Linda left this comment on my blog awhile back when I shot the Neese Family Portraits and I think she has a great question.
I've never been good at posing. Yuck! One of my least favorite things to do as a photographer. But sometimes you gotta do it. Here's an example of an obviously posed photo. I'm pretty proud of this one because posing isn't my strong point but it came out beautifully I thought:
I've never been good at posing. Yuck! One of my least favorite things to do as a photographer. But sometimes you gotta do it. Here's an example of an obviously posed photo. I'm pretty proud of this one because posing isn't my strong point but it came out beautifully I thought:
So you gotta do the posed shots for pretty much every shoot. But what I really love to do is draw the emotion out of my clients. Everyone I work with--whether it's a family for family portraits or a couple for a wedding--has a connection, and that's what I want to capture. My goal is to be able to give as little direction as possible to get the desired effect. I need to get the emotion and connection from them but I don't want to be creating something that wouldn't be natural for them, I just want to create the environment in which what is natural for them comes out.
The two best and fastest ways (posing-wise) to get people to be natural in front of the camera and let their emotions out are to have them focus on one another and get as close to each other as possible. I try to take the attention off of the crazy lady pointing a camera in their face and get them to focus on each other as best I can. Sometimes this takes most of the shoot to do. Oftentimes I find that I get the best images in the last 15 minutes of a shoot because people have loosened up and are enjoying themselves. But I digress.
Ok. So I do give my clients direction on where to stand or walk generally. We want to get great light and pleasing backgrounds for the shots.
Here's an obviously posed wedding photo where I told the clients where to stand and then just asked them to look at one another. I love the connection in their look:
The two best and fastest ways (posing-wise) to get people to be natural in front of the camera and let their emotions out are to have them focus on one another and get as close to each other as possible. I try to take the attention off of the crazy lady pointing a camera in their face and get them to focus on each other as best I can. Sometimes this takes most of the shoot to do. Oftentimes I find that I get the best images in the last 15 minutes of a shoot because people have loosened up and are enjoying themselves. But I digress.
Ok. So I do give my clients direction on where to stand or walk generally. We want to get great light and pleasing backgrounds for the shots.
Here's an obviously posed wedding photo where I told the clients where to stand and then just asked them to look at one another. I love the connection in their look:
Here's an obviously posed maternity shot of two sisters I did awhile back:
After we did that shot, I told the couples to interact with one another and just kept shooting. Sometimes they're uncomfortable at first, not knowing what to do, but if you let the awkwardness linger for a little, they end up laughing and you get great stuff:
If couples are stiff and I can tell that they need a little more direction than just "interact with one another," I oftentimes will have them put their foreheads together. What that does is forces them to get close. Closeness, like I said, is one of the key factors to drawing out that natural emotion:
Another one of my favorite things to do is to get people walking. When they're walking they always look natural. I just make sure to tell them not to look at the camera but just at each other:
I'm very fortunate that many of my clients are total naturals and need very little direction other than asking them to stand, sit or walk in certain places. If you just leave them alone for a few minutes and shoot with your long lens off in the distance, you get total cuteness:
Hope that helps Linda! Great question!
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