me, I have them go through the sample book and learn to identify
the predominant lines in each pose, as well as in each scene. The pre-
dominant lines determine the overall feeling of the pose. Until you
can identify these lines, you can’t effectively pose a subject to achieve
the desired look. And you thought once we got past the legs, we
could start with the good stuff! This is the same feeling my photog-
raphers have. They usually say something along the lines of, “After
two years of learning I still need to learn more?” That’s right—the
more you learn, the more you understand how much moreyou have
to learn.
In posing, the predominant lines are either straight or curved.
Straight lines in a pose give the image a linear, more structured
appearance. Poses like these are often thought of as masculine, how-
102 POSING FOR PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY
Learn to identify the predominant lines in a
composition. Here, the lines are almost all
diagonals.