the man in a seated pose leaning forward, while the woman is posed on the
ground between the legs. We have the man lean onto his one knee and then
angle the woman slightly toward the other knee so the faces are closer to side
by side, instead of one over the other.Arms.
When you start to refine the pose, make sure the arms are not resting heav-
ily on the body but separated from it to define the shape of both the arms and
the body. This can be done by placing one hand on prop or posing aid, or
simply by extending one arm to rest the hand on the knee and letting the
other hand rest on the thigh. Again, remember that the hands and arms can
also be used to conceal any problem areas your client might have.Compositional Options.
Although seated poses and poses on the ground are somewhat challenging,
they offer many compositional options. You can go from head-and-
shoulders images, to waist-up shots, three-quarter-length portraits, and then
full-length images without ever having to re-pose the client. As you can imag-
ine, this helps speed up the session—and the faster you work, the more profit
potential each session has.
As you look through the seated poses in this chapter, don’t just try to
memorize the pose. Ask yourself why. Why were the hands and arms placed
where they were? Did they cover a problem area to enhance the subject’s ap-
pearance? Look at the foliage, grass, and tree limbs. Why are they there? Are
they hiding something or just adding to the appearance of the image? Get-
ting into the habit of asking these questions when you look at images will
help you to ask them of yourself when you are photographing your clients.SEATED POSING 83In many seated poses, you can create a va-
riety of looks without having to adjust the
subject. This head-and-shoulders portrait
was created with the client posed for a full-
length seated image.
Remember that the handsand arms can also be usedto conceal any problem areas.