Posing Tips for Portraits - Shoulders
When taking head shot and upper body portraits of people one simple posing tip that I’ve picked up over the years is to angle the shoulders of your subject rather than to have them even or squared in your shot.
While the shoulders might not seem like an important aspect of a portrait they can actually set the tone for an image as they’re the widest part of your subject and they are visually what the main point of focus for your image (the head) is sitting upon.
Genearlly speaking, angling the shoulders slightly gives you shot balance and helps lead your viewer’s eye into the shot towards your main focal point. It also stops your subject seeming out of proportion as it lessons the width of the shoulders slightly.
Getting this effect might mean actually getting your subject to lean in one direction or another or it could simply mean getting them to turn their body a little so you’re not photographing them directly front on. Another technique can be to frame your subject slightly off center so that one shoulder is actually out of the frame.
Some believe that in positioning your subjects shoulders make the one closest to camera the lower of the two - but I’ve found that you can get an interesting effect by doing it the other way around too.
Of course - this isn’t a hard and fast rule and sometimes the completely front on symmetrical shot can leave a shot can have a very powerful (and often confronting) impact upon your readers also. So as always - experiment with posing your subject in a variety of ways and see what works best for you and your subject.
Check out more discussion on Portrait Photography check out the Photographing People Section in our Forums.
Here are a few shots that illustrate some of the different ways to angle shoulders to avoid the front on look.
Read more posts like 'Posing Tips for Portraits - Shoulders'
Digital Photography School is Digg proof thanks to caching by WP Super Cache!
January 25th, 2008 at 1:05 am
Great tips, Scott Kelby’s The Digital Photography Book Volume 2 goes into this a bit as well.
January 25th, 2008 at 1:35 am
Interesting stuff. Have to experiment with my friends now ^_^
January 25th, 2008 at 6:32 am
Thanks for this. I had not thought about how my subjects shoulders play into things. Great food for thought.
January 25th, 2008 at 6:37 am
Thanks for the tips!!
January 25th, 2008 at 6:39 am
Great tips, can’t wait to take some shot considering these tips.
January 25th, 2008 at 8:49 am
Another benefit is that it tends to make the subjest look a little thinner which can be greatly appreciated.
Have read this in Kelby’s book also.
January 25th, 2008 at 9:29 am
Excellent tip. I was wondering what was missing from my portraits. Thanks for sharing! =)
January 25th, 2008 at 9:58 am
I agree with Pete, Kelby’s new photography book does have a very good chapter on portrait photography. Shoulders are certainly an area where you can mess pictures up.
January 25th, 2008 at 6:43 pm
I have studied a fast digital course in a school, and what I remember from the course over portret is that this name can be used only for people and the subject need to have an eye contact with the fotographer; so the others all call close up´s. what do you thing about it?
January 26th, 2008 at 12:17 am
That’s a great tip, I have taken lots of photos for others and now I’m going to have to go back and look at those!
Thanks!!!
January 26th, 2008 at 1:06 am
Check out the portraits i was asked to take for my bosses office wall:
http://www.fraserwaters.co.uk/08/set.html?setid=72157603453647718
All lit with a single nikon strobe through an umbrella.
I’m really getting into the portrait photography…
January 26th, 2008 at 1:23 am
Sorry link should be:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dirtyone30/sets/72157603453647718/
My site is not quite ready yet…
January 26th, 2008 at 1:39 am
I have never really been good at taking pictures of people.
But thanks for the tip, I’m sure I can improve this way.
January 26th, 2008 at 1:51 am
The photos are incredible - thank you for the point of view. Portraits are not my strong point and I want to change that and this post really helped me to see what works! The photos don’t look “posed” but natural.
January 27th, 2008 at 12:51 am
The photo by stoneth has a lot of power to it’ Love it
January 27th, 2008 at 3:14 am
I thank for very good advice .I can imrove this way .
Thank You Sir.
January 27th, 2008 at 6:44 pm
does this work?? http://mykodak.blogspot.com/2008/01/sugar-and-spice.html
January 31st, 2008 at 1:34 am
I used to wonder why during studio shots the photographer would ask the subject to sit with one shoulder down!
January 31st, 2008 at 1:39 am
Here’s one I took of my 9-year old cousin.
http://edwinlouella.multiply.com/photos/album/85/We_celebrate_my_grandmas_70th_birthday_in_Tagaytay#38