Posing... A problem

[MS Photography]

I have recently started doing portrait photography and have found myself struggling with posing people and having some basic idea and understanding on what tends to look good. I understand that this take a tone of practice, but wondering if anyone has a few tips or tricks or resources for me. Thank you

[brettb]

I know where you are coming from, but honestly the best advice I can offer you is to just take pictures... lots of pictures.

I have the same problem so have just been snapping like crazy. The one thing I have noticed though is that the shots I think wont work... usually end up looking the best. I guess I still have to get my head around it all.

I'm no pro, so my tips are pretty basic but I'll give it a shot anyway.
* While learning, cut out all the things that might cause problems. The biggest thing for me was dealing with lack of light / worrying about shadow / reflections etc. It took a while to dawn on me that I should just concentrate on taking pictures before worrying about all that extra stuff. So I made sure all the shots I took where in a well lit room / in sunlight.

* I find that front on photos just don't work for me. Try angles, both horizontal and vertical, and also try subtle things like having the person look away / tilt their head / etc.

* The first few times I asked the person to just stand / sit however they want. Pretend they were at home watching tv or reading a book or something. Then I would move around taking the photos. This probably isn't so effective in the long run but I found it was a good way to get over the "how should I pose" type questions... which at the time I had no idea how to answer.

That's about all I have at the moment. I only started taking portrait type shots about 2 weeks ago so I'm still learning myself.

Hope this helps, in some way

cheers

[kencaleno]

Learn from the best there ever was-Joe Zeltsman 16 chapters on classic portrait photography at
http://jzportraits.home.att.net/

[AnneWynne]

Just came from a SouthEastern Professional Photographers Convention and learned a lot about posing. Some tips:
Avoid horizonal lines...makes the posing boring. Pay attention to the "pairs" of each figure (eyes, knees, feet, shoulders, etc) and move them slightly to avoid straight lines.

Use blocking with body features (arms, hands, legs), other people, foreground objects, etc, to make your subjects (especially the women) look their best.

Think in terms of diagonals, triangles, diamonds, and ovals in posing groups. You can have a variety of "shapes" in a large group.

Look at the old masters and how they compose their portraits.

My head is still reeling from all of the information I gained and I cannot wait to get out there and try it. Since it is still so new to me and untried, I may not be very clear in conveying the tips, but I hope it still helps.

AnneWynnd

[oldwolf]

Get magazines and rip out the pages. Put them in a binder and use it as a reference later on.

Here are a few tips also.

If it bends then bend it. Just slightly though unless an extreme bend is what you're after or a straight limb is what you're after. Straight limbs look unnatural.

Don't put any opposite joints on the same plane. For example, if the model is standing squarely facing you and you notice that their shoulders are even the have them tilt one shoulder down or up. Symmetry is nice in body building but not photography for some reason. Well, unless you're taking pictures of body builders but even then you'd probably still want one shoulder higher than the other. Anyway, the opposing joints thing goes for just about anything. Shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, knees, ankles. You don't want them to form a straight line that's parallel to any of the sides of the frame.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. When we go on shoots, models or regular people, we bring our binder with us that has pages torn out of a magazine. This gives people and idea of how to stand or how to look when we're trying to explain something to them.

It takes practice though. Lots of it. Good luck.

[candleman]

Originally Posted by kencaleno

Learn from the best there ever was-Joe Zeltsman 16 chapters on classic portrait photography at
http://jzportraits.home.att.net/

100% agree.. by far the best resource i've found. pitty Ken posted it first..

*waves bye bye to the glory*

[AlexisM]

I love the advice that oldwolf offered, and I also wanted to add that I have found that people often look good when photographed from above. It eliminates things like double chins, etc.

[LoveDSLR]

Originally Posted by oldwolf

Get magazines and rip out the pages. Put them in a binder and use it as a reference later on.

Agreed! You can keep up with the trend too. pbase.com and photo.net also have some inspirational samples.

[hiccup42]

Originally Posted by AlexisM

I love the advice that oldwolf offered, and I also wanted to add that I have found that people often look good when photographed from above. It eliminates things like double chins, etc.

However, it also emphasises receeding hairlines and large foreheads..

[Steve@C4]

Originally Posted by kencaleno

Learn from the best there ever was-Joe Zeltsman 16 chapters on classic portrait photography at
http://jzportraits.home.att.net/

It is tips like this that will forever concrete in my mind that DPS is the finest site with the broadest knowledge base. BAR NONE.

Thanks Ken for the great link.