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Tips for posing your subject during a photo session

September 7, 2019 Neil vN 5 Comments

Tips for posing your subject during a photo session

Too often, when I am being photographed, I notice one major flaw in how the other photographer interacts with me during the photo session -- they lose connection. They will take a shot, and then spend too long checking the image. Then after that, every other shot is interrupted by looking at the playback screen. Not only is it annoying to the person being photographed - the continuity is lost. Using this photo of Rozalinda as an example - while she looks magnificent, and is supremely easy to pose and interact with, it depends on  Read more inside...

Tips on posing hands

February 27, 2016 Neil vN 8 Comments

Tips on posing hands

This portrait of my friend Christy, was shot in my studio - the lighting entirely from the globes circling the make-up table. In fact, if you look closely, you can see the ring of lights circling the iris of her eyes. Now, as drop-dead gorgeous as Christy is, it is also a running joke between us that she is tough to pose. She isn't a model, so hasn't built up the experience or repertoire of poses yet to naturally glide into a pose in front of the camera. So it needs me to pose her or adjust her pose along the way. In the case of her hands, it needed  Read more inside...

Posing tip – Check the wrists and hands

May 28, 2013 Neil vN 6 Comments

Posing tip - Check the wrists and hands

In posing, a good tip is to have the wrists and hands form a kind of S-curve instead of being straight. While this photograph works for me,  and I really like the composition and her direct gaze into the camera ... I should've guided Anelisa to bend her left wrist (the hand closer to her cheek), a bit more. That would've made her gesture a touch more elegant in this photograph at the top. Of course, in analyzing your photographs closely, there is (nearly) always something to pick up on how you could've improved the final image. Here is  Read more inside...

How to pose people for portraits

May 29, 2011 Neil vN 33 Comments

How to pose people for portraits

When you work with models, or subjects who are used to presenting themselves to the camera or an audience, it is much easier for the photographer to pose them. The challenge though is how to pose people who aren't used to pose in front of the camera. Then it is up to the photographer to guide them, and give clear instruction how they should pose for the camera. The question just came up in the Tangents forum - how to pose everyday normal people. The photograph above is of me as I was showing a model at the After Dark photography workshops how I  Read more inside...

tips on posing people / working with a model

November 10, 2010 Neil vN 23 Comments

tips for posing people / working with a model

So you have a great camera and lens; and someone who is willing to be photographed and willing to work with you; and you have a great idea for a setting or backdrop ... but now what? Posing your subject is something that can be quite intimidating to a newer photographer.  The pressure is now on YOU to create magic .. or at least an arresting image. Leaving everything up to the model or your subject to do, or for them to come up with ideas ... while you just click the shutter, makes you just an owner of a camera, and not a  Read more inside...

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