Poses

[wesleyfarnsworth]

Ok I found someone that would be willing to pose/model for me. I'm thinking of taking her downtown in the park with

all the colors. Anyone have tips on poses? This will be my first attempt at doing anything like this. Any tips?

 

Thanks!

[dmanthree]

I have no idea how to pose people, so I scour magazines, find a few that look suitable, and copy them or modify them to suit my needs. Yes, it's sort of cheating. But it works.

[mark_chartrand]

Wesley,

 

You are not very specific about what type of shots you are after, but as a start I would follow David's idea. Look at pictures

on the Internet or in books - find what you like - notice the lighting, background, hands, legs, arms, expression, etc. See

what you like about the photograph and see if you can do something similar until you gain some confidence. Show the

pictures to your model. Work with her as a team. She will feel more comfortable (and so will you) if you are honest about

your inexperience. Tell her how lucky you feel to be working with such a beautiful girl and that you're sure you can make

some great photographs with her help.

 

Mark

[seismiccwave]

Have you try typing in "Modeling poses" on Google? I tried and there were a lot of hits.

[iliafarniev]

nice hat usually halps

[ted_springer]

There are definitely do's and don'ts for posing..If it's something that interests you, I would get a book on the subject. Otherwise,

David's suggestion is good. Looking through Vogue or Vanity Fair. Checking out 5-6 pictures that you like. Mark the pages,

and bring the magazine with you to the shoot. This way you can show your model the pic in the mag. They really appreciate it

when you do that. it makes it easier for them to pose :)

[steve_robb1]

When I was a teenager gettign into photography, I remember my Dad wrote out a simple list with Do's and Don'ts of portraits. I think I've actually still got it tucked in a back pocket of one of my camera bags (Yes, still have -and use- a bag I bought when I was fifteen, now that's durability, considering how cheap it was!).

 

Just off the top of my head I can remember a couple, like watching out for bent wrists, as they can end up looking like your model actually has a broken wrist! Ummm, keep an eye on fingers too, showing the full length of the fingers, with them close together can make them look like a bunch of banana's (Actually, so I'm led to believe, this is the reason why cartoon characters generally only have 4 fingers... some useless trivia for you...).

 

If I think of any more I'll post back with them, they're all things that soon become second nature to scan the viewfinder for, but it's always handy to have them written down to refresh yuorself not and then.

 

Joe Zeltsman is a classic, traditional portrait photographer, his site has lots of info, can be a bit of hard going if yo utry to read through it all though (or so I found). However, he goes right back to the basics and explains WHY certain shots work. It's a great site to plough through on a rainy day :P

 

<a href=http://jzportraits.home.att.net/

>Classic Portraiture</a>

[steve_robb1]

Bah, well, there's ONE way to screw up a html tag!

 

http://jzportraits.home.att.net/