Professional Photo Tips, Info and Advice to help you shoot a Young Teen Model.
Location Shoot..
Shooting on Location with your new digital SLR camera can be quite a challenge too, first coping with the elements and even if your lucky with the weather, like these latest photos show, you still have the wind to deal with.
Lets assume also that your location is not your favourite beach, whare your Bikini Teen Model has gotten use to the conditions and your teen beach swimwear shoot can be more relaxed. You could be shooting your photo images down town, perhaps for a client or other photo idea and your backgrounds are going to be the city and not sandy beaches.
Another thing to take into consideration, is that you may need some kind of permit from the local authorities to set up a camera tripod in a public place and also that you may have to deal with a crowed situation that might well gather to watch you work, not mention have a free look at your pretty Model Girl.
You can of course, under good lighting conditions, use your digital SLR camera without a tripod and providing your not creating a disturbance, you may just get away with it. It really depends on how important your chosen location position is and if your using a professional model and have a client with you, then it's best to have it covered with a permit.
In this excise we chose to photograph casual ware, after all we hadn't expected the weather to be warm enough to shoot on the beach at the end of November, Wrong again! What did I say about having a plan "B"... Well I have to confess I didn't have a plan "B" and in fact I only had one hour to set the whole thing up as I was only visiting for a short period of time.
The only good thing I can recall is that I didn't have to bring a wind machine to blow the Model Girl's hair, that was already laid on naturally!
You will find when shooting young Teen Model is that they are not yet experienced enough as older models working full time and therefor shooting on location anywhere other than your favourite Bikini Beach can take a time for them to adjust to the different routine and that's the first hurdle you have to overcome.
Once you have this sorted and as you move around shooting different angles and backgrounds you have to keep in mind the varying light conditions.
The best way to shoot in this situation and if the light is constant, for example sun with out clouding over, set your camera to "Shutter Priority" and you shutter exposure to say 125/ second and as you camera's meter tells you the automatic change in your aperture settings, keep an eye on what you have to set your flash fill, using a ratio of 1 to 2.
We previously explained that you must use a separate flash unit as the digital SLR cameras built in flash is just not powerful enough and the following flash ratio's should be adopted, unless of course your using one of the dedicated speed camera flash units, a worthwhile investment, I might add.
OK. lets cut through the jargon, setting a flash ration of 1 to 2 simply means that if your camera exposure is 125/ second and the cameras meter is telling you that it has set the aperture to f.8 and your separate camera flash is on "Auto", you should therefor set the flash output to f.5.6, this will reduce the output power of the flash so as not the burn out the foreground.
As you change your camera positions or backgrounds, keep a watch in the viewfinder to check the aperture setting and keep adjusting your "Auto" flash output to suite. If the light is mostly from behind your Teen Model, or when light is reflected off water, you may have to adjust your Auto flash setting to a ratio of 1 to 1, but do watch out as soon as you move your camera position slightly, you may end up with very dark backgrounds as the flash will tend to overpower the foreground.
It goes without saying that you should be using the correct lens hood suited to your digital camera and not try to save money on a cheaper substitute, only later to find out that corners of your picture are cut off when shooting at the wide angle setting.
Now having got all that out of the way, you now have to coach your Teen girl Model in some kind of pose and as she progresses, hopefully she will come up with pleasing pose ideas, keeping in mind your not shooting a Sexy Bikini on a Beach.
Keep a careful eye on how the garments are looking with the pose you have chosen and be prepared to shoot more pictures than you really need so you can not only try out new positions but also cover the possibility of your teen model pulling the wrong facial expressions or closing her eyes at the moment of pressing camera button when making an exposure.
You also have have to keep a careful eye on how the position of her body looks and as most young teen models don't have much experience in modeling, simply because they are still studying at school and time for modeling activities is very limited.
I've found that our favourite teen model Maayan, although happy to be modeling, sometimes finds it all a bit of a chore, trying to juggle her modeling time in between her school studies and outside activities such as sports, dance and youth club, not to mention she has many friends as well. It's a big social scene at that age you know...
What I'm trying to say here is that all these elements are working against you and you have to be extra organised wherever possible. I have to say that it has been more than once or twice where our Teen Model has cancelled on fixed appointments and even her Mom can't be held responsible for every minute of her Daughters life. Such is the way when you try to set up a Teen Model Shoot appointment, it's all a lot easier when using older full time professional models on assignments and if you have been use to that kind of professionalism as I was at the height of my Fashion career, I can tell you it's a far cry from shooting limited part-time minor models.
I do hope that if your trying Young Teen Model photography that you have some success, but be sure to do your homework first and be well prepared for all eventualities. Good luck, your questions always welcomed at this address, write Teen Location Model, in the subject line of your e-mail.
On the next page: Teen PINK Bikini Model Could you shoot a Teen Pink Bikini Model and pull off a professional style teen model shoot.
Roger Lewis © 2006 - 2008'
www.PhotographyMoneyMaking.com
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