Jeff Smith. Posing Techniques for Location Portrait Photography. 2008

ground? Once you starts to ask these questions, your talent is ready to grow

exponentially, because you are moving toward being able to design a portrait

that has a sense of style.

Unfortunately, some photographers never get to thewhy. They spend their

lives looking for thehow—and then wonder why their work never seems to

look as good as that of some photographer they admire. The truth is, if I

showed you a thousand poses and you sat down and memorized each one,

you still would never create the same images that I have. You might know the

pose, but you wouldn’t know why I selected it. This is like giving you a gun

without showing you how to aim it.

Askingwhyis the first step to taking portraits with a sense of style. Yet,

many photographers step into their camera room and know little to nothing

about who they are photographing, the clothing they have brought in, or

the reason the portrait is being taken. Without this information, they cannot

make the decisions that are critical to creating professional-quality portraits.

None of what appears in your portraits should be an accident; if something

is in your frame it should be there because you put it there (and because you

know why you put it there). When you make conscious choices about every

element, there are no eyesores to distract from the client’s face. Everything

in the portrait coordinates seamlessly with everything else, and the portrait

will be as beautiful in ten years as it is today.

Determine the Intended Use of the Portrait.

The first question for clients, the question that starts the whole process, is the

intended use of the portrait or the reason it is being taken. Every other de-

cision is based on their answers to that first question. After all, how can you

select the right clothing, choose the style of lighting, and direct them into a

pose if you don’t know the reason the portrait is being taken?

As I mentioned in the previous chapter, you need to get some specific de-

tails. For example, a portrait of a woman for her husband might be a little dif-

ferent for Joan, whose husband is a minister, than for Ruth whose husband

is a mechanic with pinup girls hanging all over his shop. Right there, those

descriptions probably brought some ideas to mind—but you must never as-

sume. Remember, this is not about whatyouthink, it’s about what yourclient

wants. The preacher’s wife may want a alluring private portrait for her hus-

band; the mechanic may look at his wife much differently than the pinup girls

in his shop. You will only know this by talking with each client to see what it

is they want.

Many times, this process is complicated by the need to please two buyers.

This is always the case, for example, with a senior portrait. Seniors and their

parent rarely want the same style of portraits. Multiple buyers exist in other

photography situations, too. There are often differences in taste between a

CRITICAL DECISIONS 15

FACING PAGE—Senior portraits have to please
two clients: the senior and her parents.

How can you select the right

clothing if you don’t know the

reason the portrait is being taken?