THE BASICS OF THE POSING EVOLUTION BY KATELYN JAMES
Welcome message from author
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
THE BASICS OF THE
POSINGEVOLUTION
B Y K A T E L Y N J A M E S
Remem
ber that you’re in control. You are the artistic director and your clients W
ANT
you to take control. The m
ore you feel in control, the m
ore they feel taken care of. Your clients TRU
ST you, so collect yourself and take control of this shoot! W
hen you becom
e overwhelmed, the first
thing you lose is creativity! Trust your ideas and challenge your clients. Rem
ind them that it’s ok
to not be a pro at this and reassure them
that you’re going to walk them
through the whole process.
Your posing will improve
instantly if you learn to make
your clients comfortable.
Comfort =Confidence and
confidence can make AN
Y pose look genuine and natural. N
ever stop praising your clients. Even 5 seconds of silence can kill the confidence of your subjects. Convince them
that they’re am
azing... even if that’s stretch-ing the truth. N
EVER vocalize a “N
egative”.
No “Kindas or M
aybes”. Be spe -cific and precise in your direction. Your clients are already nervous and so they need clear instruction and dem
onstration. Imitate what
you want from them
. Be assertive and use their nam
es when directing them
. That will
clear up any confusion about who you’re addressing. Be specific about your instructions. D
on’t say “Look down”... say “Steph, I want you to lightly look down at your left shoulder.”
When a photographer is shooting a wedding day, the first thing they search for during portraits is G
REAT light! O
nce the bride and groom are in that great light, the photographer will take a few shots and then if
they can’t think of another pose, what happens? In order to allow more tim
e to process another posing idea, the photographer says “Alright, lets keep going!” and they leave that great light to head to another location. W
hat if photographers were so confident in their posing that they MA
XED
out EVERY location on the wedding day! If you find G
REAT light, you should get as many im
ages as humanly possible from
that one spot. O
NE SPO
T, MAN
Y SHO
TS! The Posing Evolution can help you do that!
The Posing Evolution basically leverages those variances in every shooting location on the wedding day. By
changing lenses, composition, em
otion and the focus of the image, you can shoot up to 4 album
spreads in 5 m
inutes, in one location. In order to shoot this way, you have to have CON
FIDEN
CE in your posing. Ideally, you would also have m
ore than one lens (wider and portrait). So say goodbye to the excuse that “You didn’t have enough portrait tim
e”.... because if you have 10 minutes with your couple and one decent location,
you have all that you need.
example:
PO
WE
R
3 P
’sof posing
PR
AIS
EP
RE
CIS
ION
PO
SIN
GE
VO
LU
TIO
None spot, m
any shots
IMA
GE
S VA
RY
IN:
-composition
-emotion and pose
-lens and light-focus
People are driven byw
hat they FE
EL
,not just w
hat they SE
E
The “Prom
Pose” is not as cheesy as it sounds! I always tell my clients this when I teach them
this pose. Th
e basic prom pose is probably exactly what you’re envisioning in your head. Th
e groom
stands slightly behind the bride, hands around the waist, both smiling at the cam
era. Th
eir toes are both facing the same direction. From
this core pose, you can do SO M
UCH
! O
nce your couple is in position, don’t just take a shot of them sm
iling at the camera,
transition into a nuzzle. The groom
’s nose is on the bride’s temple and the bride is turned
slightly in his direction, laughing at her shoulder. Then have the bride “soften” her look (lips
together, eyes looking directly into the camera). Th
e groom can stay in a nuzzle and you’re
focusing on the bride’s model face! Shoot these different poses horizontally, vertically, wide
and tight. Bam! You have an album
spread and this is only core pose #1!
This is the pose where the groom
’s feet are facing forward (for the m
ost part) and the bride’s feet are facing the groom. Th
e bride com
es up and links herself to the groom. It could be an arm
around his waist or it could be an arm
linked around his elbow. Th
e idea of this pose is that the groom is set up first and the bride
then attaches to him in som
e way. This is a great way to m
ake sure the groom
is a focal point for some of the portrait tim
e! It’s easy for the bride to unintentionally steal the show!
