cgardner
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Click the WWW button below and look in the TOC for the tutorial on shooting groups, analyzing faces, feet-up posing, and posing hands.
Poses are just the conscious replication of body language we react to subconsciously. All standing poses, even H&S shots, start with the feet on the ground. A portrait photographer in NJ named Joe Zeltsman noticed how shifting weight between the feet has a domino effect, shifting the angle of the hips and shoulders. My mentor Monte Zucker studied with Joe and used the same technique.
A group of 100 can be posed in about 30 sec. by standing in the middle, turning both sides to the middle, asking them to point their front foot at the camera, then shift weight to the back foot and hip. Then tell them to put their inside hand over their back pocket so the guy behind doesn't steal their wallet. That will get the hands out of the horrible looking "fig leaf" pose and get 100 smiles. The other outside arm hangs to the side. The weight shift will angle all the shoulders in towards the center. Its a relaxed comfortable posture and that comes across in the photo.
All the same things work for couples or a solo portrait.
The best way to learn posing its to try the pose yourself in a mirror. That will help you understand what it feels like in terms of weight shift and hip/shoulder/eyeline angles. Once you grasp the "feet up" method by trying it yourself in front of a mirror you should be able to reverse engineer any pose you see in a photo.
Its not rocket science, just getting in touch consciously with how you react subconsciously to body language in real life and when you see it in media.
Chuck
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