Posing Help for a beginner

[chauncey_huffman]

<p>I am a beginner in the field of portraits, and I'm looking for a little help with posing. I have an outdoor session coming up this weekend for a 3 person family. These three people are a mom and her two kids. I wouldn't really worry too much about it, but they are all drastically different from each other, and I'm wondering if there are some creative ways to pose/position them. The mom is about 5'2" medium build, her daughter is about 5'10" large build, and her son is only 6 years old, probably about 4'-4'6" something like that. Maybe I'm making too much of it, but in my mind a lot of poses would look best if the parent is the largest person, since her daughter is much bigger than her I'm having a hard time figuring out some poses. Are there any resources online for posing? If so, I haven't been able to find them. I would appreciate any help that I could get.</p>

[melissa_sievers]

<p>I'm not an expert, but have a couple ideas...<br>

Are you in a studio or outside? You could have the daughter sit, the son stand by her and have the mom stand just behind them with hands on their shoulders. Tweak their position to look warm and like an embrace.<br>

You could put the camera on a tripod and place the mom closer to the camera, the daughter a little bit back and the son in front. You could stagger them in the frame a bit and use a small aperture to have everyone in sharp focus. This wouldn't be the main photo, but I've done stuff like this with larger families by placing the smaller children closer to the camera and have parents in the background. You can still position them so that they look like the belong together and aren't alienating themselves from each other. You just have to place some tricks on the eye as far as space and their relationship to each other.<br>

If you have a bar stool, have the mom sit on that, son in front and daughter to side or something.<br>

Get some apple boxes for subjects to stand on to level out the height and take a head and shoulders shot.<br>

Have them all sitting on the ground and pose them together.<br>

Really, seating them all would work well.<br>

Those are just a few ideas.</p>

[chauncey_huffman]

<p>Thank you very much, seating them was my main idea. I definitely need to get some boxes or something for them to stand on to even things out a bit. I'll be sure to use your suggestions. By the way, the session will be entirely outdoors.</p>

[steve_levine]

<p>Try here: http://jzportraits.home.att.net/</p>

<p>The link is to Joe Zeltsman's portrait lessons. His classical style is somewhat dated. But the principles of lighting and angles etc, are timeless. He explains how people are best flattered onto a 2 dimensional print. It's up to you avoid making the images resemble "mall" photography (Sears,Olan Mills etc).</p>

[www.philwinterphotography.]

<p>I had to get up to speed on some portrait techniques for a shoot yesterday, and I found this site very helpful. <a href="http://lumitouch.com/benstudiotutorial/index.html">http://lumitouch.com/benstudiotutorial/index.html</a></p>

[owen_s]

<p>have the daughter seated and the child on a step stool, make sure the mom is the tallest in the photo; even if that means she is standing on a ladder</p>

[gdstough]

<p>When shooting an outdoor portrait session, I like to have the subjects interact with each other naturally and just capture those relaxed moments. Sometimes this is easier than trying to put them into poses that may not be comfortable for them, or that may be a little awkward. The results of the unposed shots are usually much more pleasing to the subjects when they see the final product.<br>

Another idea is to have the children bring a favorite item to use as a prop. Sometimes having a familiar object to hold can put them at ease.</p>