Most Essential Modelling Tips From America's Next Top Model

I have been a fan of ANTM (America’s Next Top Model) long as I can remember. I have watched the show from the first cycle up to the latest for a total of 24 cycles. I actually have a copy of each season and in my rest days I watch them again and again. I must say that for those whole run, I have learned a lot of things from Tyra and from the models. From taking a great modelling picture to rocking it to the runway.

Watching America’s Next Top Model doesn’t make you a model but it does elevate your ability to make sure that every picture rocks and you are Next Level Fierce. There are definitely a lot of things I have learned from Tyra watching America’s Next Top Model and on this post let me tell you some of the most important tips I have learned from Tyra in the show.

This is probably the most common tip you’ll hear from any photographers and models everywhere. Great pictures have amazing lighting and if you want to have a rocking picture, you need to have one. In modelling your face is money. Your face should be selling the product and it is going to fail it your face doesn’t get enough lighting. So you have to make sure that your face captures the light. And in order to do this you need to know where the light is coming from and make sure you are not covering the light.

From those photos you can clearly see how much better it is when your face catches the light. In those photos, the light is on the model's left side and they should have turned or tilted their body and their face towards their left to perfectly catch the light just like the model in the third picture did.

When somebody tells you that when they look at you from the right you look like Beyonce, they look at you from the left you look like Tyra Banks but when they look at you straight forward NEVER MIND. There is actually some truth in that. Our face can look differently when viewed at different angles and to make sure that your picture is rocking, you have to figure out at what angles of your face you look best and you look worst. Of course we don't want to take a picture with our worst angle, but how will we know if we haven't figured that out? Should we commit the mistake first before realizing it? Well that's definitely a good way to learn. Most models learn that way but another good way to do it is to look at the mirror and see how you look at different angles. It is also recommended to take a selfie at different angles to actually know how it looks in a photo.

In one ANTM episode Tyra said that she doesn't look best in a profile shot and when she has to do profile, she cheats it buy tilting a little bit towards the camera and not do a complete profile shot:

Well that was Tyra, you'll need to figure out yours. You also have to find a lot of great angles as possible because you can't just tell a photographer to take a picture at a single angle only because it is your best angle. Especially if you want to be a model, you have to look good at a lot of angles.

No matter how great the setup, lighting and everything the photo will not work if you are DEAD in the eyes. We need to make sure that our eyes tell a story, our eyes show some soul, our eyes exude power and that can be done through SMIZING. A SMIZE is a word made by Tyra Banks in the show. If you are an ANTM fan, there is no way you haven't heard that magical word. SMIZE means smiling with your eyes, it is done by squinting your eyes a bit to put more intensity in it. If you have mastered the art of SMIZE already, it is easy to do it anytime, anywhere but if you still haven't, here are some ways to do it. For Tyra, a SMIZE can be done by thinking of a memory that makes you happy to make the SMIZE come out. Your eyes will smile with the memory you are thinking but you also have to make sure that your mouth stays relax. For some models, they imagine their boyfriend/girlfriend in front of them naked oooppss. I'm not really sure how it brings out the SMIZE but it really works for them. For me, I do the SMIZE by making use of the light, when light hits your eyes, it squints and your SMIZE will be natural. Another advantage of this is, the light will help your eyes glow because the light will be reflected in your eyes which will make it even more powerful. If a light is not available, I look at a far object or the lens of the camera and set my eye focused on that. The focus can help your eyes have a sharp SMIZE which can definitely elevate your photos.

Have you noticed that all the mannequins that you see at the malls have long necks? Because a long neck make you look so elegant and expensive and makes you very marketable which is a work of a model to be marketable and to be able to sell products. This is why those clothes that you bought didn’t look good on you but looked freaking amazing worn by the mannequin. Neck dear, it’s the neck. But not most of us are blessed with long neck, how can we make the illusion of having a long neck in a picture to make ourselves look elegant and fierce?

This is simply done by throwing your shoulders to the back and moving your face forward. This will create an illusion of a longer, thinner neck. Doing a chin up can also make you have a long neck in a picture. This one is really advantageous for someone who has a huge forehead because a chin up can make your forehead smaller and at the same time makes your neck look longer.

Taking a picture is a dance and the camera is your dance partner. In a dance you have to keep in mind the position of your dance partner and be aware of your position against his/hers to create a gracefully synchronized dance. This is also exactly the case in photography. You have to always keep in mind where the camera is and what part of your body will be captured. You also have to consider the size of a specific body part if you take it near or far from the camera in relationship with your other body parts.

Now to explain this better, here is a picture of a common mistake that people do and I usually see this picture all over social media. This is definitely the most common pose when someone sees a wall hahaha.

The trend in modelling now is looking natural but not too natural that you don’t look like a model. If that makes sense. Basically it is about doing less in a picture. It is about relaxing and not over-posing. I find this really cool but personally it doesn’t make me go crazy, I am still into high-fashion modelling poses that really look interesting and extreme. But when posing we most of the time run out of ideas on what poses to do next. The best tip for this is to think of your pains and pose with that pain but make it pretty. Those aches can be anything; Stomachache, headache, toothache, heartache, backache. It is literally everything.


To better illustrate this, here are some pictures :