Commercial lifestyle photography to me is about being able to draw out genuine moments and emotions in your subjects. Without this, you’re not really capturing the spirit of what this genre of photography is all about… to sell and entice others to want to be a part of what you’re photographing. It’s an ideal they can aspire to that is then represented by a clothing line, location or other product.

I was talking with a few other local photographers this week and we all agreed on one point. Concept, creativity and genuineness will really take your photography a step above where it may be now. Without these you’re just fulfilling technical steps instead of creating images. It’s the difference between engineering and art. One is mechanical, one is creative driven. I’d even go so boldly as to say stop worrying about your technical skills. Start focusing on your creative ideas and what you want to say in your own photography. The technicals will come with practice and attention. The creative might never if you don’t focus in on it. It’s the most important element of lifestyle photography. What can you create to draw in viewers?

Here we have our three friends arriving at the car wash. I like to utilize depth of field to create different layers in an image. It gives your image a subject and sense of place. I also enjoy little detail elements like having someone reaching in to grab keys. It hides their face and creates an “anybody” moment. You can almost put yourself in the same position.

Here our three models are once again playing around. You can create posed or set photos like each of these are, while at the same time bringing out the genuine elements of lifestyle. Simply set and direct where you’d like everyone to be, and then have them start moving and interacting. That way you have the right positions, and still a real feel to the images.

This last set I really like. You can tell how real the expressions are and how fun everyone is having. It’s all part of being able to add yourself as an extra party member to the group. Make yourself not just a passive viewer to the images, but a member of them. In that way you create an image that your viewers can not only appreciate, but engage themselves in as well.

If you don’t have much lifestyle or fashion work in your book (some senior portraits may work but family photos definitely will not) then you’ll need to start building up a base of work before reaching out to an agency. It takes an agency time to call their models and find someone available to test, in addition to the fact that they put their reputation on the line by sending someone to you, so don’t expect them to start working with you right out the gate. I’d recommend starting on a site like Model Mayhem, which will allow you to start building a book on a trade basis. As your images get better, the talent you work with will too. Keep fueling this train (it may take a few months, a year or two years depending on the effort you put in) before you’re ready to meet with an agency.

While you start building a portfolio, he’s a few things you may find helpful. Check your wedding, engagement and family portrait post processing effects at the door. When it comes to commercial images, these cutesy or arty effects really don’t hold much weight. If you’re aiming for a commercial look in your book, then you might want to consider keeping it simple on your post production. Fashion work can go many ways. You can add some surrealistic looks and tinting to your images, or keep it very minimalistic. The thing to remember is where you may have skirted by in family work by covering up mistakes with a processing effect, in commercial work it’s all about the right light. No amount of processing is going to cover that up to someone with a trained eye.

Compiling images that speak to your vision is critically important. You need to be building a style that shows who you are as a unique artist. However, don’t forget to curate photos that a model would include in their book. I’ve got a few images that are my favorites for my own book, but I wouldn’t include them in a visual to an agency because the model may be a distant part of a scene or is spinning with only hair visible. Those are great abstracts for my book, but useless for a model who needs to show their features to be considered for castings.

Establish a network of make-up artists, hair stylists and wardrobe stylists that you can trust to put out consistently reliable work. Again, this may be a building process as your work progresses. Don’t expect to work with the very best first, but there are a lot of great people struggling to make it into the market at the same time you are who are willing to trade work for their portfolio as well.

Determine where your shooting location(s) will be. Do you plan on doing solely studio or location work, or a mix of both? Have a few areas planned out that you’ve used before and you know how to work properly to get the best images. It’s the same principle that often applies to family and senior photographers.

So you’ve found some great locations, established a network and built up a book that you’re ready to finally take to an agency. It’s time to send out an email and request a meeting. Be flexible to the agencies schedule. If you have a book put together, be sure to bring it in. If not, ask if they’ll be ok with viewing your images on a laptop and bring that in. Check to make sure the colors and contrast aren’t way off or you may seriously dislike showing the images on there. Let the agency know that you’re a new face in the market looking to continue building a book and working with their talent.

If they’ve agreed to work with you, make sure you both can agree on a price point. This will usually include a fee for hair and make-up as well, so you’ll need to make sure you’ve budgeted that in. This is where your network comes in handy.  From here, this is where the little details start playing a large roll.

I’ve found call sheets to be a tremendous asset to the agencies I work with and prepare them for every photo shoot. These are a one piece of paper that include details such as your contact information, location address, times, your stylists, the models, any wardrobe recommendations or other special requests you have. It saves the agency a lot of time when they don’t have to try and piece together information from several emails and can just send the call sheet directly to their model. Make a template sheet and plug in the details you need for each shoot. It’s well worth the quick time it takes.

On game day, be professional and polite. This rule really applies to any type of photography, so remember it! Bring a light snack and definitely some water if you’ll be shooting for longer than an hour. Photography isn’t just great images; it’s a service you’re providing.

You’ll need to put together three to four different looks for a good comp card. Each look is a different wardrobe and make-up/hair change. They don’t always have to be drastic, but they should be enough to provide some versatility for the models portfolio. If you’re not supplying wardrobe, you’ll need to feel it out when the model arrives, but also have a few ideas floating around that you can tap for almost any look.

Whew this post went on quite longer than I thought and I’m sure I missed a bunch, but hopefully this helps those of you interested in eventually working with modeling agencies and building up a commercial portfolio. Feel free to ping me any questions on Facebook.

