Mouth and Expression.The mouth must be, for lack of a better word,
“posed” properly. Don’t ever forget the old saying: expression sells photo-
graphs. I want clients to relax and let their expressions come naturally.
I start off each session by explaining what I will be doing and how I want
them to smile—as well as how not to smile. I typically say, “The average per-
son smiles 150 times a day and it looks beautiful and natural, because you’re
not thinking about it and not being told how to do it.” (That part of the
speech is for the mothers who turn into smiling cheerleaders, making their
children extremely self-conscious about smiling.) I then continue, “When it
comes to the non-smiling photos, most people will go from big natural smiles
to pressing their lips tightly together. The only time people who know you
see you with your lips pressed tightly together is when you are upset, so they
will say you look mad in all your non-smiling photos.” (Note that I do not
call these “serious” photos; I stick to the phrase “non-smiling.”) This expla-
nation might seem rather long-winded, but it helps the client start to relax
and understand that it is my job to make them look beautiful.
People naturally mirror the expression of a person with whom they are in-
teracting, so the second tip for great expressions is to have on your own face
the expression you want your client to have. When you want them to smile,
you yourself should smile and speak with more enthusiasm. When you want
a relaxed expression, speak with a softer tone and without smiling. If you do
this, you will quickly see the expressions in your portraits improve.
Also, I suggest that you take twice as many smiling photos as non-smiling
ones. While many photographers choose non-smiling photos for display,
smiles outsell non-smiles four to one.
Hair.We’ve already looked at how a woman’s hairstyle can help you
determine the best way to tilt her head, but there are a few other things to
consider.
40 JEFF SMITH’S POSING TECHNIQUES FOR LOCATION PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY
People naturally mirrorthe expression of a personwith whom they are interacting.I suggest taking images with a variety of ex-
pressions—but take more smiling photos
than non-smiling ones. Smiling photos are
always the top sellers.