Jeff Smith. Posing Techniques for Location Portrait Photography. 2008

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realworld that we work in, this rarely happens. Realistically, the client will
show up with one outfit—a white top, a black skirt, and flat shoes. To deal
with the contrasting clothing, you would simply look for (or create) a scene
with a lighter tone behind the lighter areas of clothing and darker tones be-
hind the darker tones of clothing. Many photographers are thinking, “You
have got to be kidding!” No, I am not. Do you remember when we talked
about creating images that have a sense of style? I said that the photographer
is responsible foreverythingyou see and don’t see in the image.
Very few times are you actually going to find a scene that has lighter and
darker areas in the correct places. Therefore, you must add light to the areas
you want to make lighter or use the camera elevation and angle to put to
proper tones of backgrounds with the coordinating tones of clothing. This
isn’t just a technique to be used for a young lady who wants to show off her
legs. The same idea can be used for a young lady who wants to hide her hips,
a mother and father who don’t want to see their actual body size in a family
photo, or in any other situation where you want to control the eyes of the
viewer.

STANDING POSES 89

Here, a casual scene and summer dress coor-
dinate nicely with the casual leaning poses.

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