W

hile photographers get excited about full-length poses, clients get
excited about images that are composed closer or in a head-and-
shoulders style. As many as seventy percent of all portraits ordered
are composed from the waist up, yet most photographers focus their atten-
tion on full-length shots, especially if the guy or girl is nice looking and fit.
The hype about full-length poses is the strongest in the senior market, where
many photographers look at full-length poses as the way to separate them-
selves from the contracted studios, which mostly take boring head-and-
shoulders poses. The problem is that they focus so much attention on

92 JEFF SMITH’S POSING TECHNIQUES FOR LOCATION PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY

7. Head-and-Shoulders Poses..

Don’t get so caught up in the excitement

about full-length images that you forget

what actually sells portraits: the face.