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What is a model's job?
Silly me, I was under the impression that models have to know how to pose and give different expressions. I have just been informed that the photographer does the posing. If that is the case what I am here for? What is my job? May 12 06 12:04 pm Link Claire Elizabeth wrote: To reflect light in a pleasing way. May 12 06 12:08 pm Link If done right it should be a different job for every photog, and every session.. In my case you're there to give me something to think about.. I may have ideas, and I'll want you to pose.. I may go blank (I do that way too often), and I really want you to have your own repetoire of ideas ready to go, because inevitably something you do will kick my brain back into gear and we're back to work.. Oh.. And 9 times out of 10.. The shots I end up using aren't the ones I had ideas for when I started the shoot.. *shrug* May 12 06 12:09 pm Link To look pretty? :-D Actually I think the model should know how to pose, with suggestions/ideas from the photographer. I guess I'm really big on a creative collaborative myself. The model should know the best way to strike and hold a pose (after all they know their bodies). The photographer should be directing the where - over here, now on the bed, can you do a handstand vault off this stool? That sort of thing. May 12 06 12:09 pm Link "This is how I want you to look/pose," says me, and then you sell it! "What a splendid day - my 69th post!" May 12 06 12:09 pm Link Claire Elizabeth wrote: 'Dance monkey, dance!" May 12 06 12:09 pm Link TXPhotog wrote: Aw thank you!! I just mean that the photographer should tell me to make small adjustments to a pose if neccessary but I don't expect him or her to tell me everything. That is MY job, that is what I get paid for. May 12 06 12:10 pm Link kate f wrote: That is hilarious lol. May 12 06 12:11 pm Link kate f wrote: That's right baby...I'll bring my little music box and you get that ass movin'! May 12 06 12:13 pm Link crod169 wrote: So now the photographer has to hire an organ grinder AND tell me how to pose? May 12 06 12:14 pm Link Claire Elizabeth wrote: I can't tell if your being serious or sarcastic - I just woke up so my ability to differenciate is at 3.5% - maybe 4%. May 12 06 12:19 pm Link Claire Elizabeth wrote: I did a job for a jewelry company in February this year. I had this Russian model that I knew from before doing runway. May 12 06 12:20 pm Link Claire Elizabeth wrote: I guess you must be there to take the picture of the posing photographer. Things seem a little backwards, don't they? May 12 06 12:31 pm Link UdoR wrote: Well obviously I would never behave like that but I do expect that I should have to do something. If it is something for a client I understand that there is a certain way things have to be. May 12 06 12:44 pm Link Claire Elizabeth wrote: If your paying him, pose how you want. May 12 06 12:50 pm Link TXPhotog wrote: Great answer : ) May 12 06 12:53 pm Link Claire Elizabeth wrote: the organ grinder will be working tfp. May 12 06 12:55 pm Link Claire Elizabeth wrote: Claire, you don't give yourself enough credit.. Even if you're not directing your own poses.. The ability to a) Understand what some goober behind a camera is asking for, b) Execute the pose, the expression, the emotion, and c) Hold it for however many frames it takes for the tog to capture it.... That's a major skill set right there.. May 12 06 12:57 pm Link Synthetic Shadows wrote: if the photographer is smart, they will put the organ grinder in the picture too. (expecially if they can get one of those little monkeys with cymbals!) May 12 06 12:59 pm Link Synthetic Shadows wrote: ...or TFCD if he's become modernized...HeHe! May 12 06 01:00 pm Link John W Cochran wrote: Best answer!!! May 12 06 01:09 pm Link I make it brainless... I'm very much a director on the set. I tell the model exactly what I want to see. Even the "spontaneity is premeditated. I can even demonstrate it for the most part, if they don't seem to understand what I'm requesting. I have the vision in my head. I suppose I could let them pose away, going "No... no... no... hell no... maybe, remember that we'll come back to it... no... no... never fucking ever... definitely not, and stop grabbing that... no... no... oooh waitwait that's perf... um, on second thought, no..." but that's a one way ticket to irritation for all involved. I give the model the mood, tell them the attitude I want to see, the things he/she should be thinking of, etc. Sometimes I'll say, "Okay, give me something." but that's rare. Usually I tell them exactly what I need or give them parameters for the shot and let them play within. But none of that willy-nilly vogue-ing and whatnot. Unless I