Rangefinder Magazine
Features, August 2001

The Art of the Casual Pose by Jeff Smith
A Wealth of Tips and Corrective Techniques

While most photographers work to constantly refine and define their “style of lighting,” many photographers find themselves struggling to arrange the human form. How do you make a subject look great, without the photo looking posed? While the old posing guides of the past were a start, they often make the subject look like a mannequin in a 1960s store window.

To truly understand posing, you must first define the purpose of the portrait. Is the portrait to be taken of a woman, for example, for publication, for a boyfriend or for her parents? If it is man’s portrait, is it for his wife, his business or his children? The purpose of the portrait naturally dictates the style of portraits.

There are basically three types of posing. Traditional poses, should really only be used for business, incredibly stuffy people or yearbook portraits. Casual poses, should be used when a portrait is to be given to a parent, child or sibling. Glamour/fashion poses should be used when a portrait is to be given to someone who has a romantic interest.

Traditional posing typically has the subject sitting or standing up straight, with the arms basically down to the side. Elbows are posed away from the body to define the waste-line, the shoulders and waistline are turned to the shadow side of the frame to reduce body size. While this type of posing is needed for business portraits, high school yearbook poses and for wall portraits that will hang in a home of a conservative client, it really doesn’t work well for any other type of portrait.

A traditionally posed portrait given to a parent, child or sibling will usually get comments like, “They look stiff,” or “They don’t look like themselves.” This type of portrait given to a romantic interest is definitely not going to be a big hit.

Casual poses are the poses that should be used most often, since most portraits are typically taken for family members who want to see you as you really are. Since most people that know you well, like seeing you relaxed, instead of stiff or sexy, a relaxed look in a portrait will be more salable.

Casual poses are resting poses. The arms rest on the legs, the head rests on hands. The best teacher of casual posing is being observant and watching people as they relax. Pay attention to people as they are watching television, talking on the phone or at a picnic. You will see them as you should pose them if the portrait is to be given to parent, child or sibling.

The third type of pose is the glamour or fashion pose. This type of pose is taken to look appealing to a romantic interest. The whole point is sex appeal. I refer to this type of pose as the “anti-casual” pose. Casual poses portray the person as the are, glamour poses portray the illusion of what they could be.

While the glamour/boudoir market has taken a turn for the worse, compared to the 80s, many portraits are taken as a gift for a romantic partner, without the client wanting to go to the extreme of a glamour or boudoir session. With the right pose, a fully-clothed person can achieve a very alluring look.

The best resource for this type of posing can be found in retail displays and catalogs. If you want to make the human form look alluring in a full length pose, get a copy of the Victoria’s Secrets or Frederick’s of Hollywood catalog. For head and shoulders poses look at the cosmetic counters in any upscale department store. Images that are taken for sex appeal are all around you. These are the images that help set the standards of beauty for most clients.

Finding new poses and defining the purpose of a session are only part of effective posing. Once you have new posing ideas, you have to adapt the poses to work with your clients. There is a big difference between the perfect models you see in magazines or seminars and the people with whom you work everyday. It was this difference that inspired me to write my latest book, Corrective Lighting and Posing for the Portrait Photographer.


Corrective Posing
In 17 years in this business, I have never been to a seminar or program in which, during the lighting and posing demonstration, the photographer didn’t bring out a model who was perfect every detail. While this photographer’s lighting and posing worked well with the perfect model in the in demonstrations, most photographers find they don’t get the same results when they are working with paying clients. Mr. and Ms. John Q. Public can be and often are overweight, balding, with large noses and ears, double chins and the variety of problems that almost all of us have.
To make all of your clients look beautiful (not just the perfect few) you must first identify a client’s problems and then adapt your posing to hide the various parts of the human form that paying clients worry about the most. The good thing is that most of your clients worry about the same problems showing up in their portraits.

Weight is by far the most common problem in all paying clients. While light and shadow can work to reduce body size or a wide face to some degree, there are many areas of the body which shadow can do little to help. In both men and woman, the first signs of weight gain (as well as age in older clients) are visible in the neck area. From double chins to the loose skin and folds in the lower neck, this area is one of the most unsightly areas on the human body. Poses need to be adapted to hide this area.

By resting the chin on the hand, arms and shoulders you obscure the neck from view, hiding the problems. In traditional posing, hands and arms are usually posed away from the face so you have to stretch the loose skin or double chin to minimize it. With a slight double chin, this can be done by turning the body a little further away from the main light than normal and then turning the face back toward the main light. When the double chin is large, you must resort to what many photographers call “turkey neck.” Simply extend the chin out toward the camera, stretching out the double chin. You then lower the entire face or raise the camera to hide the double chin.

As you get into three-quarter or full-length poses, you multiply the number of possible problems. In full-length poses, it’s just not the neck, but the waistline, hips/thighs, calves and, of course, the feet. Clothing styles, as well as the color of clothing can help minimize problems to a degree, but ultimately the pose will have to soften the reality you reveal to your client in their portrait.

Starting with the waistline. You have two choices, which depend on the size of the waistline. For the average person or person with a slight weight problem, you can slim the waistline by rotating the it toward the shadow side of the frame. This shows a side view of the waist (rather than squared off to the camera, which shows the width of the waist), and the shadow decreases the appearance of size.

This works to a point. Once the waistline isn’t a line at all, but a budge hanging over what used to be the “line,” you have no choice but to hide the waist from camera view. Although some men talk about their beer bellies with pride, no one wants to appear as though they are six months along unless they really are.

To hide the waistline, simply position one of the subject’s appendages in front of the area. A large stomach can be hidden by bringing up a knee and having one elbow rested on top of it. In a seated pose, you can bring one or both knees up to cover the problem area. In a standing pose, you can fold the arms. With a subject laying on his or her side, bring one of the arms across the problem area.

While having a less than flat stomach is a problem shared by both men and woman, the hips and thighs are usually a problem that concerns more women than men. You will never realize how much women worry about this part of their bodies. This is typically where most of a woman’s weight is carried.

Knowing this, slimming the hips and thighs would probably be appreciated by your female clients. To slim this area, you can coordinate the color of the subject’s clothing to that of the background (and not separate this area with light) so this area blends into the background. Or, you can place the subject in a seated position and have the subject roll over on the hip that is closest to the camera. By doing this, the subject’s bottom and a portion of the hip are behind them and out of camera view. By running the arm down the upper hip, the outline of the hip is obscured and so the true width isn’t seen in the portrait. The worst thing you can do is seat a subject flat on their bottom. Their seat mushrooms out making the hips even look wider.

While we have only discussed a few of the many problems and flaws that paying clients have, it is the desire of you, the photographer to make each client look beautiful that will make a difference. Any person with a camera and a basic understanding of photography can take a beautiful portrait of a beautiful person. That is just capturing reality, which is what the camera is designed to do. It is the true professional who can produce a portrait that is a version of reality that the subject will be pleased with.

Jeff Smith owns and operates Jeff Smith’s Photoique in Fresno, California. The studio now has its own web site, which features articles by Smith and other information: www.jeffsmithphoto.com.