Pieces of the Picture

Imagine for a minute with me. An older teen boy or girl leaning on a tree or perhaps hugging the tree and peeking around from behind and smiling at the camera with a big happy grin on their face.  We have all seen this, haven’t we? Tell me if I’m wrong. I’m not wrong. I’m not lying. It’s the truth and you all know it. In fact, if you were honest, you would admit that you have done this pose before. In fact, you may have just recently done it. How boring! I feel a yawn-fest coming on. How many times have you seen a senior portrait with a senior leaning up against a tree with their arms crossed. I think it’s one of those poses that end up happening no matter how much you try to run as far from it as you can.

Another important and not only important but crucial ingredients of a great senior portrait is a good pose. Your pose should follow good posing rules and photographic compositional rules as well as being creative and interesting. In this post, we will discuss the importance of posing seniors and how it can dramatically affect the impact that it will have on the viewer.

The first aspect I would like to examine is creativity. As I have already mentioned, there are poses that are boring and way too overdone. These will somehow creep into every session ever done, but they should not all be that way. When you are looking at the proofs when you’re done, I hope you don’t find that every pose is the senior with their arms crossed leaning on something. When I first started, with one of my first senior sessions, I noticed that I did just that. I was so frustrated and embarrassed after the fact. There should be variety and creativity in the way you pose. Sometimes asking your seniors to pose in awkward positions may seem awkward in itself, but if you come across knowledgeable and professional, then the senior will trust you. They may think, this is weird, but I like his photography, so I trust him. Don’t be afraid to try something weird or different. What’s the worst thing that will happen? It won’t look good and you can just delete it.

I will suggest using samples from magazines or photography websites to get ideas for poses. Fashion magazines and  websites are good and photography sites are great too. Websites like photo.net, flickr.com and photosig.com are excellent starting places. You can find many experienced photographers who post their work there and you can get great ideas for posing. Portra.net is also another great resource for posing, not just for seniors, but for families and children too.

Try varying cropping and framing on the same poses. Also vary camera positions and you will notice dramatic differences in the way that the photo looks and this is without even having to change the pose up.

Another thing I will suggest is try using the subjects hands and arms in the portrait. This adds a whole new element to posing. A close head shot can be dramatic, but that drama can be increased by inclusion of a hand or arm. Having the senior lean on an arm or hand can really increase interest in the photo. If you look at fashion magazines, this is very common and done often. It will go over well with the senior.

Another way to increase interest to a pose is to change camera position or the angle of the body. For example, if you raise the camera two feet above your subject and have them look up at you in the same hand or arm pose, the pose will look much different and possibly much more dramatic. Possibly it won’t work or maybe it will look silly, but you won’t know until you try and who knows, you may find that it looks amazing.

Another thing that works is to change body position. Instead of always photographing your subject straight on, have them lay down and have their head towards the camera as you photograph them or perhaps have them lean forward and shoot them from above or perhaps you can have them lean back and look over their shoulder. Just move around, move them around and shoot different camera angles and focal lengths and you’ll be surprised just how different the portraits will look from just a little variation with the camera and little to no difference from your subject. Yet your photo will look very creative and interesting.

The second aspect I would like to examine is correct body positioning. This is an important aspect of posing. There are many rules but I will just discuss a handful of them. The first aspect of correct body position is almost without exception you should pose your subjects at an angle to the camera. What I mean is this, the difference between someone who is square to the camera versus at a forty five degree is the difference between looking like a football linebacker and looking like you’ve dropped a few pounds. Regardless if the subject is overweight or not, it is important to pose all people at somewhat of an angle to the camera. Rarely does someone look good directly square to the camera. It widens them and normally does not look appealing. Unless we’re photographing a baby, I would normally not pose someone like this. The only exception to this rule is if we are possibly posing someone in a very rigid and dramatic way, then square to the camera might be a good option which will  increase the drama of it.

Another thing to remember is to make sure your subjects are sitting up straight.

Another tip is to have your subjects lean towards the camera. While this is not set in stone and not something you always want to do, it works great most of the time. If the senior has any extra weight especially, this is a good idea. Leaning the subject forward will extend the neck out and get rid of any double chins and extra weight in that area. Leaning the subject back will only emphasize the weight in their midsection. While leaning them forward, will thin anyone out. While not everyone is overweight, it’s not like it’s the rarest thing either. In fact, most people do have extra weight they don’t want to see in their portraits. While having your subject lean forward, have them lean forward at their waist. If they don’t do this, they are likely to hunch over and that isn’t good either.

I often tell my subjects when they say that the pose feels weird or strange that if they have to go to the chiropractor, then we are doing something right. Sometimes, not only does the pose feel weird to the subject, but it might look strange at first sight in person, like having a girl put her arm all the way behind her head. But with the right lighting, cropping and framing, depth of focus, the actual image may look amazing! It might not look strange at all but rather something quite beautiful.

Often times, photographers who aren’t experienced are nervous to pose their subjects in seemingly awkward poses, but the truth is, the senior wants something creative and unique. That means the pose as well.

I also believe that it’s important that while photographing your subject, you do all the standard stuff, even if that includes arms crossed leaning up against a tree. Those things, the customer looks for, consciencely or subconsciously. Those things, as common as they are, is something that senior or their parents want. But another positive aspect of these seemingly “bland” poses is that they are good ways to relax your subject. Doing these poses transitions you from head and shoulder head shot, to the standard senior type portrait stuff into finally the creative and dramatic portraits that great senior portraits are all about.

I want to give you a suggestion as to how to get to the point of doing these poses that I’m talking about. The first thing to think about is, if when you very first get started, you ask your senior to lay down, put your arm behind your head, turn your head this way, look that way, turn your hip to the left and pull your right leg to the left, well, you will get a very awkward and uncomfortable subject. Your subject has to be comfortable with you before they will agree to do anything like that for you. So my suggestion is start off basic, very basic. Start with a simple straight on head shot. Consider the first few shots just getting your subject used to being in front of you and the camera. Then slowly start incorporating hands, arms, leaning, laying, etc. You could even begin with your subject not even looking at the camera. Slowly but surely get into the creative and dramatic head tilts, shoulder angles, hand poses, and so on. When your subject is beginning to loosen up in front of you, that’s when it is time to take it to the next level. Go with their comfort level, but do what ever you can to get to that level. That’s where the truly great portraits will be.

While most think about things like expression, color, post production or other like things when they contemplate what makes a great senior portrait, I hope you now realize just how important a simple thing such as posing is. Want to make dramatic and beautiful senior portraits? Be a poser!

If you enjoyed this post, it is part of an on-going series called, “Fifteen Things You Need for a Great Senior Portrait“. We will be posting it every Wednesday. So, if you want to learn more, make sure you check it out!!!