Jeff Smith. Posing Techniques for Location Portrait Photography. 2008

have. A subject looking atsomeonerather thansomethingwill have much more

life in their eyes. When I was younger, I used to think this was a little silly, but

then I started comparing poses that were taken while I used a tripod and had

the client look at me against those I create while handholding the camera

and having the subject look into the lens. To my surprise, there was a huge

difference in the eyes. In head-and-shoulders portraits, the eyes are critical,

so enlivening them in this way is particularly vital.

Composition.

In most head-and-shoulders portraits, the arms and/or shoulders help form

the base of the composition, basically filling in the lower portion of the frame

from side to side. When you turn the subject so far that the body doesn’t fill

the lower portion of the frame, the base of the image is missing and looks in-

complete. This is true for every portrait from a head-and-shoulders to an

image composed from the waist up.

Many young photographers have issues with trying to find the point at

which to crop the image at the bottom of the frame. The answer, typically, is

HEAD-AND-SHOULDERS POSES 97

Having a great expression is critical in a
head-and-shoulders portrait.