Getting into Studio Photography

[jollie]

I recently went on a studio lighting course as I wanted to expand on and hopefully improve on my photography. While I loved the workshop It's left me wanting to play around with different lighting setups just to see what happens. Here is where I seem to be having a bit of an issue (well for me anyway).

As I'm a newbie to the studio I'm struggling with the idea of asking someone to pose for me. While I realise that there are a number of models who are willing to trade their time in exchange for prints, given that I'm new to the studio and just playing around, I would feel like i was wasting their time.

So my question is, for those of you who have moved into studio work, when you first started how did you get your first models? I'd ask some of my family but they are some of the most photo phobic people on the planet...

thanks in advance..

[WhoDo]

In my case, I tagged along on a shoot with another photographer and a Model Mayhem model. Then I used my daughter as a guinea pig before asking her to impose on one of her friends to pose for me ... she had done professional work before and was happy to oblige. That said, the problem does NOT go away. I'm guessing it won't until you build a body of work that encourages people to ask you to photograph them. I'm pretty sure that's the stage that I@M is at in particular.

Don't give up. Try animals, relatives' children, etc. If you are keen to experiment maybe link up with another photographer and share the duty in front of the camera. I hope that helps.

[jollie]

Thanks for the suggestions WhoDo I'll have to give them a try....

hrmm I might need to bribe my niece (as I don't have any kids of my own to use) after all she wants to get into photography and i do still have my old 550D & lenses that I could use as an incentive.

[Tikira]

The worst someone could say is No! Good idea to try your neice. She probably has friends as well- perhaps she would feel more inclined if there were qa few there.

Don't only ask the obvious people either, lots of people would love to have some fun posing for photo's. Otherwise pets, or even a teddy bear or doll would work to test different lighting situations.

Good luck and have fun.
Di

[manohartvs]

I am on the same boat as you and the tips from the responses so far are very useful. Have you purchased lighting etc?

[chappo1]

One of my daughters bought me a hairdressing head off e-bay and I use her to play around with. She is very patient, does not grumble but is rather un-responsive to direction to smile.
I can set lighting, camera and props. Great when you want to try light positions and bounces etc. ......john