Modeling tips: Photographer Types (4)

Photographers, you need them for the pictures. Most of them are nice people, but they also have some peculiarities. If you know how to cope with these peculiarities, you’ll get the optimal results from your photo shoots. To help you with this, this blog publishes a series of articles devoted to photographer types. Every single photographer is a unique person. Nevertheless, knowing the type could be useful for models. None of the observations in this article imply that a certain type of photographer delivers higher quality. Each category contains both good and bad photographers. The mere fact that a photographer is shy, arrogant or flamboyant tells us nothing about the quality of his or her work. It does tell us something about the way they work though.

Some models may think that there is no need to adjust to the photographer. ‘Let them adjust to me.’ If that’s you, let me ask you whether you care about the result of a photo shoot. If you don’t, stop reading (and you might as well stop modeling too). If you do, why not take all the factors into account that you can influence?

The arrogant type
The arrogant photographer thinks he’s the center of the world. You should be happy that he is prepared to devote some of his precious time to you. At least that’s what he thinks. He is likely to become unfriendly if you do not pose exactly how he wants you to, even if he is not able to explain it clearly.

Dos and don’ts
This is one of the hardest types to work with. Your natural reaction to such a p***k would be to get mad, right? But what good would that do to your pictures? For the same reason, don’t let him get you down either. He may treat you like he does not need you, but in fact he does. If the photographer is not going to tell you you’re doing great, you’ll have to tell yourself you are.

Here’s the bottom line: Don’t get mad, get even. Be arrogant too. I don’t mean you should act the same way though. Your arrogance is far more subtle than his. By not letting his misbehavior get to you, you are actually ignoring his oversized ego. His arrogance means nothing to you. You won’t get mad or become discouraged. Your personality is so superior that his has no influence whatsoever.

You think that’s hard? It’s not, because it’s fun. Practice it a couple of times in a role-play with a friend. You’ll soon get the hang of it. And the nice bonus is, you’ll be playing with the guy and he’ll respect you for it. And since you’re shining with self confidence, you’ll shoot great pictures, which is to your mutual benefit.

Other types
The intuitive type
The artist
The shy type
The flamboyant type
The technical type
The ex-model