How to Choose Your Models & Get The Best Results [Product Lifestyle Photos]

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Every photographer has their own style when it comes to photography techniques, and working with models. Either way, there are a few things one should keep in mind if they want to obtain the best results from a photo session involving models, especially for lifestyle product shots that will be used on your e-commerce product listings (like on Amazon, eBay, WordPress, Shopify, BigCommerce or any online seller platform really).

Choosing Your Model

A model is a professional paid to display or promote a product, and can also serve as visual aid for photography purposes. If you don’t know this person and they don’t know you, or the full context of the results you want to obtain from the session, it may end up being a disaster. It’s essential to be very particular when choosing your model to ensure a smooth overall process.

So, how do you choose a model for a specific photo shoot?

You’ll have the most success in your campaign if you are able to pinpoint who your product’s average buyer is. Who would this appeal to, or more specifically: who do you want to sell it to? Once you have a reasonable portrait of your target audience, you can choose a model that fits this buyer’s lifestyle portrait, or better: target your model to be a bit above average to that portrait.

People are generally impressed by fresh and dream-like photographs, and your job is to make this facade seem attainable to your consumers. If they don’t, and if they think that the product is destined for a higher-end audience, they might not buy it, or fewer will buy it. Conversely, if you underestimate this buyer’s portrait and make it look as if almost anyone would have that product, you are downgrading the product. Then you might end up with everyone thinking it’s junk and it’s not worth their time.

One crucial aspect that makes the difference here is the model.

Know Your Target Audience

For example, a gorgeous brunette with top-model dimensions, in a seductive black dress sitting on a tall bar stool and drinking out of a classy cocktail glass with a perfect white smile and cherry lips will pick up everyone’s attention. But, aren’t you trying to bring the attention upon that cocktail instead? That is what you’re trying to sell, right? Well, seeing this photo, right now the cocktail is the last thing your audience is thinking about.

Instead, pay attention to WHO will actually be drink these cocktails. Is it for men trying to put their hands on that gorgeous brunette, or is it for women that have to see themselves in that same posture, with the cocktail in their hands? Since this particular cocktail is geared towards women, advertising an unrealistic model wouldn’t be the best strategy. Women tend to look at other women with a criticizing eye. The portrait in the photograph is not of the average woman going to the bar to have a night out with friends and relax after a hard day at work. This is the audience we’re considering in this example.

To reach this target audience we have to tweak the model a bit. Yes, we keep the gorgeous bar setting, the dream-like cocktail, and the happy face, but we have to add her friends, the atmosphere, remove the flirty cherry lips and add a relaxed smile of a working woman that finally gets to relax, and drinks the one and only cocktail that can help her do that instantly. Noticed how we’re not saying anything about the sexy dress? Yes, because we’ll keep that! But a bit more casual. Any woman likes to feel sexy and will feel happy when she is. Happy people are relaxed people. But most women don’t get flirty dresses and cherry lips with perfect make-up, especially not after long days at work. They will however always have casual wear that is sexy enough and comfy enough to give them that night-out relaxation and fun oasis they need. They’ll have an easy makeup that they can put on (or retouch) super quick before going out after work. Overall, your model doesn’t have to look perfect so don’t target only textbook perfect models for your shoots. It doesn’t have to be society’s interpretation of a a top-model, it just has to relate to your audience. This is what you should emphasize on when choosing a model and planning how you will facilitate the shoot.

Find The Model For The Look

Another thing to consider is what you will be emphasizing while selling your product. Decide this before the session and maybe even before choosing a model. It’s important to choose a model that can have their best feature in tune with your product. For example, if you sell shoes, you’ll photograph feet and legs. If you sell a watch, you’ll photograph hands and wrists. If you sell a purse, you’ll probably photograph a torso. You’ll want to make sure that your model’s features correlate with what you need to display.  

If you are selling shoes but your model has puffy feet, it just won’t do. The shoes won’t be as appealing with swollen ankles. However if you’re selling a necklace than the puffy ankles really won’t matter, so you can bypass that aspect of your model.

Overall, just use common sense when choosing models for specific shoots. Professional models have photo books that are edited and aimed to sell specific poses, advertising their overall appearance or only their best aspect.

You also should think about the product and the model’s overall appearance. They have to be in tune; if they aren’t, again, your audience will be aware of this, and your product won’t sell as well.

A good aesthetic aspect that can help you choose is geometry. Let’s think of jewelry for this: curvy and elegant rings look great on a romantic looking model whose look is dreamy, relaxed and generally emanates warmth and love. Edgy rings look better on slim and yet fresh young ladies that inspire active people. Massive rings look much better on voluptuous ladies which have an aristocratic appearance.

Sometimes, the looks of the model really don’t matter as much. In some cases you will only need them for background and extras and will be mostly blurred out of the image, only for atmosphere or you will only get close-ups of specific parts of their body. For making people feel in tune with your image they are equally important though as the models that are in sharp foreground.

Before the Shoot

After choosing a model, you want to ensure that you’re able to actually get the best results from them. This technique is approachable even if the models are not professionals but normal people.

