Directing Your Subject during the Shoot

When you’re standing in front of your subject with your camera, it’s like you’re shooting into a mirror. Everything is reversed—their right is your left, your left is their right—and if you tell your subject to “move about a foot to the left,” there’s a pretty good chance they’re going to move to their left, not your left. Then you have to correct them and have them move the other way. You feel silly, they feel stupid—it’s not an awesome situation. That’s why I recommend not using “lefts or rights” at all during a shoot. Instead, hold your hand up vertically in front of you and direct them with it. Move your hand in the direction you want them to go and say, “Can you move a little this way?” You can also move them forward, backward, and have them tilt their head or chin, etc., all by having them follow your hand. Now, if you move your hand to the left, and you ask them, “Can you move a little this way,” and they move in the opposite direction, you might have an entirely different problem—one you won’t be able to fix on a photo shoot. But I digress. Anyway, this directing-by-hand-movement is a great thing to get used to using, and it’s especially helpful when photographing younger children, since they probably don’t know their left from their right yet anyway. Get used to this method, and you’ll sidestep some potentially awkward situations.