6 Techniques for Directing Non-Professional Subjects to Get Natural Expressions

When I am working with someone who is not used to being photographed or filmed, I try not to direct their expression too much because the moment you say “look natural” or “give me a bigger smile,” people usually become more self-conscious. Instead, I focus on giving them something to do or think about so their attention moves away from the camera. I will keep the conversation going, ask them to interact with something in the environment, walk into position rather than stand perfectly still, or speak to someone just outside the frame. My favorite technique is to ask a question that creates a genuine emotional response and then keep shooting through the answer. It might be something as simple as asking them to tell me about the funniest thing that happened at work recently or how they felt when they landed their first major client. The important part is that I am not really photographing the answer; I am looking for the half-second before or after it, when they stop performing for the camera and their real expression appears. I also avoid constantly stopping to review every shot because that can make non-professional subjects start analysing their face, posture and hands. Once they become too aware of how they look, it becomes much harder to get something authentic. I would rather create a relaxed rhythm, give small adjustments when necessary, and capture movement between the poses. In my experience, the best direction often does not feel like direction at all. You create the conditions for a genuine reaction, stay ready for it, and let the subject forget for a moment that there is a camera in front of them.

I direct non-professional subjects by making the viewer a co-creator instead of treating the clip like a performance. My favorite prompt is a simple invite at the top of the video—a playful hook, a short beat, or a direct question that asks the viewer to join in. That shift in frame gives people permission to respond naturally rather than trying to act. In my selfie-style LinkedIn clips, this approach turns awkwardness into warmth and creates a more authentic connection.

Nobody is natural when they think they’re being tested. I sat for an interview recently and the single thing that made it easy was getting the questions in advance. I wasn’t performing, I was answering things I had already thought about.

The other thing that helped was nobody trying to fix every imperfection. Partway through, my virtual background gave out and my closet was suddenly on camera. We left it. It turned the whole thing into a conversation instead of a production, and I relaxed.

For nonprofits filming volunteers or families, the technique that works is asking for one specific moment rather than a summary. Nobody sounds real answering why our mission matters. But ask a parent about the day their kid found out about the trip and you get something you couldn’t have scripted. Not long ago my cousin messaged me on WhatsApp because her daughter’s school was raising money for a trip to Japan, and the excitement in that message was the whole story. Ask for the moment, then stay quiet long enough for the person to find it.

I should say up front that I am a brand founder who films his own team and product content rather than a photographer by trade. What I have is a lot of hours pointing a camera at people who did not want to be in front of one.

The thing that works is giving someone a task instead of an expression. Ask a person to look natural and you get a face doing an impression of looking natural. Ask them to pack an order, or explain the difference between two things they handle every day, and the face sorts itself out because their attention has gone somewhere else.

The second thing is never announcing the end. Most people hold a slight performance until they believe the camera has stopped, and the moment after they relax is where the usable material lives. So I keep rolling through the reset and the small talk.

We filmed a member of our fulfilment team explaining how orders get packed. Stiff for the whole formal section. Then he started grumbling about a supplier’s boxes, unprompted, and that became the piece we used. We kept about 40 seconds from a morning of footage, and all of it came after he thought we were done.

My favourite prompt is simply: tell me what people get wrong about this.

During my 6-year experience of working with non-professionals, the main evolution in capturing true expression was the removal of any use of the word “smile,” which usually results in fake and unnatural expressions. In my experience, the most effective way of capturing genuine expression is through asking an unpredictable question in the very same instant that I take the photograph. For instance, one of the questions that I might ask could be something along the lines of, “What is the strangest food that you like?”

Additionally, another strategy that I use is spending 10–15 minutes talking to my subject without once mentioning the camera. This method resulted in a decrease in the number of retakes of almost 50% in one shoot with 9 non-professional subjects and a 75% preference among customers for the candid shots.

I guide non-professional subjects to natural expressions by using the Intonetic Method, which centers on identifying specific problematic sounds and building muscle memory. I begin with ‘detective work’ to compare how they currently move their mouth and how the target sounds should feel. My favorite technique is targeted, guided repetition of those specific sounds within a personalized plan so the movements become automatic. That reduces conscious effort and lets natural expression emerge as the speaker accesses the new speech patterns without overthinking.