We all strive to have those beautiful emotive images that most of the experienced photographers achieve.
It takes time, practice, patience and educating yourself. I have taken multiple mentorships to see how I could achieve the emotive content I truly wanted to have. Now, I'm here to give you some of the pointers I have learned throughout all the education I have spent my time and money on.
First things first....
Make sure sure your questionnaire that you send out to clients has in depth questions! This is so important because you are going to learn how to prompt and guide them through their session with these questions. Asking things like what's your favorite color or song isn't going to do it.
Dive deep into who they are as a family, what quirks their kids have, something special that hubby and wife do together when it's just them and no kids around. Really make it to where they have to do a little thinking in order to answer their questionnaire. One of my favorite questions to ask is "What does a perfect Saturday morning look like for your family?" This one always gets me excited and gets my brain flowing for their session!
DAD + KIDS
- Making sure dads are comfortable and chilled out will definitely help with the session flow. Just try and explain to them that it's going to easier if they just pretend like there's not a camera in their face. Pretend that they're on an adventure with their family and just have fun with it!
- The kids are more than likely going to run the show and THAT IS OK! They are going to make the session more fun and EMOTIVE! Catching kids and parents in the moment of running around in a field laughing and loving on one another is so beautiful!
Capturing your clients by giving minimal direction..
This come easier with practice and experience in your sessions. At first I just wanted to pose them and prompt them constantly. And of course that was NOT giving me the images I wanted. They weren't speaking to me and making me feel something.
Truth be told you can set them up with a prompt, like snuggle your babies, and get SO MANY detailed + emotive images out of that ONE prompt!
Learn to anticipate the in-between moments
I'm an avid over shooter and honestly, I LOVE to just keep pressing that button! haha. But seriously I shoot all the little moments and by doing that I get more content. The more content the images to go through but it's so worth it! The in-between moments are usually some of my favorite images that I capture.
One big tip I can give you is shoot them walking to and from the car. How they hold each others hands, look at eachother, and help eachother get from one spot to the other. They're not worried about the camera or anything other than just being there with one another. And those are the images you want. The raw, the real, the timeless.
Focus on their eyes + hands
By focusing on their eyes you see where they look and how they look at each other. Following their eyes you can sometimes see what to shoot next. Think about it though, when you look into someones eyes you feel them and you see them. Thats what you want right? For your clients to FEEL the image.. thats where they see it was all worth it!
Focusing on their hands for those detail shots is SO DANG IMPORTANT. When you hold someone's hand you feel their vibe and their energy. Capturing those hand gestures can make an image feel even more real!
Creating your OWN content
Ask yourself, how do I make my work look like I created it and not someone else? How do I execute a session and not get stumped? And how do I make my clients comfortable in front of the camera?
Make your ART your OWN! Literally, own what you do and hold your head high with confidence. I know this may seem like I'm getting off track with this blog post, but trust me I've got so many good points.
- Bring your positive energy to each session. A lot of people feed off of energy. So, if you've had a bad day leave it at home.
- Don't let others influence you negatively. Using other photographers photos as inspiration is totally warranted but don't try to fully recreate the same image! It will not feel true to you and your art if you do that! Make it your own recreate it if you feel drawn to it.
- Create from your heart. If you have an idea and don't have a session booked that you can use it on, make it happen with a model call!
Getting stumped at a session is every photographers nightmare. You get stuck and you don't know what to do so you think you seem unprofessional. It's ok and it happens to everyone!
- Go with the flow of your session.
- Make sure and scout locations. Look for different scenery at the same location. I love finding places I can make look like 3 different locations. By making use of locations this way; when you feel stumped you can just move on to the next spot of the location. And then get those in-between moments I talked about before.
- Sometimes I will use the Unscripted app and save prompts I know will work for that specific session. This way I have a back up plan if I literally can't think of what to do. I use a phone holder that goes on top of my camera so they never know what I'm doing when I use the app. (This is also a great way to get behind the scene footage for social media!) As I've grown as a photographer I use this less and less but it's a good option to have.
Making your clients comfortable in front of the camera can be challenging at times. This is something important you want to have under control so you can get those emotive images instead of the stiff posed ones.
- When I have my consult call with mom/wifey/partner I always let her know that the session is going to be fun and free flowing. I make sure she tells her other half to not be nervous and to think of it as an adventure with the family.
- For the kids I usually bring a little treat for them. Could be snacks and juice box or some kind of toy. This gives me something to bribe them with throughout the session so I can get the most out of them.
- If the kids are shy, tell them a joke or have mom and dad bounce them around/have a dance party. Definitely use your questionnaire to find how to make the kids happy!
So, what should you take from this blog post?
- ALWAYS have your clients fill out a thorough questionnaire. Make sure they go into detail about how their family interacts with one another.
- Try and make sure dad + kids are happy.
- Grasp the in-between moments! This is where you will capture those true emotive moments.
This is my first educational blog post so bare with me. haha. If you feel like this has helped you in some way please leave me a review and let me know what you think!