My own workflow and post production is very much still a work in progress. It’s something I’m constantly refining and I don’t profess to have it where I want it yet. In fact it’s likely my biggest weakness. However, since a few people have asked me to share I thought I’d put together this post on what I’m doing now. Because I consider my style clean and natural, all of it is geared toward simple touch-ups.

The first step after a photo shoot is to import all my images into Lightroom. I’ve played around a bit with Capture One as well, but Lightroom is my preferred choice for the moment. It’s a particularly easy to use and sort program and I definitely recommend it, even (perhaps especially) before purchasing Photoshop. On import, I keyword all the photos for future sorting, usually with at least the model’s name, agency they’re from, the client and a few project descriptions. I automatically apply an import setting for my camera which includes copyright information and a few settings, pretty much the default camera neutral with a slight bit of higher contrast added in. I like to start from a very basic slate and then adjust where necessary per image.

The first photo below is what an image will generally look like when I first import it into Lightroom. While ok on its own, there’s a few things to correct and I sometimes like to punch it up a bit more. I always check the histogram of each photo to see where blown highlights or black clippings may be. The giant blown hotspot on camera left is generally considered a no-no, but let’s skip that part for now. My first step is to make any minor exposure and white balance corrections that are needed. This is usually quick and can be copied across a set of multiple images if each is off say 1/10th to 1/3rd a stop.

For this photo, I added in a bit of recovery to reclaim some of the blown highlights and boosted the black levels pretty high (I believe around 25) to punch up those colors and take away some of the natural wash in the photo. I then added a bit more fill to take away some of that black while brightening the photo a tad, and uped the exposure just a bit. The black clipping is a bit strong in this photo, but I felt the light justified an extra bit of punch. What I like to do is make sure there are no empty edges on the histogram, bringing the black point up if needed so the bottom of the histogram meets the edge, or the exposure up if its short. These are really things you should be looking out for while taking the photo though to unsure you’re not over or underexposing the photo.

If you’re looking for a simple, “this is what you do to get a good photo,” you’re just not going to find it. Each image will require its own minor adjustments. The key is to trust what the histogram is telling you, and to follow the KISS principle. Learn to get it right in camera and you’ll always spend less time in front of the computer.

After going through a shoot set, deleting the photos I don’t like, applying a color selection to the ones I do for a second look and finally starring my favorites, I send to Photoshop. The only thing I will use Photoshop for is to occasionally remove a distracting background item and to clean up minor skin spots. Then I’ll sharpen and the image is ready to go.

Hope this is helpful. As I mentioned I like to keep my post-production very simple and fast. It’s really about getting it right in camera first and then making any minor adjustments you need.

How you go about them and what you want to bring out is a matter of your own preference. For these two, I wanted to use a few of the accessories I brought along (a few hats and sunglasses) and change up the angles. Another way to go about it is to set your model in a seated position, fix a tripod down and have them alter their expressions from the exact same angle. Since I far prefer to shoot handheld and change the angles to interact with my subject, my photos each have a bit more variety.

Knowing what to bring out in each of your models can really add an extra punch to the images. You may be able to get some smiles out of a model with more of a fashion look, but chances are they might not turn out as well as ones where you worked with their natural expressions and talent. Lia’s bubbly personality lent itself perfectly to just joke around and create these playful set of images.

Whereas Britt had a great softer smile and those lock-on eyes. Being able to work with each models natural talent really helped deliver the best images.

This was an incredibly fun photo shoot where I started to push a few personal boundaries. It’s so important to work outside your own comfort zone. I certainly don’t do it enough. When you do though, you open the door to learning new techniques and expanding your vision. I’m looking forward to sharing more images from this test. Stay tuned.

The “plight of the artist” can often be something to laugh about (I’ve had a good chuckle a number of times over people who thought they could change the world and ended up flipping burgers at McDonald’s), but it’s also a driving force in the life of many people. I count myself among those people now. Since I began taking my work in photography seriously, it’s been a new adventure in life. It’s a new passion. I don’t find myself laughing at the McDonald’s artists so much anymore – just wishing they could find a way to channel their passion into an applicable business practice. I doubt myself. All. The. Time. Who could ever like my work? Why can’t I be better? What is so wrong with my perspective?

But then I realize, it’s not what’s wrong, but what I need to continue to refine. We’re never wrong as artists, we’re just continuing to refine our vision and improve the technicalities of the tools that allow us to do that. Sure, we’re wrong on the technicals all the time, but never doubt your vision as an artist. Listen to others. Learn from others. And most importantly, always be you.

Whatever the venture, passion is the driving force. Passion for photography. Passion for life. Passion for laughter. These are what drive me forward. Passion is what drives all of us forward, if only for ourselves. I got to thinking about this a little more when someone asked me what my goal was for my photography. Well it is and continues to be, “To laugh with honesty every day the rest of my life and to inspire everyone around me to laugh as well.”

My photography is an extension of who I am. I try to show that a bit more every day in a creative way. I hope to laugh every day. I hope others can share that laughter with me. I can honestly say since working toward this lifestyle, I have. I hope to continue that, and to share it with more people. I believe in laughter we find ourselves.

Thank you all for helping me live my passion every day. Learn to recognize your own passions. When you do, never let them go. Always advance in the face of doubt, external or internal. Keep an ear open to advice. An “artist’s vision” is never an excuse for achieving less than you are capable of because you’re unwilling to take criticism of your work or learn from others.

Be proud. Be humble. Be you. Follow your passion and life will reward you in ways you never dreamed possible.