Earlier this year I put together a new concept where I merged my photography business with dating. For years I've casually given dating advice to my close female friends. I noticed over time that the ones that put my advice to use, pretty much always got the guy. I didn't think much of it, and I was happy to help. I just knew exactly what their date or beau was thinking and why he was acting the way he did. After a dozen years of dating in New York, I knew how the process worked, especially with online dating.
Now I use my experience as a commercial photographer to light and pose women, using the best tools and techniques available, to make advertisement-quality imagery. After all, dating is all about advertising yourself in the best manner possible.
This kind of photography is all about the right posing, so it doesn't matter if you use Match.com or OKCupid or jDate. The fact is that people are nervous when in front of the lens, so I like to coach them into the right expressions and body language.
After working with fashion models, I noticed that they use special expressions to make their faces look good on camera. If we made a silly post-work group photo, the girls would look really normal - like any photo you see on Facebook. But when they're working, they change their face in a particular way to achieve the "look."
When I asked them about it, they couldn't explain to me how they did it. They just would tell me that you need to practice. I asked Tyra Banks about it when we interviewed her for her iPhone app. She tries to explain it also, but can only describe it in the broadest of terms ("Smile with your eyes! Smize!").
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| Tyra Banks with my buddy Todd |
So I decided I just needed to crack the code myself. I took careful note and eventually was able to explain and share their modeling secrets with my headshot and portrait clients.
Now my clients love my posing tricks, including one simple one anyone can use anytime. If you remember the things I coach you on, the result is that you'll never take a bad picture again. I also like to do a facial analysis and determine if you have an eye difference (most people do), and we figure out which side is your "good" side.
So, anyone can put someone in front of their camera and shoot a photo and call it good. And usually photographers that work with models can't articulate exactly what they want you to do, they just rely on the model to work her magic. If a shoot doesn't come out that well, they just grumble about the model and how they need a better one for next time.
Well, I don't believe that people are born photogenic or not. I think that anyone can work their own magic with the techniques I teach them. And if I can help some women in the competitive dating world in New York, I'll be very satisfied.
