Tensing Up During Exposure

[spacegoose]

I had a model over today who seemed not relaxed at the moment of exposure - but looked great while she was relaxed - which seemed to be all the time except during exposure. She seemed to see or sense me pushing in on the shutter release cable. Has anyone else experienced this? I think I can understand it because I similarly am not relaxed while being photographed, perhaps because I'm used to photographing, and not the other way around.

It didn't seem to happen while I was using my SLRs (Graflex Super D And Pentax 67), though I used these outside and at the beginning of the shoot. It did happen while I shot 5x7 and 8x10, and 4x5 though seemingly to a slightly lesser extent. Past models have exhibited this tendency much less if at all. I'm not great at eliciting poses, so I might be partly responsible. Hoping for any insights here.

Thanks,
Bill

[Peter Galea]

Use a long shutter release, held behind the camera (where the sitter can't see it).

[Frank Petronio]

Work with the tension and make her pose as tense as possible. Then she'll relax. Seriously, make her do something difficult and strenous - bending, stretching, an awkward position.

The other thing to try is really directing. Start at her base, like a yoga relaxation exercise... start with her toes and direct every joint going up her body, weight on one hip, shoulder high, rolled back, gut in, etc. If you keep them busy then no worries.

Don't try to be faster or sneaky. Be purposeful and work together.

[sully75]

That's something I love about LF portraiture. Or just using a tripod in general. When you are standing next to the tripod, you are not looking through the lens, like in an SLR. Have the cable release in your hand, and just talk to the model and tell them what you want them to do. I usually try to get them to "do" as little as possible, and just be whoever they are.

There are tricks...if I know the person well enough I'll say something ridiculous, and make them laugh, and then wait until their laugh goes away, and then I'll click.

It's about making people comfortable and watching their face until they have what you are looking for and clicking it then.

An exercise: find someone who is pretty comfortable in general, and try to take a long time of looking and coaching them before you click the picture. You should be able to wait until you get what you want, so practicing taking a long time is probably good practice.

[Ari]

Showing some photos of this tension would help her understand better what the end result looks like.
I tell people to breathe, and think about something good or funny, but without laughing; if you can get the smile in the eyes, you're set.
You might try shooting some fakes beforehand, too; i.e. keep the darkslide in and shoot a few "frames" to get her to relax.

[jp]

Prefaced with the fact I am not a highly accomplished portrait photographer...

I suspect many people feel they have to be frozen still for a long time when using an old fashion bellows camera on a tripod.

I mostly shoot family (and sometimes coworkers) for portraits. I often get them warmed up with some fun DSLR action then switch to the film camera and let them know only the pace of my shooting has changed, not what they are doing/expressing. In addition to getting them comfy in front of the camera, the DSLR gives me some test images to quickly evaluate the lighting. I don't have a permanent setup for indoor portraits, so I like to test things before using sheets of film.

[spacegoose]

Thanks everyone, I appreciate all the advice.

Bill

[Robert Oliver]

George Hurrell would pick specific music for specific subjects and moods he was going for... and if that didn't work he would jump up and down and make sounds like an out of control ape

I personally find that eye contact is important... along with compliments. Just make sure that the compliments are realistic and don't come off as creepy.

[Bob Salomon]

You need to have her forget about the camera. Get her to tell you about her dog/cat/horse/parrot, etc. What are her hobbies, favorite subjects, where her next vacation will be, where was her last one? Favorite places? make her think about anything but the camera.

[false_Aesthetic]

Dude,

Just hit on her.


It works even better when you're hitting on a straight dude.

[joselsgil]

Many years ago when American Photographer magazine was still around, they interviewed Playboy's main photographer. I can't remember his name, hell I sometimes forget my own name these days. Anyways, since Playboy usually shoots non-professional models. One way they get the models to relax, would be to have them pose for many photographs. Once the model started to relax and feel comfortable, the photographer would say, "Great! Now lets try some of those poses with film in the camera".