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Liberate Your Camera
Annabel Williams

	Wonderful informal images can result from a picture session where you have won the full confidence of your clients

I have consistently found social photography to be one of the most exciting and challenging careers that there is and I absolutely love every minute of it. It's a profession that can be - and note I say can be - stimulating and creatively rewarding and, by way of a bonus, can provide you with a decent income along the way.

The trick is to make it enjoyable for yourself but, far more importantly, to work hard to make it enjoyable for the client as well. Use this as the basis for everything you do and it will show in the pictures that result and in the number of bookings that you receive.

Too many people still view visiting a photographer as something that can be a little intimidating: it's up to you to put them at ease and to allow them to have an experience that they will look back on with pleasure and will be happy to repeat. Above all be yourself and try to create an atmosphere that is friendly and relaxed, because only then will you achieve the kind of happy and natural results that are so characteristic of the contemporary style of working.

	Some of the best pictures occur at the end of a session where the clients have started to relax completely. It's a good time for the subjects to change into their everyday clothes, and it's these casual pictures that are invariable the ones that everyone prefers

The good news is that most people who come to you for a picture are looking for anything but a formulaic approach and those photographers who work in a contemporary style are likely to find themselves pushing at an open door if they suggest trying something new and different.

The pictures here will give you some idea of my approach to social photography and you can also see my new book Commercial Portraits (RotoVision). All of the subjects featured here were clients of mine and, despite appearances, none were professional models. Every one of them, however, was treated as a star for a day, and was pampered and made to feel special and that I believe has manifested itself in a series of portraits that have a relaxed and informal feel to them.

Because I'm now established people come to me because they know the kind of approach that they're going to get and that's one of the things that someone trying to develop the contemporary approach themselves has to be aware of. You must have the confidence in yourself to follow your gut instinct and to develop your own style rather than try to produce pictures that you believe fit in to the established way of working.

That way the time will come when people want to book you for what you personally can offer them: they won't simply be buying the pictures they'll be buying you as a photographer as well and they know that they won't get the same results from anyone else.

Before we started the picture session the client went through make-up and had her hair styled and was generally pampered to make her feel good.

Take a look around at the kind of ground-breaking pictures that are now being taken by some of the country's leading contemporary photographers. Work entered in competitions such as the Fujifilm Wedding and Portrait Awards, which have long been acknowledged as encouraging a fresh and innovative approach to the whole arena of social photography, will give you a clear guide to what today's client is hoping to achieve.

With that particular competition now switching to a regional event - to be known as 7 Brides - there will be an even bigger incentive for photographers to enter in the future and still more encouragement for the contemporary photographer in the social field. The more exposure this kind of work receives through competitions such as this the more the demand will rise from the public for pictures like this to be offered to them as well.

The contemporary approach should become natural to you and should influence everything you do and every aspect of the way that you work. Learn to look at your clients as the individuals that they are. It's too easy to have a pre-conceived idea of how you are going to approach a session and you have to be responsive to each situation and be prepared to innovate if necessary to produce the best pictures.

I like to keep things as flexible as possible and to give myself the chance to react to the flow of a session. Even when shooting in an interior or in the studio, for example, I'll try to work with the natural light and to hand hold the camera where possible.

	This is an example of how important the background is - it matters not what it is, whether industrial or homely, outdoors or indoors but it has to complement the mood of the shot and show off the colours of the client's outfit.

Modern fast black and white films such as Fujifilm Neopan 1600, are invaluable, because they give you so much freedom. Clients also love the mood that black and white can add and the fact that there's some grain visible - though remarkably little considering the speed of the film - and perhaps a touch of movement, simply adds to the atmosphere of the picture.

The idea that a commercial portrait session might involve some images being taken hand held with a 35mm camera show how far things have come in terms of acceptability. A previous generation would have been horrified at such a relaxed approach but this is increasingly what young clients in particular are looking for, something that shows them as they really are and yet still has a professional feel to it.

The use of black and white also sets the pictures apart from anything that clients might take for themselves and adds a touch of classicism to the shoot. The whole feel of black and white these days is one of quality and increasingly the demand is there for this kind of approach.

Geraldine started off by trying to pose in a formal way but was so relaxed that she soon found herself laughing uncontrollably. The key picture showed her in a wonderfully natural pose and the picture was taken hand held with a 35mm camera and 75-300mm zoom lens

None of the pictures you see here required any kind of artificial light but if I do choose to work in a studio with flash then I try to make the set as friendly and welcoming as possible by setting up lighting that is simple and unobtrusive.

This will remain consistent throughout the shoot so that I don't have to take time out from talking to the subject to change lights around and to check exposures. Instead I concentrate on the expressions that I'm getting and making sure that my subject is enjoying the session.

I'm happiest when I'm shooting portraits on location because then there is so much potential for the surroundings to have a positive influence on the pictures. People tend to feel more comfortable and less intimidated outdoors and it all adds to the relaxed look of the pictures.

Even though my studio is set in an idyllic corner of the Lake District, however, I don't like to use the archetypal 'pretty' backgrounds. My favoured setting is an industrial unit just across the way from my studio and here there is a chance to use some very rugged and colourful props which, again, just seem far more suited to the contemporary approach.

It's fascinating to see people's reactions when they walk into a place like this: the "what are we doing here?" looks. They can't imagine that they will sit in front of something like a crane or a rusting container and yet, with the right viewpoint and sometimes a subtle tilt of the lens, the most remarkable pictures can develop.

When shooting outdoors I continue the relaxed approach and hand hold for most of my pictures. Once again modern film materials contribute enormously to the way I can work. Fujifilm Provia 400, for example, offers a combination of speed and beautifully saturated colours and I'll often, for a creative effect, ask my lab to cross process it so that these colours are given a kind of dreamlike feel. It's something that fashion photographers do all the time and I think that those working in the contemporary style can add a great deal to a session by borrowing from their approach.

Set up a situation and then wait to see how it develops. This beautiful scene of a child on the beach could not have been arranged precisely: it had to be allowed to develop naturally

I truly believe that social photography has a great future and that it will continue to attract those who, as well as hoping to make a reasonable living, will be involved in this area because they see it as a way of gaining personal fulfilment and of having an enjoyable and worthwhile career. The more that the contemporary style becomes established the more that the public will demand this kind of approach and so it's a certainty that there's a big future in this area of the market.

So, forget those preconceptions and stop trying to follow what you may believe to be the 'rules' of the game. Concentrate on being yourself and on offering a professional and enjoyable service and you could be surprised by the kind of reaction that you receive from your potential clients.