If, however, a photographer understands the basics of posing each
part of the body, recognizes the problems that are inherent with
each part of the body, and then learns to identify the mistakes made
by most photographers, it makes the very complex task of posing the
human form a learnable process.
Effective posing is a much more complex subject than anything
else in photography. Lighting takes our photographers about two
years of studying and testing to master, while the same photogra-
phers make major errors in posing even four or five years after work-
ing daily in the studio.
We will begin our look at posing in a backwards fashion, by
looking at what notto do—or catching the obvious mistakes made
by most photographers. Once you can consistently identify what not
to do, you can begin to learn what you shoulddo to create a salable
portrait.
14 POSING FOR PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY
Effective posing is a much more complex sub-
ject than anything else in photography. It
takes our photographers much longer to
learn than portrait lighting.