photographer, you will have to learn to
listen to your clients and give them what
they want.
Like most photographers, I learned
the classic rules of posing; then, I learned
that they didn’t sell because clients did-
n’t like them. As a result, I had two
choices: I could make my clients study
classic posing (so they would understand
how smart I was), or I could learn to cre-
ate poses that my clients liked. I chose to
satisfy my clients, and the rewards have
been greater than I ever thought possi-
ble. When you are told that you are as
good as you think you are—and are told
it by people who are spending large sums
of money on your work—you are truly
in a satisfying profession!
So keep this in mind: salable posing is
much different than artistic posing. The
greatest hurdle photographers must
make is getting over the “photographer
knows best” way of thinking. Most pho-
tographers like to think of themselves as
artists, free spirits who get to create little
works of art—but someone else has to
live with that “art.” In the end, the client
and their money will determine if your
image is art or not. For example, it you
show a larger woman of today a portrait of a full-figured woman that was
painted by one the old masters and she will say that it is art. Take a portrait
of that same woman of today in the exact same pose, and she will say she
looks like the Pillsbury Dough Boy. Again: art is in the eye of the buyer, not
the creator.
12 JEFF SMITH’S POSING TECHNIQUES FOR LOCATION PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY
Salable posing is different than artistic
posing—it’s posing based on what your
clients actually like.