Photographing Men: Posing, Lighting, and Shooting Techniques for Portrait and Fashion Photography, First Edition

Chapter 2. Body Types

Everyone has a different body type. A variety of factors—from bone structure to shape to size to weight—combine to make a person’s body type. William H. Sheldon, an American psychologist, proposed that there are three main male body types—ectomorph (see FIGURE 2.1), mesomorph (see FIGURE 2.2), and endomorph (see FIGURE 2.3)—and that those body types determine behavior, intelligence, and social status. Obviously, psychological profiling based on anatomy is no longer considered to be reliable (you can’t blame your body type for your GPA), but as a photographer, understanding that there are different body types makes a difference. ...