![](\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/images\/models\/alix\/Alix_9796.jpg\")
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There is this translation we have to do as photographers, from seeing in 3 dimensions, to realizing our images will be shown in 2 dimension. We might see the depth, but that information is mostly missing when the scene is flattened as a photograph. This is a stumbling block when we pose people – we might see their limbs and hands in 3 dimensions, but when your subjects hands extend towards you, there is foreshortening. The perspective changes, and makes the limbs look shorter than they are. This can be visually awkward.<\/p>\n
Look at the photo below, Alix<\/a>, our model, has her hands extended towards us on the table. This creates that foreshortening of her arms, which make her fore-arms look awkwardly short.<\/p>\n We can avoid this by having our subject pose their hands and arms (and legs) in a plane that is approximately parallel to the camera. For example, as in the other three photographs shown here. I had Alix pose with her hands and arms parallel to herself, and not extend them to the camera.<\/p>\n Sure, if the pose warrants that look – arms extended to the camera for a dynamic pose – then go for it. Do it with purpose. Generally however, we want to avoid that foreshortening effect.<\/p>\n That is it in a nutshell – pose your subject so that their hands and limbs are more or less parallel to the camera. A straightforward tip on posing that will help you avoid awkward looking photos.<\/p>\n And here’s the awkwardly posed photo as an example:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Below you can immediately see the improvement with this repositioning of her hands:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I photographed Alix at the mirrored dressing table in the studio, using only the lights encircling the mirror. For these photos\u00a0I used a loaner copy of the stellar\u00a0Zeiss Batis 85mm f\/1.8<\/a> \u00a0(B&H<\/em><\/a> \/ Amazon<\/em><\/a>). It’s razor-sharp, as you’d expect from any Zeiss optic.<\/p>\n The Batis range of lenses by Zeiss are specifically designed to offer auto-focus with the Sony E-mount cameras. However, I used it in manual focus mode on my\u00a0Sony A7ii\u00a0camera<\/a> (B&H<\/em><\/a> \/ Amazon<\/a><\/em>).\u00a0The Sony and Zeiss combo generally nails the focus perfectly … but I didn’t want to risk it grabbing the eyebrows or some other part of her features. So with a photo session where the focus is more exacting because of such a shallow depth-of-field, then the manual focus (in the way the Sony handles it), works better for me.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Posing tips: Avoid foreshortening by seeing two-dimensionally There is this translation we have to do as photographers, from seeing in 3 dimensions, to realizing our images will be shown in 2 dimension. We might see the depth, but that information is mostly missing when the scene is flattened as a photograph. This is a stumbling Read more inside…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39832,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2335,24,125,5034],"tags":[882,5038,5036,5037,5035],"yst_prominent_words":[1116,5061,5074,5052,5044,1115,1021,5078,5073,5051,5043,5075,5053,5060,5058,4000,7643,7642,6574,6573],"class_list":{"0":"post-39829","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-alix","8":"category-models","9":"category-posing","10":"category-zeiss","11":"tag-posing","12":"tag-posing-hands","13":"tag-sony-a7ii","14":"tag-zeiss-batis","15":"tag-zeiss-lenses","16":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39829"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39829"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39829\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42239,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39829\/revisions\/42239"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39829"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=39829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/images\/models\/alix\/Alix_9788.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/images\/models\/alix\/Alix_9790.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/images\/models\/alix\/Alix_9798.jpg\")
<\/p>\nCamera settings & Photo gear (or equivalents) used during this shoot<\/h2>\n
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