Posing Models-

Hands-

The first tip that comes to mind (and the reason I was inspired to create this tips section) is that you should always be conscious of a models hand gestures. Hands are very expressive. It's usually the first thing in an image to convey awkwardness when a model is nervous. In this image you can see that the male model's left hand in particular looks awkward. The situation was that these two models literally met 2 minutes earlier and were thrown together and asked to pose as a couple. Ideally a professional model should be something of an actor/actress and should be able to fake any role asked of them but on the amateur level you tend to have to coach people into the roles you'd like them to play. One of the first tips I tend to mention to the models I work with is for them to always be conscious of how their hands are posed. There are ways upon ways to grip an object or caress it and so on. The position of the hands can show all sorts of details about the emotion of a scene. If a model is gripping some object fiercely and the forearms are straining and the fingers tensed then it conveys a level of intensity that would never be there if the model was entirely focused on his/her facial expression. Realistically body language in general is important but I see the hands as the front lines to body language. I like to suggest to a lot of models that they should always keep their hands doing something. If there is no prop then they can fidget with their clothes or the ground or something.

Social Skills-

My good friend Max once told me that being a photographer is something like twenty percent art skills and eighty percent social skills. This comment was during a conversation about how he just came from working as a still photographer on the set of some film or another. He was referring to the fact that his job was made easier by flattering the egos of the director and the talent and anyone who could give him a hard time for being in their way during the project. I know from experience that many times the crew of motion picture project may tend to resent the still photographer as we have a tendency to slow them up a lot. They want to tear down one location and move on and set up the next shot as quickly as possible but we have to beg and cajole them into allowing us to shoot some stills while the lighting is still set up. It's damn near impossible to shoot stills during the actual video creation process as there's no room to move around and get good angles due to all the equipment and crew in the way not to mention many times if they're capturing sound on the set then the audio person will be pissed when he or she hears the click of your shutter throughout the scene. The whole point is that in order to fascilitate your ability to capture the photos you need it helps to maintain the respect and appreciation of the people you're working with. When you get right down to it, that's a virtue in any sort of business venture but when it comes to photographing models it's extremely important due to the fact that you're asking a person to create (usually pleasant) facial expressions and body language. If your subject is nervous, uncomfortable, or just doesn't like you for some reason then they either need to be a fantastic actor/actress or you're going to wind up with pretty lame pictures. Some of my favorite artwork and the most fun I've had has been with the models who've spent enough time around me to become extremely comfortable. It becomes easier for me to suggest poses or outfits because I've come to know what their limitations and expectations are from a shoot and they in turn are less cautious about experimenting with poses and facial expressions without constantly asking me "What should I do now?" When it's possible to work with a model on more than just one project I often find the shoots following the first one get progressively better. When it comes to the first shoot with a new model I always make sure to have the shoot last for a few hours at least and anticipate that the first hour or so will likely be a warming up period for the two of us to get familiar with each other's personalities and workflow. If it's an outdoor shoot I plan for the shoot to start early enough to have a couple hours of shooting to warm up so that by the time the golden hour hits (the hour before sunset) we're nailing great images more often than not. I love creating beautiful artwork but the bottom line is that I want to have fun and I want the person(s) I'm working with to enjoy themselves as well. I try to be as reassuring as possible and put people at ease. I've been around enough other photographers to know that many of them are fairly condescending and allow their egos to lash out at the models for whatever reason when they see something they don't like. Whenever I see this happen I cringe and my heart goes out to the talent but then I realize it's just going to make them appreciate working with me that much more. Every model I've worked with has told me that I was much easier to work with than the majority of other photographers they've met. It's my number one priority to make sure my models are comfortable and having a good time, the artwork is secondary.
Rules of Thumb:
-Be respectful.
-Be conscious of a person's comfort levels
-Smile a lot
-Encourage silliness
-Encourage questions about the process
-Explain enough about the technical side of the
process to reassure the model of your professionalism and
training (Remind them you're not some guy with an expensive camera)

Composition-

Fill the Frame-

I can't stand wasted space. One of the reasons I designed this website with cascading style sheets is because I was determined to have a liquid layout instead of that crappy myspace style centered column crap that so many websites employ. When you maximize your window look at how much wasted space is on either side of the main content window (in myspace or another centered column format site). Granted sometimes they fill it with ads and wallpapers and stuff but to my sense of design it's just a lot of noise and wasted space that could be used for content. The same principles of design apply to photography as to anything else in the art/design world. One of the most common mistakes I see in amateur photography is a huge waste of space especially when people are taking portraits of their friends. If you have a subject or focal point for your image then fill the frame with it! Something to keep in mind when shooting people is that human beings are typically taller than they are wide so unless you're taking a picture of three or more people odds are that you would benefit from rotating the camera from a landscape shot to a portrait shot.

Negative Space -

Negative space has it's uses in design as well but in order to make use of negative spaces you need to realize that the negative space becomes a subject of the image as well. If you're trying to convey a sense of wide open spaces then by all means keep your subject small in the frame and emphasize the negative spaces. Just don't throw negative space into your composition arbitrarily. There should be a purpose to your negative space if you intend for it to be prominent in the image. This picture of the dirt bike stunt benefits from the negative space around by giving it a sense of being way up in the air. The real question you have to ask yourself is what is the message you're trying to get across. When taking a picture of friends in front of some sort of tourist attraction or whatever then you have to take into account that the attraction/location is becoming a subject as well but you still want to put a lot of emphasis on your friends. Depending on the size of the attraction/location you're trying to capture that can be hard to manage. This is when different lens lengths can come in handy.