10 Common Mistakes of New Model Photographers

10 Common Mistakes of New Model Photographers

At Photographer and Model we love good images of beautiful women. Unfortunately just because she’s beautiful doesn’t mean the images are good. New glamour photographers - and even experienced ones when not thinking - make some common mistakes.


Knowledge makes for better pictures. It makes a bigger difference than gear, location, and subject.
Here they are 10 Common Mistakes of New Model Photographers in no particular order.


glamour photography

Objects coming out of a model’s head.

Check your background. Get to where you notice distracting things, including that tree appearing out of her head.

Auto-focusing on the breasts, not the eyes.

Even in glamour photography, eyes must be in focus. Most cameras auto focus will focus on the thing closest to the camera. On most glamour models, eyes are not what is closest to the camera. Set your auto-focus point to be specific and focus on the eyes first.

Not moving lights when you move the model.

It’s common to start shooting a model standing up, but later to want her to sit or lay on the floor. Often new photographers forget to lower the lights, which leads to underexposed images because the light shoots over her heads.

Not changing exposure settings when the light changes.

When working outside clouds can come in and change the light by sometimes two stops in a few seconds. Remember to change your exposure when the light changes.

Leaving bad images in your portfolio because you want quantity.

You’ve got three images from a recent workshop that are great, but your online portfolio holds 20, so you leave in an image with a trees coming out of the model’s head. You want quality, not quantity.

One sentence emails to models asking for a shoot.

“Do you want to shoot?” “You’re hot, wanna shoot sometime?” Models get these emails and messages all the time, and they ignore them. Tell them what you want to do and why it would be great for them.

Not having a plan when you get to a shoot.

“We’ll figure it out when we get there,” does not inspire models, or lead to good images.

Not giving models what you promise them.

I don’t know how many models I’ve had tell me they never got their CD from a photographer. And they were always pissed.

Invading the model’s space or touching her with out asking.

Never touch a model without asking first. And I’d recommend standing at least arms length away when talking to her.

Spray and Pray - Shooting a lot of images fast.

Shooting a lot and hoping you get something good doesn’t work in a gun fight and it doesn’t work in photography. So don’t do it. When you press the shutter release you should have an idea what is going to be stored to your card. You should have thought about it. Don’t do it just because the lights have cycled.

Letting the camera control exposure.

I almost never set my camera on auto anymore. A camera wants everything to average out to an even shade. This is almost always flat and boring.

Related article :  Photography Tips for Fashion Photographer

.. mini cource from GlamourApprentice.com ..


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