with short legs sit in a chair where their feet don’t touch the ground? While
this is cute for little kids, a pose that is not grounded looks odd for an adult.
If you have someone whose feet don’t touch the ground, have them sit on
the edge of the chair so at least one foot touches the ground. (Or, have both
feet brought up into the chair; this grounds the pose by using the chair as the
base.) The leg that is not grounded becomes the accent leg and can be “ac-
cented” by crossing it over the other, bending it to raise the knee, or folding
it over the back of the head (just kidding)—but you need to do something
with it to give the pose some style and finish off the composition.
The “Deadly Sins” of Leg Posing..
to make the legs (covered in pants or showing in a dress) look good. Again,
it is easier to isolate what not to do, then move on to learning what to do.
The deadly sins of posing the legs are:
1.In a standing pose, never put both feet flat on the ground in a sym-
metrical perspective to the body.
2.Never position the feet so close together that there is no separation
between the legs/thighs.
3.Never do the same thing with each leg (with a few exceptions, like
when both knees are raised side by side).
4.Never have both feet dangling; one must be grounded.
5.Never bring the accent leg so high that it touches the abdomen.
6.Don’t ever expect one pose to work on everyone.There is no one pose that will always work. Because of how flexible clients are
(or are not), as well as how their bodies are designed, no single pose—no
62 JEFF SMITH’S POSING TECHNIQUES FOR LOCATION PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY
In a seated pose, one leg grounds the pose.
The other is the accent leg.While this is cute for little kids,a pose that is not groundedlooks odd for an adult.