When I hire a new photographer at the studio, they

start in the yearbook room. (If you haven’t read any

of my other books, I have two studios that specialize in senior pho-

tography.) For these young, many times overconfident photogra-

phers, the task of taking a simple yearbook portrait seems beneath

them—that is, until they try to consistently make each of our wide

variety of clients look great with only a simple blue cloud back-

ground behind them.

At first, this challenge is usually met with an arrogant, “It’s just

for the yearbook!” At that point, I have to explain to them the

importance of that little picture. I usually finish up by noting that if

they can’t make someone look good in a simple head-and-shoulders

pose, they have no chance of making someone look good in the

other shooting areas of the studio, where a good portion of the ses-

sions are done full length.

Once their egos are deflated, I can start teaching them posing.

As a photographer starts learning the art of posing, it is much easi-

er to look at posing backwards. Instead of trying to learn hundreds

of poses and variations on poses for certain circumstances, the best

way to start is to look for what I call the “Six Deadly Sins of

Posing.” If you make sure that a pose doesn’t contain these six

things, the pose will be salable. The list of things to avoid is as

follows:

1.Make sure the face is never turned away from the main

light.

SIX THINGS YOU SHOULD NEVER DO 15

1. SIX THINGS YOU

YOU SHOULD NEVER DO.

As a photographer starts learning

the art of posing, it is much easier

to look at posing backwards.