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Advanced Posing Tips
Id like to know if anyone can post tips or links to tips for advanced posing. Meaning, something other than the usual arches, s-curves, toe pointing, hand positioning, hip and chest angling. A photographer I recently worked with mentioned some things about weight distribution in the legs, and which percentage to puy on each leg to.make sure the calves dont pop out too much. Anyone got some fresh pointers? Sep 19 12 12:10 pm Link Get to know your body. Yoga helps a lot. Have a good sense of balance and how everything moves. Sep 19 12 01:11 pm Link Get a full length mirror, practice practice practice ! Dont think too much, Try odd poses that you normally wouldn't do. Play around with it, eventually you will poses that work well with your body type Sep 19 12 01:18 pm Link Rachael Bueckert wrote: Typically requires excellent body awareness... Sep 19 12 01:51 pm Link I have a favorite muse I work with who, because of yoga, ballet, and MMA training, can do all sorts of wicked-cool posing. Very strong and lithe body. And it's really easy deriving poses from the activities she does, and then build on them.  Sep 19 12 01:59 pm Link Thanks for the informative replies! Unfortunately I never had to luck to be placed in any kind of gymnastics, dance or sports when I was younger, nor do I now have the funds to get into such costly things. I'm trying to do yoga from home, looking off of websites and youtube videos, and going to the gym. If I do start making more money I;m gonna take up dance Sep 19 12 09:01 pm Link Rachael Bueckert wrote: Dance is good but acting really enables expression and having shot actors, they can summon up great expressions and also strike some really interesting poses. Sep 19 12 09:12 pm Link I have to agree with taking up dance. I have found that models with a dance background are usually very good. It seems that dancers are very aware of their body and always know what each hand is doing, what each foot is doing, etc. Sep 19 12 09:21 pm Link considering that following poses on mm will actually teach you far more bad habits than good - the best advice i can give is to follow quality tumblrs. keep a file of you favorite poses and study them. good place to start: http://fashionfaves.tumblr.com Sep 24 12 08:21 am Link howard r wrote: Because all of MM is bad and all of Tumblr is good? Sep 24 12 09:16 am Link Nicole Kriistine wrote: THAT... plus turn on some music that makes you move. Got some 'music movement images' in this port... Sep 24 12 09:24 am Link Daily (or even every other day) yoga is a wonderful experience, and gives you a broader range of motion for posing. Try doing it nekkid (you're at home anyhow), as I've found it gives you more of a feeling for how you move in your skin. It might work for you, it might not.  Dance is also wonderful. I love dancing and frequently do so at home, at concerts/festivals, and at a couple clubs where I don't get groped. Try dancing with your eyes closed. It's just lovely!  Getting a feel for your body needs to happen before you can make it do what you want (for lack of better phrasing). I hope you get what you are working to achieve! Sep 24 12 10:50 am Link Alabaster Crowley wrote: because i said "quality" tumblr's and i gave an example. Sep 30 12 05:17 pm Link Since you're tall, try stretching and elongating your body while posing. It will emphasize your height and give you a long line. Always long torso, long neck, always reaching with your arms and legs. Learn what your strengths are and play off of them. You were on the right track here:  I think less about a percentage of weight distribution and more about a strong stance in general. Rather than using MM or Tumblr images for ideas (not that there's anything wrong with either site) I go straight to the professional models' portfolios. I know they're doing it right and I know there's a lot I can learn. Models.com will let you check out anyone you want in the industry, just type a name into the search bar in the righthand corner. Coco Rocha is hands-down my favorite model and a great poser, so I always recommend her, but search any of your favorites. I also like to look at YouTube videos, because watching photo shoot videos (I like Chanel Iman and Coco again) gives you an idea about how amazing these girls are at moving throughout a shoot, rather than posing, holding, and then finding a brand new pose. So, my advice is study the professionals and then get a camera and a tripod/timer to practice. Find some poses that you love and try to enact them yourself. Then study the pictures, correct your mistakes, and try again. Sep 30 12 07:06 pm Link I'll always try to make sure that I've properly explained a concept to a model before a shoot. More important than the exact pose (tilt your head 20 degrees to the left!) is that we're on the same page and are heading in the same direction. In this way most shoots evolve very naturally. But, I've worked with some models that have had a lot of trouble with poses, particularly when put between a white wall and a camera and not given props to interact with. In these instances especially, inhabiting your body is so important. The reason yoga and dancing have been suggested numerous times is that both practices help you get out of your head and inside your body, and from there it's easier to express using your body and intuition, rather than your intellect. I'll go back to where I started briefly, because fully understanding the concept allows you to become intimate with it, to become the person in the final picture, rather than being you playing that role. Again, from here unique poses are natural expressions of your body and there's less contrivance and the stories in your head are less in the way. I suppose in an ideal world every photographer, and every person involved in every shoot would be working towards creating an environment conducive to this kind of expression, but I know that's not the case. And I have occasionally worked with models who were unable to let their 'self' go in that way (and hey, it's not easy!) so in these instances, I'll bring their attention elsewhere. I'll often tell a model to trace the outline of their body, or really feel the texture of the fabric of their clothes, as if for the first time. I'll ask them to describe the sensations, or textures, and in doing so they'll often find themselves in unique poses and giving a totally natural and real expression. Anyway, this is all blah blah blah, I'm just a photographer. I'm here to help create an environment in which this kind of creativity is possible, and to capture it if it happens, but at the end of the day the model is the one in the hot seat. A good model has my utmost respect. It's a tough gig! Oct 08 12 09:18 pm Link muscle memory (body memory) beware teaching yourself cliches. posing is best when dynamic, rather than static, but, photographers see a moment, and want you to repeat, or go back, or modify just this or that -- all the while, you have to rely on your muscle memory to guide back to that point of dynamic movement. props help. work with them, then work without them. can you get the same pose? pay attention to your daily acts. I'd suggest [maybe NSFW, if your work isn't art] http://blogs.getty.edu/iris/files/2012/ … 94F1V1.jpg the model had no chance to practice, before Herb had him play with the chain. annie. -- TF can mean Trusted For Oct 09 12 08:19 am Link study acting and truly be in character so you can move spontaneously and believably. Ask for a shot scenario from the photographer so you can contribute better- study art, sculpture and literature. Oct 15 12 10:34 pm Link |
