from the back so it does not fall open in the front and become a "wardrobe malfunction".

For anything involving nudity I'm hands off. But I do have a few models that give me the "just fix it already!". But these are models that I worked with a lot. And there is an imeasurable amount of trust between us. They get tired pretty quick now of me telling them something is out of place or not looking as it should. So they just have me fix it. And while one has given me cart blanch to fix anything anywhere... I NEVER take it that far. Which is partly why they do trust me.

cdifoto wrote in post #13945762
Touching the client is only a big deal if you make it one.

Agreed.

I don't ask for permission or treat my subject like they are covered in red hot razor blades. I simply do what needs to be done and act no differently than I would if I was picking up a cup of coffee.

People will pick up on your signals. Any time you act like something is less than 100% OK, or tiptoe around it, you are basically saying that what you are doing is questionable.
If on the other hand, you are confident and relaxed, people will feel that it's perfectly natural. Which it is.

i just move them around if they don't get what im telling them - its only wrong to touch if you are doing something wrong by touching

After reading I guess I'm more hands off. I'll demonstrate something but for hair and some things, if the pose is there but something like hair is out of place I'll move it to the side or something like that. I won't touch and move them like mannequins though.

You have to keep your hands off the model unless they give you permission to handle them.