that so many photographers leave school doing so badly. I have seen everything
from young ladies who look completely awkward, to guys who look like they
were just involved in a car crash that broke their neck.
The Traditional Rules.While many college students will accept that there
are different ways to light, pose, and photograph a subject, a lot of them are
convinced that there is only one way to tilt the head of each gender—and it’s
precisely the way their teacher told them! I have had some truly talented pho-
tographers work for me, and that is the one obstacle I have had to overcome
with almost every one of them.
Which of the above photographs do you like better? If you are like all the
people I showed these photographs to, you would say the one on the right.
Well, there goes the classic theory of posing shot right in the keister! Accord-
ing to that theory, a woman is always supposed to tilt her head toward her
higher shoulder. In this case, tilting the head toward the higher shoulder made
her look as though she just sat on a very sharp object and is waiting until we take
the picture to get the heck off of it. By tilting the head into what traditionalists
consider a “man’s” pose, we made her look confident, beautiful, and nothing
like a man.
The Real Rule.Now that I have had a little fun, I can continue. The real
rule of tilting the head is that there is no rule. You don’talwaysdoanythingin
photography. If you are photographing a woman, you don’t tilt toward the high
62 JEFF SMITH’S GUIDE TO HEAD AND SHOULDERS PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHYABOVE—The only difference between these
two portraits is the tilt of the subject’s
head—but what a difference it makes!
FACING PAGE—Which direction and how far
to tilt the head must be decided on an in-
dividual basis.