email | art_ii@yahoo.com
MOVING ART
A good photographer knows how to be transgressive & commercial at the same time. My first attempt to shoot something commercial was a failure, you heard it right I failed. You often hear success stories of photographers and rarely hear their failures but I want to be completely honest (hope this won’t scare my future clients off) we were supposed to shoot a commercial headshot (see video) but the shots became like beauty editorials. Seriously then, I didn’t know few people appreciate the editorial style. I was told that few people buy sadness or emotions. You cannot sell a shampoo showing a teary eyed model, but a sweet charming face can persuade a million consumers. So I was like am I in the right place? am I doing the right thing? If I want pure acting why be here? Then I realized that you just have to do what is asked so what I did was I made a serious research & study commercial shots. Seriously it’s hard, not that I’m not smart but I’m not into this whole commercial thing. To me its flat! but learning how to do it correctly will make you rich. Maaan think about the beauty Ads, the cosmetic brands especially in this country we got tons of beauty products targetting the masses.
I often hear that a good photographer knows how to pose his subject, especially in fashion. If it’s personal work I don’t like posing models like telling them how to position their body all the time and where to put their hands, show their neck etc. I’m working with human beings not a robot or a doll, but of course if it’s a requirement like a commercial project you cannot do anything about it you have to conform to the clients want/need.
The video above was taken during my actual photo shoot “my very first supposed to be a commercial head shot” shooting this model is such a joy that you will forget that you’re taking pictures.
Before the actual shoot, I told her that I won’t be directing her all she needs to do is to react to the music that I’m going to play & I didn’t tell her the title of the songs in my playlist she had no idea about the beat & genre. Because I want to see real emotions. The process was inspired by an acting exercise “scoring the music through movements, & facial expressions”. It was hair raising, and you could actually feel that I’m enjoying it, did you hear the sound of the studio light’s burst? this model can nail 100 layouts in 1hour of course I’m exaggerating but if you know what I mean. The first 10 seconds of the song I already got the shots that I wanted but I was enjoying the moment so much that I got lost. Model is really good to start so maybe some of you would think that it’s useless, but I’ve photographed a complete stranger whom my sister discovered in a mall, the guy wasn’t a model at all, the same process, the shots came out great (see etranger www.arturoalera.com )
My two cents, a beautiful face alone won’t guarantee a good shot. You got to bring out emotions. A model must be committed.
