Photography

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A place to politely discuss the tools, technique and culture of photography.

This is not a good place to simply share cool photos/videos or promote your own work and projects, but rather a place to discuss photography as an art and post things that would be of interest to other photographers.

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How should photographers pose subjects verbally? (alien.top)

submitted 11 months ago by Elegant_Sloth@alien.top to c/photography@viewfinder.pro

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When you're photographing someone or a team for business purposes, how do you interact with them? Do you spend time trying to put them at ease, ask how they want to be portrayed, or just say "stand here, lean back, look here. YES YOU'RE KILLING IT!"? I got professional headshots done by my company with some team photos and I hate how I look in all of them. The headshots I though would be chest up so I didn't pose my lower half or I was told to pose a certain way and it looks awful. I've seen the other's photos and they look natural and relaxed. I look awkward and rigid. The photographer said maybe 4 sentences in all 5 photos for how I should stand and none look good. I've never had photos taken of me outside of school pictures and I really tried with posing tutorials beforehand so I was excited. Was this the norm for team type shoots or do others do this differently? What could I have done differently as a subject to get the most out of a rushed session?

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[–] MattMakesPhotos@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

Agree that no photographers shoot the same. If you're just doing a shoulder up kind of headshot and don't have a starting point and have to do it super quickly, one foot pointing forward, heels together, turn the other foot around 90 degrees to create an L shape with the feet. Then look back towards the camera. This will result in a turn in the upper body and a slight angle to the face which can work very nicely.

For a more involved shoot I am more likely to try and get them natural, get them to talk to me about something that gives them joy and so on. I'll gently guide them to move aspects of their body that might be working against them but don't want to make it too rigid.

Look up Jerry Ghionis and other posing masters. I like Jerry's concept that you either rebuild a house (pose) from scratch if the person is incredibly awkward, or you renovate (let them do their thing, then alter their pose a little for the camera). I tend to ask people to be comfortable and then renovate rather than start from scratch.