This is the m
ost comm
only forgotten pose of all time! W
e forget in the m
ad rush of the wedding day that the Bride and Groom
don’t HAVE to be touching one another! It’s O
K to separate them
for a pose or two! It makes it even sweeter
when they come back together if they spend a few m
inutes apart! (Your sum
mer-tim
e couples will thank you for some
breathing room!) Th
ere are so many possibilities for poses
when the subject’s feet are apart! After you do a few poses of the two of them
apart, allow them to com
e together with a few feet in between and do som
e shots of them holding
hands. The bride can twist her shoulders away from
the groom
and then laugh back at him. Trust m
e, it’s cute!
This pose can go a LO
NG way! If I had all day, I would show you every single
variation that this pose is capable of and you would be amazed! Th
is pose starts off with the Bride and Groom
’s toes facing each other. I tell my couples to bring
their chests together and then I continue from there! You can start with “N
ose to N
ose” and then have them transition into a “N
uzzle” with the bride looking over her shoulder. I try to change the em
otions up during this pose as well. I’ll shoot a few soft, rom
antic shots and some laughing, interactive shots. See som
e of the exam
ples of the variations of this pose below!
TH
E F
OU
RC
OR
E P
OS
ES
overview
One - P
RO
M P
OS
E
Two - T
HE
SID
E L
INK
ON
E S
PO
T, MA
NY
SH
OT
S
Three - S
EPA
RA
TE
D
Four - CH
ES
T T
O C
HE
ST
“The days of draw
ing a BL
AN
K are over!”
Th e most nerve-racking thing about photographing a client is the m
oment when
you realize that you don’t have AN
Y idea what to do next! Drawing a blank is
embarassing and yet it happens A
LL of the time. It used to happen to m
e quite oft en and then I taught m
yself the Posing Evolution. Once you have the gen-
eral concept of “One Spot, M
any Shots”... the hard work begins. You have to REM
EMBER these four core poses in order to have am
ple posing options while shooting. So how does one do this? .....
RE
ME
MBE
R the feet!
It sounds so simple but it’s actually revolutionary! Th e FEET determ
ine what pose you’re in! So if you have been shooting portraits for 15-20 m
inutes and you know you need to change it up but you draw a blank, think about the position of your couple’s feet! Ask yourself these questions......
HA
VE
TH
EIR
FE
ET
BE
EN
....
IN P
RO
M P
OS
EC
HEST TO
CH
EST
SE
PAR
AT
ED
SID
E L
INK
ED
WO
RR
IED
AB
OU
T G
ET
TIN
G
ST
UC
K?!
Rem
ember the feet!
WO
RRIED ABOUT G
ETTINGO
n this page I’m going to walk you through how I would in-
struct a full set of bride and groom portraits in one core pose!
Hopefully this will help you see the flow of the posing evolu-
tion in action! In this posing set, I started with the couple in the “Chest to Chest” core pose!
“Carly I’m
going to have you laugh right over to M
ichael, Chris you’re
smiling at your bride!... Perfect!”
“Carly you can look right at m
e....just like that.” - I’m
scooting closer to fram
e the image tighter.
“Ok both of you can bring your
temples closer together and both
look right at me for a traditional
portrait... awesome!” - I stepped
even closer for this one!
“One m
ore a little closer! You guys look G
OO
D! Th
is is perfect!”...“C
arly I want you to smile up at
your “almost” husband! A
h! Chris
you’re smiling at m
e....”
- I dipped down and said....“You guys stay just like you are, this is a quick detail shot!”...
- I stand up and say... “Lets finish with one last nuzzle and C
arly, you’re laughing right over here (wave my hand right
where I want her to look).” - Th
is is the point that I switch to shooting horizontally for a few shots to add variety!
This im
age is from M
ICHA
EL’S AN
GLE. H
is job as my
second shooter is to capture a different angle. This norm
ally m
eans he’s focusing on the groom because I’m
normally
focusing on the bride!
Lets w
alk through this....TOG
ETH
ER
.
Always grab a quick single br idal & bouquet shotTIP:
Shoot a s much as you can without your client s moving their feetTIP:
Shoot out , in and wide to change the composit ionTIP:
Rotate from editor ial , to t radit ional , to fun /interact ion , to detailTIP:
Related Documents
