Uncle Jerry's Guide to Photographing Fashion Models

So you want to start photographing models and want some tips on how to do it? Here are some guidelines on how to make your model give their best one the shoot day.

For April Fools, Anita Sadowska based the story of her video on a red-checkered-shirt-wearing Terry Richardson character who creates the most awkward situations during their shoot with a model. It seems the two has fun, and I am glad humor is used to create some awareness regarding sexual harassment and being aware of how and with what motives you approach a shoot. 

In the past year many famous photographers have been banned from shooting for the large magazine groups. Mario Testino and Bruce Weber for Conde Naste, and Richardson from doing any work for Vogue. 

Let’s change these tips into real tips. First, make the model feel comfortable. There is no reason for you to touch the model’s hair or rub her arms. Usually you’ll have a team, where the make up artist will handle all skin, and hair artists will make sure the hair is done according to the creative brief and look you are trying to capture. And be friendly, but not weird. Do the work as well as you can without any personal, ulterior motives. 

You can view Sadowska's YouTube channel with tutorials and how-to videos, and you can find her work on her website

Wouter du Toit's picture

Wouter is a portrait and street photographer based in Paris, France. He's originally from Cape Town, South Africa. He does image retouching for clients in the beauty and fashion industry and enjoys how technology makes new ways of photography possible.

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4 Comments

Glad I skipped through this. Seriously, I know you're looking for content to fill the site, but I think you can do better.

What a load of crap! Why would you put it up?

You do know it is an ironic statement, right?

It may be ironic, but for too many models there is nothing humourous about the subject.