Digital Portrait Photography and Lighting: Take Memorable Shots Every Time

Chapter 5. Posing Techniques

If you went out and purchased a truckload of house furnishings and had them delivered to your home, there is no doubt you could put them into a good configuration (composition). The table goes here in the middle of the dining room, the curtains go over the window, the couch goes along a wall, and so forth — the gross anatomy, so to speak. What gets trickier is the angle of the coffee table to the sofa, the right way to place the three scented candles on the mantle, and where on the wall to hang those two paintings. In the analogy, this is posing.

You've planned your composition, and you know where you're going to have the guys put the piano. Now you have to decide how to place the silver frames on it, and whether it looks better angled at this window or that doorway. First you place it and then you pose it.

The first four chapters of this book prepare you for the technical end of taking portraits. You have all your equipment and a general idea of how to use it. You understand how a photograph and a portrait are generally composed. Now, really and truly, you're into the fun stuff. You have all the tools and a shiny new toolbox. Now it's time to slap the "Professional" sticker on it, because the skills in this chapter are the ones that tend to separate the amateurs from the professionals.

Working with your client and planning compositions and poses is the "fun ...