The Photograph Is Only Half the Experience
I've always believed that taking a good photograph is only half the job.
The other half is making the person in front of your camera feel comfortable enough to actually be themselves.
This became even more apparent to me when I worked with Lilia Omietonska, the founder and photographer behind Shades of Feminity, a studio specialising in female portraits.
For this project, I wanted to document Lilia doing what she does best, photographing her clients.
But the more I watched her work, the more I realised that she wasn't simply taking photographs.
She was creating an experience.
She would talk to her subjects, guide them, make them laugh, adjust their poses, reassure them, and constantly find little ways to make them feel comfortable in front of the camera.
And I found that really interesting.
Because as photographers, we can get very caught up in the technical side of things.
The camera.
The lighting.
The composition.
The colours.
The lenses.
The editing.
All the things we think will make a photograph better.
But none of that really matters if the person in front of the camera feels uncomfortable.
I know this because I'm not particularly comfortable in front of a camera myself.
I've always found things like passport photos, posed photographs, or someone pointing a camera directly at me a little awkward. Suddenly, you don't know what to do with your hands, where to look, whether you're smiling too much, or whether you're smiling enough.
You become very aware of yourself.
And that's probably why I appreciate photographers like Lilia.
She understands that.
Her job isn't simply to say, “Stand there. Look here. Smile.”
It's to make you forget that you're being photographed.
That's a completely different skill.
As photographers, filmmakers, and creatives, I think we sometimes forget that we are also service providers.
We're not just delivering photographs or videos.
We're delivering an experience.
Someone might forget which lens you used. They probably won't remember what camera you shot with. They may not even know what you did in post-production.
But they will remember how you made them feel.
Did they feel awkward?
Did they feel rushed?
Did they feel like they were just another client?
Or did they walk away thinking:
“Wow, I actually enjoyed that.”
That's the part that stayed with me after working with Lilia.
She adds value beyond the photograph itself.
The photograph is the final product, but the experience of getting there is part of the product too.
And I think this applies to almost every service-based business.
Whether you're a photographer, personal trainer, hairdresser, designer, consultant, restaurant owner, or even a filmmaker, people aren't just paying for the thing you produce.
They're paying for what it's like to work with you.
That made me think about how I approach my own work.
When I arrive at a shoot, especially when I'm filming someone who isn't used to having a camera around, I can't just turn on the camera and expect everything to magically work.
Before I even start filming, I'll introduce myself, have a chat, break the ice, and try to understand the person I'm working with.
Sometimes, we talk about completely unrelated things.
Sometimes, we joke around.
Sometimes, we just take a little time before bringing the camera into the conversation.
It might seem insignificant, but I think those few minutes can make a huge difference.
Once people become comfortable around you, something changes.
Their shoulders relax.
They stop thinking about the camera.
They start behaving naturally.
And suddenly, you have something much more interesting to capture.
For this film, I took a documentary-style approach.
Rather than directing every single moment, I wanted to observe Lilia in her natural environment and capture the way she interacted with her clients.
The little conversations.
The laughter.
The instructions.
The moments between shots.
The reactions.
The things that probably wouldn't make it into a traditional promotional video.
Those were the moments I wanted.
Because those moments tell you more about Lilia than simply showing a beautiful finished portrait ever could.
And that's probably one of the biggest things I've learnt from doing this kind of work.
Sometimes, the best way to show what you do is to show how you make people feel.
A portfolio can show you beautiful photographs.
A website can tell people what you do.
A testimonial can tell people how good you are.
But sometimes, seeing you actually work tells the story much better.
You see the person behind the service.
You see their personality.
You see how they interact with people.
You see the care they put into what they do.
And perhaps most importantly, you see what it might feel like to work with them.
That's what I wanted this little film to capture.
Not just Lilia the photographer.
But Lilia the person behind the camera.
Someone who genuinely cares about making her clients feel comfortable, confident, and good about themselves.
Because at the end of the day, a photograph might be worth a thousand words.
But if it can also leave someone with a thousand smiles, I think that's worth even more.
Thanks for reading!
Find out more about Shades of Feminity: