Know Your Angles

As a model, you need to know what angles flatter your face and your body the best. You can figure some of this out by working with a mirror, but you can only see yourself from your own eyes point of view. A camera is going to be able to see you from many different angles.

Lieren seemed to know what would work with her body. She kept her body in a variety of angles and poses that flattered her already great shape.

You can notice her poses here, giving a sideways angle to the camera. This slight twist for her works, it makes her torso seem even more slim and shows off a very flat abdomen.  Twisting the torso does not work for all girls because some bodies start showing ripples in the waist. You should be aware of things like that and how your body reacts to bending in different ways.

Here, Lieren is doing two things, both a bit subtle, but both adding to her beauty. First she is bent very slightly to her right which keeps her from making a static straight and boring vertical line with her body. Second, she is turned with her left side slightly away from the camera and from the light. This lets her show that great abdomen, but lets the light create slight shadows that help give definition to her tummy. It also flatters her shape, making her look more slender.

Here Lieren has her hip cocked which creates a visually interesting, if slight "S" shape to her body. It stretched out the line on the left side of her body and creates a flattering curve on her right.

I am always amazed how many models never think to shoot with their back to the camera. While it may not be the angle you want all the time, it can be flattering and give you some variety.

By being slightly higher than the camera and with a bit of a turn back to the camera, Lieren flatters her butt and legs here. The bit of twist again helps diminish the size of the torso.

A model should be aware of how the camera is going to see her body. If you are a newer model, you may not have a photographer who understands or sees these things, so you need to learn it for yourself. Even with an experienced photographer, this knowledge will make your shoots more productive and save time.

After every shoot, go back and look at the images and see what worked for your particular body.

More of Lieren here.

Getting Variety in Your Shoots

When you are building your portfolio, you want to consistently add to the variety of looks in your book. It is important to have quality photographs in your portfolio that show a range of emotion or rather, the ability to communicate an idea.

I think that normally a model should want one, maybe two great photos from the same shoot to add to their portfolio. Anymore and the "sameness" shows and the portfolio looks more stale.


However, when you are just getting started, you may be tempted to use more photos to pump up your portfolio. You might consider, while you are in the shoot, or even before the shoot, what you can do to ad variety so that 


you can get several different looks.


Here are some examples of photos from a single shoot that show variety in mood, facial expression, poses. There are several images here were here wardrobe does not change in this set, and I think that is not so good to have multiple images of the same outfit in your portfolio. But I am using this to illustrate the idea that you can get different looks. The first three images have the same outfit, but you cannot tell that.

Understanding Your Body

 Models need to understand their body. We all see images of amazing looking models and marvel at how good the model looks. They seem flawless. The fact is that everybody shape and type has drawbacks. Understanding what is great about your body as a model will help you find poses that accentuate the grat parts of your body and hide or ignore the "flaws"


Kira understood a lot about her waist and her butt. While she looks good from any angle, there were some angles that just looked better.

Spending time in front of a mirror will help you find some of those angles, but not all of them. You can't see yourself from all the angles a camera can. So as you work on your portfolio, notice which camera angles flatter you. The more you know the better you can control what the camera sees.

Be Bold!

I had this concept growing in my head for several weeks. This is not the image that was in my brain, but Rachell brought lots of energy and creative juice to the shoot.

I this ironic idea of a woman in heels, pink ruffle bum panties and a corset pushing a shopping cart towards the store front.

I explained my concept to Rachell and she got excited. This kind of shoot takes the right kind of model. Not everyone can feel comfortable in panties in a shopping parking lot.

Rachell had the chutzpah and the beautiful long legs to carry this off. We set up lighting, she changed right behind the car and as soon as it was set, we started shooting.

We noticed a car of couple of lovers necking a little ways of and they just stared.

One of the things that made this shoot work was the idea was fleshed out before hand, we were able to shoot quick before drawing much attention and we were both into the concept.

We did get nervous at one point as a patrol car drove around. He stopped far off in the parking lot and just stayed there. I guess he felt that we were not up to mischief and drove off.

The great thing about a concept is that once the central image is conceived, you can build many images from there. We got a full set in about 40 minutes.

In this case, the photographer had the idea and model contributed. But if you are a model, you don't have to wait for a photographer to come to you with an idea, you can flesh out your own idea and find a photographer that matches your style and hit them up.

I love shoots like this because it is out of the ordinary. Not many models have a photo of themselves pushing a shopping cart to the store, but Rachell Does. Here is the full gallery

Get the Right Bra

If you are serious about modeling you need to invest in the right underwear. I am no expert on underwear, but I ran into this conversation on lingerie and bra fitting.

I will say that as photographer, there have been many times when models have not had the right bra for the dress or outfit that they are wearing. They bring a low back dress and a bra that goes right across the back, or a strapless dress and a bra that won't support them without straps, etc, etc.

The other big gripe I have is bras that are too small. Underwear that is to small ruins the lines of the body. Who wants bulge, but so many girls come to shoots with underwear that does not flatter them.

Here is a link to the podcast "Morning Sex with the Mominatrix". The show is not very explicit, but probably not the best thing for minors. The discussion on good underwear is about 7 and a half minutes into the show. I don't even know how I stumbled on this, but I thought it had some value on this topic.

Models aught to practice looking good, more than at their shoots. I hope this is useful.