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054 - Posing Principles for Portrait Photography [Nerdlet] · The Nerdy Photographer Podcast

• 0:04
  Casey Fatchett: hello and welcome to the nerdy
• 0:06
  photographer podcast. I am your host, Casey Fatchett, this is
• 0:10
  our second nerdlet Micro episode focusing on the more technical
• 0:13
  aspects of photography, and this one is going to be about posing
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  principles for portraits. But before we get started, I just
• 0:21
  wanted to read another review that we received on Apple
• 0:24
  podcasts. This one is from another guy with an opinion.
• 0:27
  Casey is awesome. Great advice, even if you're not a
• 0:30
  professional photographer, and it's funny so that too. Oh,
• 0:34
  thank you. Really appreciate reviews because they help other
• 0:37
  people discover this podcast. So if you have the time to leave
• 0:41
  review, just know that it does help me so much, or just tell
• 0:45
  your friends about the podcast, or do both as an independent
• 0:48
  podcaster, these things are the lifeblood of getting new
• 0:52
  listeners and keeping the podcast going. So I really
• 0:55
  appreciate it. All right. Let's get into this episode where I
• 0:58
  will be talking about posing principles for portrait
• 1:01
  photography. If you followed me for very long, you probably know
• 1:05
  that I am not a big fan of posing people. I prefer to
• 1:08
  prompt my subjects to get more natural reactions out of them.
• 1:12
  However, I think that it is important for all people,
• 1:15
  photographers, people who take portraits of people, to know
• 1:19
  some basic principles of posing. Because even if you are
• 1:22
  prompting your subjects, it can help to know what will make them
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  look better and produce a better photo with just a little bit of
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  guidance. So here we go. Number one, angles improve everything.
• 1:33
  Angles and lines lead the viewer's eye around the photo.
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  Straight lines do not elicit interest. Arms hanging straight
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  down to the side, not good. Standing straight like a bean
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  pole, not good either. People standing in a straight line, not
• 1:47
  interesting. Whatever you are working with, you need to create
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  angles, whether it's with your subjects, arms or legs, or how
• 1:54
  you position a group of people, putting them on different
• 1:58
  levels, so that you're creating angles between their heads or
• 2:02
  their bodies, straight lines just aren't interesting. Create
• 2:05
  angles in your photos that could be angles between people, even
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  between people facing each other, creating space between
• 2:12
  the bodies and then creating an angle. Angles help every photo.
• 2:16
  We'll discuss rules and theories of composition in greater depth
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  in some other episode in the future, but for now, just
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  remember that angles are your friend when it comes to posing
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  in portraits. Number two, whatever is closest to the
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  camera is going to appear the largest, whether it's someone's
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  face or their hip or their arm. It's closer to the camera, it
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  will appeal appear larger than everything else in the photo. So
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  that's why, if you're trying to do like a headshot or something,
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  you make sure that the person's face is closer to the camera
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  than their body. You want to have more attention on their
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  face than everything else. This is why, also, when women used to
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  do this, or still do the skinny arm pose. We used to get this
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  all the time. If bridal parties and bridesmaids would be like,
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  oh, let's all do the skinny arm. Then they push out their hip,
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  and it makes their hip look larger than it actually is, but
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  it makes the rest of their body and their arm look skinny.
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  Number three, your subject can appear bigger or smaller,
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  depending on how they face the camera. Okay, so a photograph is
• 3:20
  a two dimensional representation of a three dimensional reality.
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  How's that? For some nerdery, it's absolutely true, though,
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  since we're only getting two dimensions, the camera can be
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  tricked into misrepresenting reality. This can be used to
• 3:34
  your advantage, and it's very similar to number two, and what
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  is closest to the camera is going to appear largest. You can
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  use this to your advantage, or if you don't pay attention, it
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  can work against you. You've probably heard the saying the
• 3:48
  camera adds 10 pounds. Well, it's true, and it doesn't always
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  have to do with lens distortion. It has to do with how your
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  subject faces the camera, facing straight on, with their
• 3:59
  shoulders parallel to the plane of the camera, makes the subject
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  look larger, creating an angle away from the camera with the
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  shoulders makes the subject appear smaller. Learn how to use
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  this to your advantage. If you want your subject to look tough
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  and imposing, have them face the camera straight on. If you want
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  them to look thinner or more approachable, have them stand at
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  an angle, all right. Number four, pay attention to the
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  details. Pose the hair. Make choices with your subject's
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  hair, especially if they have a lot of hair. Remember that the
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  iris of your subject's eye is being more prominent than the
• 4:35
  whites of their eye. Otherwise it just looks weird. Don't let
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  their nose break the line of the face. And what that means is,
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  unless you're shooting someone from a profile, don't let their
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  nose move outside, the outside line of their face. It just
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  makes things look really strange. All right. Number five,
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  stop using pose. Guides. Now this really isn't a principle of
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  posing, but when you use stock poses, you start to forget what
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  looks best for an individual subject. First, are you really
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  going to carry around a posing guide with you? I see ads for
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  posing card sets with hundreds of cards or a guide with over
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  1000 poses. Who's going to use all of those? Nobody. You're
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  going to go through and you'll probably pick out a handful of
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  poses you like. And you like, and you're going to fall back on
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  those most of the time, and that can lead to all your pictures
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  looking pretty much the same. I've seen talented, experienced
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  photographers who repeatedly post photos with the same three
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  poses on Instagram, and when you look at their feed, it looks
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  just like a repeating pattern of poses with occasionally, you
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  know, maybe once or twice. I'll have a new one thrown in there
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  sometimes, but overall, it's the same stuff over and over, and
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  that's not a good look for you. Also, certain poses may not be
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  flattering for different body types. It's better to know the
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  basic principles so you can create situations of your own
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  that make your individual clients look their best. And
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  that's all for this episode. I hope you found this informative
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  and a little bit entertaining. Please share with your
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  photographer friends, and until next time, stay safe and stay
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  nerdy. There's
• 6:36
  Unknown: the name yar. What is it
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  to me? I hate being these stupid subscription fees to Adobe for
• 6:46
  Photoshop and Lightroom.
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  Are ye be wanting software that he can be downloading
• 6:52
  and owning your that allows
• 6:56
  you to manage your library of photos like Lightroom, it also
• 6:59
  enhance ye photos like Photoshop. What am I told ye
• 7:06
  that such software exists and is cheaper than paying for a
• 7:09
  subscription to Photoshop and Lightroom for just one year.
• 7:16
  I say,
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  well, I'll not be crazy. You should check out Luminar.
• 7:26
  Luminar, yes. Luminar, it has libraries that allow you to
• 7:32
  manage the catalog of photos, tag and organize your pictures.
• 7:36
  Then you can enhance your photos, smooth skin, remove
• 7:39
  unwanted objects, apply presets even replace the sky using
• 7:44
  Luminar fours AI engine? Whoa, yes, it be impressive. Yet he
• 7:55
  can even use it as a standalone program or as a plugin for
• 7:59
  Photoshop or Lightroom to take your photo editing to the next
• 8:03
  level.
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  Do I need a map
• 8:07
  to find it?
• 8:08
  Nay, ye can get thee to nerdy photographer.com/recommends/luminar
• 8:18
  where they be nerdy
• 8:19
  photographer.com/recommends photographer.com/recommends/l U,
• 8:24
  M, I N, A R Yar,
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  yar, yar.