very appealing part of a portrait if posed properly. I like when my
wife wears dresses that show off her shoulders. However, my wife is
thin and very fit, unlike the majority of people we photograph each
day. For this reason, it is always a good idea to have the shoulders
covered with clothing if the subject’s weight is at all an issue.
Clothing itself, however, can create problems in this area of the
body. Large shoulder pads in a jacket, for example, will make just
about any kind of posing impossible, making your client look like a
football player. As you can imagine, this is good for skinny guys but
not so good for larger guys or
any woman.Arms.
In addition to the arms com-
pleting the composition in poses
taken from the waist up, the
arms should obviously be posed
away from the body to define
the waistline.
Long Sleeves. Arms often
have problems that can only be
hidden by clothing, which is
why we suggest that everyone
wear long sleeves. Models may
have perfect arms, but our cli-
ents are plagued with a variety
of problems—arms that are too
large or too boney, loose skin,
hair appearing in embarrassing
places, stretch marks, bruises,
veins, etc. The list is a long one,
so cover those things up.Don’t Rely on Digital Fixes.
By the way, many digital pho-
tographers just read that list of
problems and thought, “I shoot
digital, I can fix anything!”
Well, no—you can’t. Once we
went digital, it took our staff
about six months to get out of
the “we can fix anything” mind-
set. Every time an employee
told a client we could fix some-
thing, I would sit them down at
POSING THE SHOULDERS, ARMS, AND HANDS 57The arms are a problem area for many people, so we recommend that all of our clients choose
outfits with long sleeves for their portraits.
It is a good idea to have theshoulders covered with clothing ifthe subject’s weight is an issue.