Being Sensitive to the Subject.
Everyone’s body is unique. As photographers, we are charged with por-
traying our subjects’ bodies in our images—and doing so in a flattering
way. An unflattering portrayal not only produces poor glamour photos, it
can also be harmful to your subject’s self-esteem. It can lead them to, or
amplify, a state of depression, a serious condition that is known to cause
death or suicide. Photography is powerful!
Obviously we’re not out to kill people with our cameras, but it’s im-
portant that photographers understand that the possibility of permanent
One of my favorite places to photograph
models is in the Virgin Islands, where I
have access to an infinity pool facing the
Caribbean sunset. The infinity pool al-
lows me to position the models on a 5-
inch-wide ledge that they carefully
balance on. I then place one hand on the
bottom of my camera body (or the side
when shooting vertically) and lower my-
self in the water until my hand touches
the water surface. This leaves the cam-
era about an inch from the water. When
combined with the curvature of the
Earth, this makes it look as though the
model is walking on the ocean water.
This slightly tilted ledge limits the types
of poses a model can give me, so I tend
to direct them to poses in which they can
keep their balance without falling into
the pool. In this photo, model Tess pro-
vides a classic S-curve pose. Because
she’s wearing heels on a tilted ledge, she
needed to use both legs for support
(rather than using one for support and
one as an accent). The S-shape the body
takes offsets the lack of an accent leg
making the pose work in this scenario.
Sometimes your own set or scene will
force a departure from traditional pos-
ing fundamentals, but in this case it
works just fine. (Camera:Canon 5D;
Lens:Canon 85mm F/1.2L, USM lens, ef-
fective focal length 85mm;ISO:100;
Shutter speed:^1 / 60 second;Aperture:
f/5.6;Lighting:Hensel Integra 500 Pro
Plus monolight with a Hensel beauty
dish; Rosco #3411 CTO gel over the
beauty dish;White balance:3700K)