be more confident in outfit pictures

9th May 2016

Twirling, laughing, hair flicking and general tom foolery are all actions that are seen regularly in my outfit shots. It’s amazing what a little movement and personality can add to a static image especially when locations are limited. But I remember the days when all that went down in my images was a bad case of Bitch-Face and not much else. Over the 4 years of Lydia Elise Millen dot com, I’ve honed my confidence to the point where I enjoy being in front of the lens where as once upon a time I couldn’t think of anything worse. When I was younger during the times where I tried to be confident in front of the camera I was usually met with the same snide comments “Wow, posing much?”, “Posin’ell” or simply just “Oh wow get over yourself!”. Apparently we shouldn’t be allowed to feel comfortable or confident in front of the camera. Well I whole heartily disagree and today’s post is dedicated to putting those comments exactly where they belong, some dark corner of the internet where only the negative reside.   [lem_title]HAVE FUN[/lem_title] OK, so outfit shooting in British Winter time is probably my idea of torture however we gotta get it done, so we might as well have as much fun as humanly possible whilst we are at it, thankfully though it’s now Summer so it’s all a lot more enjoyable. But in general if you loathe doing something, you aren’t going to produce the goods you hope for. It will be evident in your stance, the tension in your jaw and the look in your eyes. If you really are truly passionate about your blog and creating a certain standard of content you will need to embrace the outfit shots and put any bad feelings aside. Undertake shoots with […]

Twirling, laughing, hair flicking and general tom foolery are all actions that are seen regularly in my outfit shots. It’s amazing what a little movement and personality can add to a static image especially when locations are limited. But I remember the days when all that went down in my images was a bad case of Bitch-Face and not much else. Over the 4 years of Lydia Elise Millen dot com, I’ve honed my confidence to the point where I enjoy being in front of the lens where as once upon a time I couldn’t think of anything worse.

When I was younger during the times where I tried to be confident in front of the camera I was usually met with the same snide comments “Wow, posing much?”, “Posin’ell” or simply just “Oh wow get over yourself!”. Apparently we shouldn’t be allowed to feel comfortable or confident in front of the camera. Well I whole heartily disagree and today’s post is dedicated to putting those comments exactly where they belong, some dark corner of the internet where only the negative reside.

[lem_title]HAVE FUN[/lem_title]

OK, so outfit shooting in British Winter time is probably my idea of torture however we gotta get it done, so we might as well have as much fun as humanly possible whilst we are at it, thankfully though it’s now Summer so it’s all a lot more enjoyable. But in general if you loathe doing something, you aren’t going to produce the goods you hope for. It will be evident in your stance, the tension in your jaw and the look in your eyes.

If you really are truly passionate about your blog and creating a certain standard of content you will need to embrace the outfit shots and put any bad feelings aside. Undertake shoots with positivity and good vibes to ensure this is reflected naturally through your images.

[lem_title]REAP THE REWARDS[/lem_title]

Looking back over images and thinking, why didn’t I try harder, why didn’t I really step outside of my comfort zone and why didn’t I “Work it” (as I hear all the youth of today apparently say now a days) is one of the worst feelings I’ve experienced. It’s that age old instance where you only have yourself to blame, in fact, now that I mention it I can hear my year 9 tutor now “Lydia has the potential to do really well but she needs to apply herself”.

On the flip side, the sense of reward I feel when I absolutely nail a set out outfit shots is exhilarating. I can’t wait to get home and get them up on the blog so I hang on to those feelings whenever we head out to shoot. Remember how accomplished you felt, how proud you felt and remember that it was all YOU.

[lem_title]HAVE A GOOD TEAM[/lem_title]

Whether that really is a team in every sense of the word, PA’s, Photographers, Managers and whatever else or if it is simply you and your boyfriend working seamlessly together, make sure that whoever they are, they are nothing short of amazing. The people you surround yourself with play an intrinsic part in the kind of world you live in. Do you live in a positive one or a negative one? Do you believe in yourself? Do you have confidence in your abilities?

There comes a point in every persons life where they look around at the people in their lives and think, are these people a reflection of me, are these people the kind of people I aspire to be and aspire to have in my life. I’ve had the wrong kind of people in my life and to put it bluntly, life was not good, I was painfully insecure and I did not like the person I was when I was around them. The moment that I allowed the right people, good people into my life I flourished. On the days where I needed a boost, some help or just someone to hold my head above water for 5 minutes, they were there. So I cannot stress enough, how important it is to allow good people into your world.

[lem_title]SHOW YOUR PERSONALITY[/lem_title]

A wise blogger once said to me “I want people to see my pictures and know that I am a nice person”, and that really resonated with me. People have always had their preconceptions of me, and rightly so, we all have preconceptions and 9 times out of 10 its because of the way WE present ourselves.

I decided to fight my profound hatred of my smile and show it all the time because a smile is a Universal language. A smile is a smile and it can only be taken, not given negatively and I wanted the World Wide Wed to have a glimpse into my personality. The moment I learnt to smile in pictures properly was the moment I truly felt comfortable. I didn’t need to know angles or poses, I just needed to smile more.

Photography by Ali Gordon with the Olympus Pen E-PL7 & 75mm Lens.