In-Studio Posing with Laura Shortt
Before I jump into the meaty topic of in-studio posing, I want to begin with a premise from which all of my tips in this article emanate. I believe all posing can be broken down to the same fundamental goal: honour who the subject is that’s standing in front of your camera and make them look damn good.
Now I know what you’re thinking: easier said than done, Laura. But hear me out. There are some key steps when it comes to posing that, if we follow, will help to produce results that are both professional and beautiful.
To begin, when I say honour who the subject is, this means that as photographers we have to walk into the studio with eyes really open when we look at the person standing in front of our cameras. We have to be present enough to take them in and through the process of photographing them we’re going to find that some poses work for their bodies and some don’t, and that’s OK. Take for example the following photos of yours truly modeling two different poses. The first pose is very ‘fashion’ and works best on lean bodies. It doesn’t work for my curvier shape (it flattens my arm against my body making it appear larger than it is, and my arms are too short to hold the pose in a way that looks natural). But if you tried that pose on a woman with a longer, leaner body type, she would look fantastic. The next photo of me is much better for my body type. My arms shape my figure in such a way to create a nice hourglass figure, which is very flattering visually.
In fact, when shooting female clients, my go-to poses are often ones that flatter and enhance an hourglass shape in their figures. I find that women usually adore portraits of themselves where I’ve coached them to create an hourglass figure through posing (and where I’m running a business, it’s important that I deliver portraits that my clients are going to love).
