Use your acting skills to drive your modeling career forward

Whether you're gliding down a runway or posing on the set of a photo shoot, there are some simple tips that you can remember to make your poses seem more natural. Many amateur models make the mistake of thinking that acting is completely separate from modeling, when in fact the most successful models understand that a truly extraordinary photo requires a sense of silent expression. To capture just what the photographer wants you need to be able to convey emotion with your face and body. You should be flexible and look natural but still have a variety of poses.

There are some important rules of thumb for a new model to remember while starting out. For instance, when trying to pose for a photograph most people hold their breath to stabilize the look. This should be avoided on a professional photo shoot; holding your breath will add a strained or stiff quality to the photograph. Achieving a natural look is key, unless the photographer desires an exaggerated pose. But you also need to remember that natural isn't the same thing as casual. A natural look makes the viewer of the photo believe in the emotion the model is expressing. If the model is in an ad this belief extends to the product being advertised. This is critical in advertising. As long as the style isn't specifically casual, you should always remember to display good posture while modeling. Poor posture is extremely common now, and is prevalent even among models, so hold your back up straight and keep your shoulders to distinguish your figure.

Other tips for staying "natural" are:

• - Keep your arms at least slightly bent
• - Place your weight on one foot, which creates a slimming effect
• - Don't always look directly into the camera

Once you have the basics of posing down, it's time to bring your modeling to the next level. Like an actor, you must keep your objective in mind at all times in order to believably express emotions. The objectives are simple, look angry or play hard to get, but unlike an actor a model must be able to constantly shift her emotional state at a moment's notice. You jump from happy, to seductive, to pouty in just a few seconds. It is easy to rely on stock facial expressions for these kinds of changes, but if you really want to shine you should develop the ability to quickly re-experience emotions to add a genuine look to your pose.

You can try having a set of memories earmarked beforehand. These bring up specific feelings for you that you can use on a shoot. If you're on a commercial photo shoot, and the most important thing you need to express is an interest in the product being advertised, try to pretend the product is something you actually care for and have a genuine emotional tie to, while avoiding a 'kid-on-Christmas-morning' type of over-exaggeration.

Just as the best actors make us believe in what they're feeling during a scene, the best models are able to channel emotional depth and realism into a single snapshot.

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