To the OP:
I think a lot of newbies get too excited when they start shooting portraits... esp if the newbies are guys and the models are girls. It takes a lot of discipline to shoot beautiful members of the opposite sex and my experience is that not be overwhelmed by the beautiful girl in front of you.
One of my early mistakes was that i was too caught up with the model. I was rushing to get the pose correct and I was literally staring at her face, hoping for that perfect pose to come out and i will take the photo. And the truth was that never really happens, unless you are working with a really top model who knows her stuff.
What needs to be done is to realise that you have to work very hard to represent a beautiful model as a beautiful photo. This means your exposure must be spot on, your background must either not be distracting or interacts positively with the model. You must also make sure that there are no glaring mistakes like bad makeup or stray hair. Does this sound like a lot? It sure does if you are looking out for these things when you are just about to press the shutter. The more efficient way of working is to put down the camera, and make sure everything is perfect. This is a model shoot and the model is there for you to pose, you have plenty of time. Trust me, if you get the basic rights first, you dont have to care about it when you are looking through the viewfinder. Once you get all the things right, you pick up the camera... and then you direct the model over the finer details of the pose, like chin up... chin down, smile more... etc... and then SNAP.... that is it.
Personally, for a typical model shoot, i will actually come up with a list and rough sketch of what i want and stick to it. Like for example, the second shot where the model is in the water at the beach. Now you shot such a picture, you know what to look for.
So before you even touch your camera, find the perfect place to put the model. Check for the background... is it too cluttered? Take a few test photos.... get the exposure correct... and then shoot in Manual.
Next, before even placing the model at the location, look and stare at her. Check from top to bottom. Hair messy? Stray Mascara? Blackhead? Pimple? Eye Bags? Lip stick? Stray hair on body? clothes not worn properly? If you can do something to change something... do it now... do say "I will PS it later on"... that is being asking for more work.
Okay, your model is perfect, place her at the location... again stare and check if after moving her... got stray hair again? again check background... see if interferes with your photo or not...
Bring up the camera, Take a test pose... check your exposure and stare at it for a while.... Think of everything.... imagine if you had no photoshop... will you be happy with the photo as it is?
Finally, once you know your camera is set correctly to the get the perfect exposure, your background is placed correctly and is not distracting (like a tree branch that extend out of the model's ear... big mistake, but easy to fix), your model is prepped correctly (hair, makeup clothes...etc everything OK)... you can now focuse your attention on the most difficult part... getting the right pose and expression.
I know this sound very boring and seems like a waste of time. But from my experience, if you discpline yourself to do all this pre-shooting preparation, you end up with a more fruitful shooting session. If you have like 5 other people shooting with you, they can all help to prep the model and location correctly. If you keep on shooting like this, after a while, it become very very natural and it will be very fast.
Remember, you are shooting a photo shoot. The model and the background is there for you to play around with. There is simply no excuse for bad exposure, stray hair, bad background etc... seriously.
