Posing for Portrait Photography

using a wide-angle lens is that, while you will make the legs look

longer, you will make the client’s feet look enormous. So this tech-

nique only works on someone with really, really small feet.

Posing Techniques.The first advice I give to our young pho-

tographers about posing the legs is to pick what I call an “accent

leg.” Usually, the accent leg is determined by the pose and the direc-

tion of the body. This works in both standing, seated, and laying

poses, leaving the other leg as the support or weight-bearing leg. If

you use this strategy, you will have cut your work in half since you’ll

only need to pose one leg instead of two.

Take the classic “James Bond” pose. In this stance, the weight is

put on one leg and the accent leg is crossed over with the toe of the

THE FEET AND LEGS 97

To cut your leg-posing work in half, select one
leg as the weight-bearing leg, then concen-
trate on posing the “accent” leg.

Usually, the accent leg

is determined by the pose

and the direction of the body.