self-esteem and ego. To do this, you could photograph her from a lower
angle to make her look taller and thinner (a natural optical effect of your
camera’s lens in this position). Additionally, you could create shadows on
her body that let problem areas recede while accenting her assets.
To complete the effect, you could also carefully select and refine a
pose that conceals any areas she feels insecure about, while accent-
ing her best features. If you do all this, she’ll be amazed at how
beautiful she looks in her images—and she’ll go home feeling a lot
better about herself.
This issue of self-esteem is no small matter. The human body
can appear unattractive or even distorted if the subject is posed incorrectly.
This can lead to your subject being unhappy with the images you’ve pro-
duced. More importantly, it can also have a profoundly negative effect on
her self-esteem, particularly if she already has concerns about her appear-
ance. Not only is this detrimental to the subject psychologically, it’s no
way to develop a good reputation as a professional glamour photographer.
The Story to be Told.
Ultimately, posing is about telling a story. It is the story of the scene, but
more importantly the story that the individual subject wants to convey.
The wrong pose will send the wrong message, so carefully observing your
subject throughout the shooting process is important. If your subject
wants a sexy look but projects a more conservative personality type, a more
conservative type of sexy is in order. Look for poses that are sultry and al-
luring but never unladylike (such as poses with the legs apart). If your sub-
ject seems more liberal and free-spirited, observe her carefully and try and
pick up what’s she’s looking for. Is it sexy and crazy? Sexy and sultry? Sexy
and seductive? The list goes on. Only when you know what your subject
is looking for can you start to translate her thoughts into a pose.
That thought bears repeating: Only when you know what your subject
is looking for can you start to translate her thoughts into a pose. All the
posing techniques in the world won’t make a difference in the success of
your images if you don’t know your subject. So get to know your subject
(platonically, of course) and really listen to her needs. This is the only way
to achieve common ground and ensure that her pose will match the story
being told. Throughout this book, we’ll cover that ground.
Carefully observing your
subject throughout the
shooting process
is important.22POSINGTECHNIQUESFORGLAMOURPHOTOGRAPHY