have a mindreader, he or she isn't going to know what I want to see in the shot unless I tell him or her... So what's your job as a model? To do your part to make the shot... whether that means doing as asked or doing your own thing. It all depends on what's needed for the shot... May 12 06 01:24 pm Link Claire Elizabeth wrote: Well, according to one ex-MM member: bodyartist wrote: I don't agree. May 12 06 01:26 pm Link With great/experienced models, I give them an idea and then let them have free reign. Then I just watch and shoot as the good images appear. With not so good/new models, I tell them pretty much exactly what to put where and in what way. I guess the answer, cop out though it may be, is "it depends," or more accurately, "whatever will look best." However, if it's for a client, then I do nine shots their way for every one my (or the model's) way. May 12 06 01:33 pm Link Claire Elizabeth wrote: ----- May 12 06 01:35 pm Link Jim Goodwin wrote: LOL, silly Jim!!! May 12 06 01:36 pm Link Claire Elizabeth wrote: That is the model's job. I hate when models come in without having spent hours in front of the mirror learning their bodies. The model should know how to pose. I shouldn't have to get the model started, they should give something and then if that's not where I want to go we change it up. Be confident, strike a pose, and be ready to compromise and move. May 12 06 02:00 pm Link Ched wrote: This was exactly what I was thinking, I just didn't know how to say it. I agree completely Ched. May 12 06 02:04 pm Link Claire Elizabeth wrote: When someone comes to me for a photo session, they are generally coming to me because they like my posted photos. How do I get those photos? Do I just click away while the model goes through her memorized routine of existing poses? No. I look at the model, at her natural facial expressions. at her body type and her figure, at her skin (coloring and smoothness), and at her natural posture and movement. While I'm doing that, images pop into my head. How could any model possibly know those mental images and duplicate them? How can any model know how light is striking her? How could any model know where light and shadow are located on her face, clothing or torso? May 12 06 02:20 pm Link ...Stacy wrote: LOL. May 12 06 02:33 pm Link Claire Elizabeth wrote: Your job is to help create the image that the client wants. How that is accomplished is up to the photographer/director/client/whatever. They may have a very specific idea in mind and give you precise posing directions, or they may just want you to do you own thing. Most of the time it's somewhere in between. Your job is to give them what they want. May 12 06 02:33 pm Link ...Stacy wrote: LOL. May 12 06 02:35 pm Link ...Stacy wrote: LOL. May 12 06 02:36 pm Link i dont mind getting ideas i guess some models feel that when a photographer tells them how to pose that she/he the model is being insulted on thier skills May 12 06 02:42 pm Link I don't really like models who "pose" anyway.... I really like that little monkey though! May 12 06 02:52 pm Link Modeling is acting without words. A good model may appear to be a mother, movie star, whore, scientist, whatever is required to tell a particular story in a picture. Modeling is a highly-skilled form of acting. Actors generally perform under direction of some kind. During a photo shoot a model usually poses under the direction of a photographer, who may be working under the direction of an art director, etc. So I would say that a model's job is to follow directions in wordlessly portraying a story or idea. May 12 06 02:53 pm Link The ability to comprehend the purpose of the shoot is the photograhers job because he is the director. He must then relay this to the model who has to be able to bring that concept to life. In commercial advertisement, it's common for the art director to give an illustration or drawing of what they want to the photgrapher. In this case the creative expression has been removed. The model then has to do whatever the drawing says and that's what the photograper is to shoot. Personally I can care less if the model knows how to pose. I just want her to be able to follow directions. May 12 06 02:58 pm Link I can't imagine an actor approaching a director like John Huston asking 'how do you want me to play this part?'...if he didn't take the actor's head off, he might say 'play it in a way I have never seen before'...that's an actor...same with a model...you are being compensated, so show something creative, instead of worrying about your boundaries...these are collaborations, not conflicts... May 12 06 03:00 pm Link Synthetic Shadows wrote: Is that Time For Peanuts? May 12 06 03:01 pm Link In my case ...... GET NAKED ![]() May 12 06 10:22 pm Link |