This is my bread and butter, lifestyle product shoots. For these type of shoots, small business clients rely heavily on your aesthetic and creative eye. From my experience, they’ll give you a mood board or a shot list, and depending on the location, you might not be able to achieve some of the shots and that’s okay, give them better and more dynamic shots.
One thing I want to mention for other photographers, if you have an unwilling model, that’s a wrap. You won’t be able to get what you want from them. That’s not the case here. Molly, the assistant turned model, was great! Willing to try things, wasn’t afraid to look foolish, and look how great these shots were!
So here a few tips for new photographs when clients hire their friends as models (who aren’t models):
1. Have someone speak to the model, or you, the photographer, speak to them.
2. Tell them you’re doing test shots, even if you’re not. Get the model use to hearing clicks and flashes.
3. Worst case scenario, use them as background. Bring your product to the foreground and just blur out the model. After all, you are trying to sell a product.
4. Last but not least, the Lightroom or Photoshop crop tool is your friend. Any okay shot with the right crop can become a banging shot.
I hope these are helpful and if you have any tips on how to get a model out of their shell, please let me know!
