Tip : lines and angles and the thought process. 

Whenever I do a shoot I always follow a certain think process.

 

1.
What’s the story I want to tell

2.
Which lighting do I use, do I want the model to jump out or do I want the model and the back ground work together

3.
What Will be the pose and the expression

4.
Where do I want the shadows, by coaching the model correctly you can get the shadows exactly where you want

5.
What angle am I shooting under. The angle is incredibly important for the look of the shot but also for how the background interacts.

6.
Did I put a card in the camera (just kidding)

7.
Coach and shoot. And keep talking to your model.

Of course a lot more is going on. But I think I tackled the most important ones. Now even if you think about this all remember that shadows are a vital part of your shot. Without shadows no depth and sense of “real ness” so place those shadows where they belong, and this is where I’m often using creativity but sometimes also the real world as my guideline especially when the model is wearing for example a hat.

Make sure you can see a drop shadow below the head and don’t try to fill this up. A hat casts a shadow because that’s actually what they are used for. So if you take that away the image will look weird. (Unless the model is looking up)

In this example I used the drop shadow but also used a wide angle and low angle of shooting to create a nice effect with the lines in the background.

Because the wide angle will always distorts when shooting under an angle make sure you use this creatively. In this case I let the model point towards the camera which makes her hand look a lot bigger than normal. But it also “eases” the viewer into the composition.

Shot during a workshop with nadine as model.