Factors That Impact Posing

Posing is about crafting the desired results, not settling for contrived confusion. The wrong pose can send the wrong message to the viewer. It can also cause the subject to feel insecure during the shoot or when viewing the end result. In glamour, beauty, and nude photography, posing should convey a message and, in most cases, tell the viewer something about the subject. Use the wrong pose, the wrong light for the pose, the wrong clothes for the pose, or the wrong scene for the pose, and you’ll wind up with the wrong image—usually an uninspiring image that no one will want to purchase or publish.

Introduction

Over the past seven years I’ve taught almost three-hundred glamour, beauty, and nude photography workshops and seminars from Maui to the Virgin Islands, from Europe and Mexico to Canada, and throughout the United States. At these classes, the most commonly asked question is, “How do I pose a model?” That’s a tough question to answer; as in most genres of photography, there are infinite possibilities when it comes to posing a model for a glamour, beauty, or nude image. However, there are fundamentals that come into play, concepts and principles that help a photographer manage those infinite possibilities. These principles are like a road map that will lead to wellposed subjects.

Project for Individual Study: Learn to Retouch

If you'll be taking many portraits, one thing you'll want to learn for sure is how to retouch your pictures digitally. Few people are so great looking that their photographs can be used as is with no modification. Do you really think Sharon Stone or Keanu Reeves look like that when they get up in the morning? Unless your subjects have Hollywood make-up artists at their beck and call, it's likely you'll need to optimize some of their physical features when you take the photos (perhaps using the lighting techniques described in this chapter), or do some work on their images later on.

Retouching photographs in Photoshop or another image editor is a lot of fun, not too difficult, and is certainly easier than when I started in photography and retouching artists were just that: artisan specialists skilled with brush and knife, who knew a bit of photographic chemistry that came in handy when bleaching or restoring colors.

Posing and Shooting

Posing is another topic that's worth a book or two of its own. I'm going to provide a list of quick tips you can use in this section, but your best bet is to experiment with different poses and find some that you like. Work with those poses at first, try some variations, and add more poses as you become comfortable. Just keep in mind that your goal is not to use your subject as a mannequin that you can bend and twist any way you like. It's better to let the subject assume a pose that he or she is comfortable with. Then, you can make slight adjustments that reposition awkward limbs or produce better facial expressions.

The important thing is that your victim(s) must be relaxed and comfortable. The days when portrait subjects had to be immobilized in head braces for their daguerreotypes are long past. Don't make them stand for anything other than a full-length portrait. Stools make a great seat because they discourage slouching. An individual can sit tall in a stool, alert and ready to take your direction. Because they have no backs, stools won't intrude upon your picture, either. But don't be afraid to use other kinds of resting places, or from incorporating them into the photo.

Outdoor Lighting

You can apply virtually all the techniques you learned in the studio to your outdoors portraits. Once you've mastered short lighting, broad lighting, butterfly lighting, and the rest of the basic setups, you can use them outdoors by being flexible enough to work with the less controllable lighting you find there.

For example, you might have to position your subject to take advantage of the position of the sun as a "main" light, and use reflectors to create your fill. A search for some shady spot might be required to provide a soft enough light source. The sun might end up as your hair light. Figure 6.31 shows an outdoor portrait lit entirely with available light, using reflectors to fill in the shadows.

Figure 6.31. Using sunlight, reflectors, and other aids, you can duplicate good studio lighting, such as this portrait, outdoors.

Lighting Techniques

Although I'll describe each of the most common lighting techniques, you'll want to set up some lights and see for yourself exactly how they work.

Short Lighting

Short lighting and broad lighting (discussed next) are two different sides of the same coin. Together, they are sometimes referred to as "three-quarter lighting," because in both cases the face is turned to one side so that three quarters of the face is turned toward the camera, and one quarter of the face is turned away from the camera.

Short lighting, also called narrow lighting, is produced when the main light illuminates the side of the face turned away from the camera, as shown in the bird'seye view in Figure 6.19. Because three-quarters of the face is in some degree of shadow and only the "short" portion is illuminated, this type of lighting tends to emphasize facial contours. It's an excellent technique for highlighting those with "interesting" faces. It also tends to make faces look narrower, because the "fat" side of the face is shadowed, so those with plump or round faces will look better with short lighting. Use a weak fill light for men to create a masculine look.

Using Multiple Light Sources

As I warned you in the previous section, the best portrait lighting involves at least two, and often three or more light sources. The light sources don't always have to be incandescent lights or electronic flash. Figure 6.15, for example, was shot using window light (from the rear), light bounced from a flat reflector you can see at the right side of the image, and from another reflector at camera position (which you can't see). This section will introduce you to each type of light source and the terminology used to describe it.

Figure 6.15. Only window light and reflectors were used for this bridal portrait.

Portrait Lighting Basic

Lighting is the palette you'll be using to paint your photographic portraits. The next two sections will introduce you to some basic techniques, using some diagrams I've put together that will help you set up professional-looking lighting on your first try. However, you don't need to stick to the setups I'm going to describe anymore than you'd want to paint using only one shade each of red, blue, green, yellow, orange, or other colors. Once you understand how various types of lighting affect your portrait, you'll want to expand on the basic techniques to achieve special looks of your own devising. This section covers some basics.

The Nature of Light

The character of the light you use is just as important as the direction it comes from. As a photographer, you probably already know that light can be hard and harsh, or soft and gentle. Neither end of the spectrum is "good" or "bad." Each type of light, and all the gradations in between, has its own advantages and disadvantages.

What You Need

Much of the gear you need for home portraits is the same as what I'm going to outline in Chapter 10, too. The next section will list the basic items you need to have on hand. There's enough overlap that if you're well-equipped for macro photography, you've got most of what you need for individual portraits, too.

Your Portrait Camera

There are a few special requirements for a digital camera that will be used for portraiture. Here's a list of the key things to look for in a digital camera that are ideal for portraiture.

• Lots of megapixels. Portraiture is one type of photography that places a premium on resolution. Even if you plan on making prints no larger than 5 x 7 inches, you'll find a 5 to 8 megapixel (or more) camera useful, because those extra pixels come in handy when you start retouching your portraits to make your subjects look their best. I think you'll find it hard to resist making 8 x 10 and larger prints of your best efforts, too, so you'll be glad you sprung for a few million more megapixels when you bought your camera.
  
  

Setting Up Your Studio

Any convenient indoors space can be transformed into a mini-studio, as you'll discover in Chapter 10, "Macro Photography." A key difference is that close-up photos usually involve small subjects, taken from a few inches away, and, much of the time, use much simpler lighting arrangements. People pictures require more room than photographs of your ceramic collection, and few homes have space that can be devoted to studio use on a full-time basis. Two of my last three homes had large semi-finished attic space that I was able to commandeer as a studio. When I had an office addition built for my current residence, I had the choice of having a crawl space underneath or a full basement. I opted for a basement room with high ceilings, so I ended up with a 24 x 16-foot multipurpose room that can be used as a studio, darkroom, and storage space. The darkroom has fallen into disuse since I went completely digital, but the studio and storage space continue to battle for the remaining square footage.

Those of you with newer homes sans attic, or who live in parts of the country where basements are not common, probably don't have an extra room for a studio. Even so, I'll bet you have space that can be pressed into service from time to time. A garage makes a good location, especially if you live in warmer climes or are willing to confine your studio work to warmer weather. Some garages can be heated efficiently for year round use, too. Just back your vehicle out of the garage and you have space to shoot. I know several part-time professional photographers who work exclusively from rooms that were originally the garage. Their studios don't much resemble a garage today, but that's how they started off.