Today, many of the traditional ideas about what’s feminine and what’s mas-
culine just don’t apply. Plus, there are factors beyond gender that must be
considered when selecting a background. For example, you will find that
some scenes work better with more elegant types of clothing, while others are
better suited to casual outfits.
Keep in mind that you aren’t limited to using a scene in only one way. If
you have strong vertical lines in a scene, for example, you can tilt your cam-
era to make the lines more diagonal; this will change the feeling of the back-
ground. If the background has a great deal of detail but you need a softer
feeling, open up the lens and the background will soften to produce the look
you want.
Outdoor settings are typically easier to read than indoor locations. As a re-
sult, coordinating the clothing and posing to the scene to achieve an overall
sense of style becomes easier. A typical park or garden scene is a more casual
setting, therefore more casual clothing and posing are required. An outdoor
setting with columns and fountains is obviously more elegant and requires
more elegant clothing.
An important point for selecting a location is to look for more natural,
ungroomed locations. If you go to an elegant garden, you may find blank
20 JEFF SMITH’S POSING TECHNIQUES FOR LOCATION PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY
Tilting the camera allows you to soften ver-
tical lines by rendering them as diagonals.