Stay relaxed

You could be the best photographer in the world, but if your model is uptight, nervous or downright scared, then you'll end up with a memory card full of dud photos.

A professional model is paid for his or her ability to relax into a shoot and inhabit a character, rather like an actor. But even professional models can require coaxing, expecially if they're used to a different style of shoot.

Regardless of whether you're going for a moody, dark tone to your photos -- like a shoot for Dazed -- or a happy, carefree look -- for a mag such as Cosmo -- you need the model to be relaxed.

Paradoxically, a happy model will usually be able to pull off an angry, moody look better than a unhappy one. You'll also find that a model is more inventive when he or she is uninhibited and may come up with ideas to improve the shoot.

To lift the spirits of the model in our shoot, the photographer told amusing anecdotes and imitated a yak. You won't always have to go this far, but remember to keep things upbeat.

Now that film is effectively free, there's no excuse not to be spontaneous with your approach to fashion photography. Sometimes the best way to get a good photograph is to get the model to act as if he or she is being filmed, assuming multiple poses in rapid succession.

You can fire off a massive run of shots in the space of a few seconds and pick the best ones later. This will give your pictures a much more dynamic feel, as well as increasing the likelyhood of a 'happy accident' -- the essence of many great photographs.