Initially, you (or your photographer) should be meet the model before the photo session. A cup of coffee, or tea is a great ice breaker and will build that connection so that when it comes to the shoot, your model is comfortable with you.

This doesn’t have to be a long affair. 10-30 minutes might suffice and this is a great opportunity for you and them to learn several things about each other and do a little bonding.

It is important to understand that a photo session gets best results if there is team-work. It’s not all on the shoulders of the photographer! There has to be some teamwork and that won’t happen if you don’t know each other.

There are many advantages to using this approach.

First and most important, you can easily find out what your model’s best posture or best feature is. If you don’t know this before a session, you might end up asking them to pose in unflattering ways and in the end only turn up with one or two decent photographs. You will learn this much quicker during a friendly meeting over a cup of coffee with no pressure on the models and with no intimidating camera in your hands. Both of you will be much more at ease with each other and this state allows you to have honest reactions out of your model during the session.

Additionally, if you’ve already met you will know how to make them smile sincerely. By getting to know them after a 10-30 minutes of relaxed chit-chat, be it on general topics and nothing that personal, you’ll know what they like and what they don’t like. You can tap into their mind by touching some soft points learned from that talk. You can afford a joke or two and you can for sure work much freely and detached than how you would if the session would be your very first meeting with no talk, just instructions.

Think of it the other way, a strictly professional relationship where you meet the model at the photo shoot, ask them to do this and that, and then send them away is extremely cold and unless you are super lucky to have a great actor as model, they will probably feel intimidated by you and they will not be able to understand the purpose of the photos you are pursuing. If you talk to them, the models won’t be as intimidated by you if they know you just a bit, if they feel you are also human and, if they see you try to approach them friendlier.

Then there’s also the reverse part, if your models are professionals, they are trained to pose in certain ways. Most of that is interpreted as fake by the public. You can spot a fake pose from an honest and sincere one. Even if most people don’t realize that consciously, the subconscious will know and they won’t trust these images as much as they trust honest ones.

The interesting part of such a meeting before the shoot is discussing with your model what you are aiming to shoot and what your vision for that is. You might not think it’s important, but it will make a huge difference if you ask what their vision of the photo-session’s goal. Again, the subconscious of your model will try to project their vision in their behavior during the photo session. You don’t want to have to fight with their subconscious for obtaining the best. So you better know what their vision is in order to meet them halfway and even to avoid getting them in the point of projecting that vision instead of yours. Knowing what your vision is, they might tap into it and make your work easier. A photographer should know better than the models, but sometimes you may get great fresh ideas from this talk. Having this discussion will lead to a better teamwork and to obtaining in a much faster and relaxed manner exactly what you hope to see at the end of your session, or even more than that. If you try to emulate your view on your model’s way of being, once again you might find yourself in front of astonishing results. This is of course if the model is the right one for that product.

This chat is a great opportunity to talk about the object or product you are intending to emphasize or sell with your photos. You can even try to find out if the model would be interested in such a product as a customer. Of course, if they are, the results would be even better than expected.

At the Shoot

Your audience will want to feel the person in the shot is happy to have this product, to feel they had nothing like this before and really needed it or it really changed their lives.

If your model is not able to transcend this to the audience, no matter how crystal perfect your photography technique is, the photos won’t be selling that product.

In this case you have two options: 1) Try to convince your model this is a great product, up to the point where they really believe you and are able to sell it in front of a camera, or 2) Try getting another model who feels in touch with the vibe of needing that product. Even if they are not interested in the product, this can work if your model is a great actor and if they know how to perfectly put themselves in the shoes of someone who wanted this product for a long time and has now finally obtained it. But when shooting you have to be able to see this in the photos. You should be the first audience and ask yourself: would I buy it seeing this?

Another good trick during the photo shoot is to communicate with your model. Bring up some of the subjects they are interested in. This usually works best if you’ve had a chat before the session (i.e. the coffee meet up) If you just start chatting during a session for the first time, the model might feel cornered or confused and that results in bad reactions. Share a joke every now and then, or even get personal if the atmosphere of the session would allow that. From our experience it is good to shoot when they expect it least because that’s when they are more natural and when you can have great images come out. And shooting more than just a specific posture you ask out of them. While you talk they won’t pay as much attention to that artificial setting, and that is when they tap into their feelings (depending on what you are talking about) and by that you can get exceptional results in your shots if you are able to talk them into the state and face expression you need.

Takeaway

All aspects of the process of finding a model, and obtaining the best results from them are important. The target audience for the product, look, and model’s comfort level before and during the shoot must be considered. Your model is selling the product as much as you are, if not more. If their face is on your website, you want that fact to scream “Buy this Product!” not “Help!” Remember, you will have much more success with images in which your audience can see themselves, and this means honest images in which you show honest feelings.  As much as this article may sound like unimportant fluff, we at Private Label Nitrous assure you that the right model for the product is an absolutely pivotal element that can either contribute to the success or failure of the photos that you’re depending on to drive sales.

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