{"id":28868,"date":"2015-06-08T17:53:59","date_gmt":"2015-06-08T21:53:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/?p=28868"},"modified":"2020-07-14T00:35:45","modified_gmt":"2020-07-14T04:35:45","slug":"posing-people-tips-improving-portrait-photographs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/posing-people-tips-improving-portrait-photographs\/","title":{"rendered":"Posing people: Tips for improving your portrait photos"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"posing<\/p>\n

Posing people: Tips for improving your portrait photos<\/h1>\n

Throughout the numerous articles on the Tangents blog, I’m often asked about how I go about posing people. I’ve described some of it in the article,\u00a0adjusting a pose with incremental changes<\/a>. Instead of a traditional way of posing, it’s mostly a “feel” thing, looking at my subject and seeing if there are elements that could be better balanced. This studio portrait of a model,\u00a0Adrienne<\/a><\/strong>, doesn’t follow rigid guidelines of formal portraiture. Her shoulder is a little scrunched up, and\u00a0her head is tilted to the side. Yet, to my eyes, this works. There’s a “looseness” to it. Yet, I did adjust a few\u00a0things before firing the shutter.<\/p>\n

That is a constant for me – I wouldn’t just fire off frames without being at least partially satisfied how my subject appears in the frame. It’s that delicate balance between maintaining spontaneity (and capturing some of the real personality of your subject), and controlling what you see in your frame. Just firing off frames\u00a0will rarely give\u00a0you many successful images.<\/p>\n

For all that though, the moment and expression trumps technical perfection. It’s not an excuse to not<\/strong>\u00a0put in the effort to\u00a0excel —\u00a0it’s permission to be okay with a photograph that is awesome despite\u00a0what might technically be seen as flaws.<\/p>\n

In posing someone, there are a few things I immediately look out for:<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/p>\n

This photograph shows a few of the things I try to avoid when posing people:<\/p>\n