Shooting flattering photos of more ample people.

<p>Hi all.</p>

<p>I'm only a few months into photography, but already being asked to take portrait photos of friends. I'm enjoying it immensely, but as quite a few are what you would call ample or curvaceous, I'm hoping to glean some insight into how one could try take more flattering photos. I am starting to develop some insights, but any advice and guidance would be very helpful.<br>

Things I'm looking for are flattering poses, how to use lighting to help, even down to tips on outfits and settings.<br>

At this time I'm pretty much working on location as such, and don't have much in the line of extra lighting.<br>

Many thanks.</p>

<p>Wayne</p>

 

<p>Wayne,</p>

<p>I assume by ample or curvaceous you are not talking bust size so much as obesity. I was taught to use a lot of shadow. You want to hide as much of them as you can. Flat lighting can make them appear even larger. Just like any girl, you don't want to pose them straight on to the camera. Angled is slimming. Short lighting and shadows is the key.</p>

<p>Do a little googling and you will find lots of information on trying to make over weight people look good. It really isn't very easy. I would try to stick with close-up or semi-close-ups rather than full body shots if possible. Posing them outdoors where part of them is behind something, like a tree, will help. Obviously, you don't want to have them wear bright colors or bold patterns. No horizontal stripes. Dark colors would be best. You don't want to draw any attention to their bodies. Keep the viewer's attention on their face. This is true of any portrait.</p>

<p>Good luck,</p>

<p>Mark</p>

<p>If they're merely robust and look fairly slim in profile, you can shoot with lower torso in profile and upper torso rotated toward the camera, so that the lower torso looks slimmer by contrast. If they're more than robust and can't suck it up, you can break out the Liquefy filter or let them decide that they're Comfortable In Their Skin.<br>

There is also the matter of choosing a fairly wide angle, shooting closeup, and using foreshortening. Body regions closer to the camera will loom larger than regions further away. This also can create miniscule ears and noses like lighthouses, so you want to use a moderate wide-angle and choose a flattering angle for the face.</p>

<p>Double post--sorry!</p>

<p>Maybe is irrelevant, but if you are taking portraits of more than one person, try to partially cover the body of the obese person with a slimmer person. This helps a lot with groups.</p>

<p>There are several ways that the "camera" can be used to slim a wide subject. The first would be to always shoot people, especially wide ones. At an angle to the lens. This cannot be stressed enough. A subject should have front and rear shoulders, not right and left shoulders! The obvious reason here is that people are narrower when they stand sideways, than when they are straight to the lens. So a compromise is a 45` angle. This is portraiture 101 stuff. In fact the only place you'll see people shot straight on, is at the DMV or the police station.</p>

<p>The next rule of thumb would be to shoot from a slightly high camera angle. The psychological effect here is that objects are made to appear smaller. Shooting from a low angle, does in fact produce the opposite effect, and makes things look larger.</p>

<p>We next must look at lighting.In portraiture we normally use either "broad" or "short" lighting techniques. Both have to do with the direction that the main light comes from, in relation to the lens. In "short" lighting, the plane of the face away from the lens gets the main light. This narrows wide faces. This type of lighting is used for almost all subjects in portrait work. Except when it's opposite "broad" lighting is employed to intentionally widen faces.</p>

<p>Next we will talk about lenses. Portrait lenses are always longer focal length than normal lenses. This requires a longer distance between subject and lens. And has the effect of narrowing heads and faces. being close with a short lens, will make heads appear more "globe like".</p>

<p>Last item is again psychological somewhat. Or actually has to do with the psychological effects of "perspective". Having the thinner people near the lens, makes the wider people appear smaller. At weddings with a wide bride, the thinner groom nearer the lens,makes the wider bride look smaller. With a couple you can hide the wider person's body, behind the narrower person's body. This works great with pictures of couples, singular or in groups.</p>

<p>Google "Joe Zeltsman". His online portrait lessons cover other parts of your question.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Thx for the feedback guys. Honestly never thought to google this.<br>

Good to see I had some of these things right so far. So now to work on the rest.</p>

<p>I have always asked my Butcher to do it for me.</p>

<p>I have always asked my Butcher to do it for me.<br>

<img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/8705193-lg.jpg" alt="" width="649" height="451" /></p>

<p>Take your photograph from above the person and consider making it at a 45 degree angle.</p>

<p>Taking the photo from above the person (With the lens at least at their eye height or higher) removes all of the problem shadows under the neck and just slims their face in general.</p>