Posing is one of the biggest challenges for most photographers. As a photographer, you need to be an expert with working with lighting and angles, as well as know some psychology and how to work with and direct people. Whether they are a supermodel or a soccer mom, people have flaws (or perceived flaws) in their physical appearance, which makes them self-conscious when a camera is pointed in their direction. Everyone wants to look their best in photographs and, in a nutshell, that is your ultimate job as a portrait photographer.
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That said, there are many tricks you can do to make your subject look more flattering in front of your lens. In the following CreativeLive video (an excerpt from her Portrait Photography Bootcamp), Lindsay Adler gives some tips on how to pose full figure women with a one light setup. Using a large umbrella with a diffusion to create a softbox, Lindsay begins with talking about adding a little bit more shadow to give some more “sculpting,” instead of just flat lighting, so she puts the light on the side of the subject. Lindsay then demonstrates her “super basic, super essential pose” and gives various, helpful tips throught the 5.5 minute video.
Lindsay first shows what it looks like with her model standing “normal” with no posing direction:
Then Lindsay demonstrates her basic pose technique, and the results are much more flattering:
Watch Posing Full Figure Women with a One Light Setup
For more tips on posing check out, A SUMMARY OF ROBERTO VALENZUELA’S 21-POINT POSING SYSTEM.
