have changed. Men still want to look masculine,
but they don’t want to look rigid or emotion-
less. Women want to look feminine, but they
don’t want to look like doe-eyed creatures with-
out a thought in their heads.
Additionally, the buying public doesn’t want
to look artificial in their posing. Outside of wed-
ding photography, the average buyer of portrait
photography is a woman between 35 and 60.
She holds the purse strings, and she wants to see
her family members as they really are. This is
very obvious in senior photography and even in
the photojournalistic style of wedding photog-
raphy that many brides (and their mothers) pre-
fer. This doesn’t, however, mean that a bride
doesn’t wantanyposed portraits or that a se-
nior’s parent doesn’t want at leastoneyearbook-
style shot taken during the session.
The big exception to this trend toward the
casual is in images with a fashion edge. Clients
see this kind of imagery on television and in
magazines, and they often love the edgy, dra-
matic, and unusual poses it features. A client
who favors this kind of portrait expects to be posed to create an effect that is
not natural looking or relaxed—something that is definitely not in keeping
with so-called classic posing.
I am not saying that you should not learn classic posing. There are times
when that type of posing is appropriate, and everyone has to start somewhere.
I am simply sharing with you my experience from over twenty years of work-
ing with my clients; what you see in this book are the best-selling poses and
ideas from a very successful studio. There aremanyways in which you can
pose the human body, ways that will complete the overall look of the image
and make your client look beautiful.
Basic Guidelines for Posing.
Explain Problems with Tact.Potential problems need to be addressed at
the start of the session. If you see that your client is a larger woman and you
also see that she has brought sleeveless tops that you know will not be flat-
tering, you need to explain, “One area that women tend to worry about is
their arms—either the size of the arms or hair on the forearm showing in the
portrait. This is why we suggest wearing long sleeves. Now, you can try one
sleeveless top, but most woman stick to long sleeves just to be safe.” This is
30 JEFF SMITH’S POSING TECHNIQUES FOR LOCATION PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY
Images with a fashion look appeal to many
clients and feature posing that is definitely
not limited by classic techniques.