- Make sure the shoulders, waist, and hips are never squared
off to the camera. - Make sure the arms are never posed in contact with the
side of the body. - Make sure the chin is never lowered to a point where it
diminishes the catchlights in the eyes from the main light.
5.Make sure the spine never forms a vertical line and the
shoulders never form a horizontal line in the frame. - Make sure to never have an expression on yourface you
don’t want on theclient’sface in the portrait.
Number One: The Angle of the Face.
I, like most photographers, work with a lighting ratio that is approx-
imately 3:1 without diffusion, and 4:1 with diffusion. This means if
the face is turned awayfrom the light, the shadow on the side of the
nose will increase, making the nose appear larger. There are two
solutions to this problem: turn the face more toward the main light,
or decrease the lighting ratio.
16 POSING FOR PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY
Turning the face toward the main light (left) illuminates the mask of the face and creates shadows that shape it nicely. Turning the face away from
the main light (right) creates unflattering shadows.