The Other Side Of The Camera – What You Will Learn

Last month I did an exchange with portrait photographer Joran Looij, he discovered my photography page on Facebook and asked me to make portraits of him for his website. I had the same idea for a while so I asked him to take my portraits. I captured Joran in on an urban location in Rotterdam and he captured me in the nature of Zeeland. It was a beautiful day in fall, the sun was shining and it was cold, but not to cold. Besides the two days of fun, I actually learned from this experience!

During the shoot as a model, I was thinking that this was such a good thing to do as a photographer: go to the other side of the camera and notice what you would like the photographer to say! I wanted to get some directions for my posing and expressions. This is something that you always should do with your models, tell them about what style you would like to see and give them tips where they can hold their hands and how to pose. Another good thing that I noticed, is that the model can learn of lot from seeing the photos on the camera’s LCD screen. Sometimes I ask my models to sit somewhere in the grass, or to pose without shoes or to hold a pose while it’s cold outside. I did all of this to get to know how the model must feel during the shoots and to understand how to act as a photographer. It was an inspiring session! So go to the other side of the camera and discover how the model might feel in front of camera. Use this for your next shoot! I recently wrote a post about How To Direct Your Models Like A Pro in case you want to learn more about this subject!

(for more photos, see this post!)

Two of the photos I made of Joran: