lows, then, that you don’t want to make straight lines in the poses you cre-
ate for women’s portraits.
Our goal is to make or emphasize a classic hourglass shape for her upper
body and join this shape to long tapering legs. If you look at fashion maga-
zines, you’ll see that their models are almost never posed standing straight
up, with shoulders square to the camera. From this, I’ve developed what I call
the Rule of Twos. According to this rule, body parts that come in pairs
shouldn’t optically be on the same plane. This applies to the breasts (they’ll
do what the shoulders do), but also to the arms, hands, hips, legs, feet, eyes,
and ears. From this, it follows that the most unflattering thing you can do to
a female body is pose her straight up and down, feet shoulder-width apart,
and shoulders square to the camera. This creates straight lines, and that’s not
what we’re after.
The C Pose. There are basically two poses to flatter a female body: the
C and the S. Those of you who have art or dance backgrounds will already
know this. For everyone else, here goes.
Poses start with the feet, and the subject’s feet should be at about a 45-
degree angle to the camera with her weight on the back foot. Her hip should
be kicked out slightly, as if she were carrying a baby in her arms. With her
weight on her back foot, her front foot (or “show foot”) will be free to swing
LEFT—Notice how the classic C pose in this
image emphasizes the curves of Shannon’s hips
and waist. RIGHT—Compare this image with
the one of Shannon. As you can see, it’s virtu-
ally the same pose—just a simple variation.
Athena’s left foot is kicked out and her arms
are raised.