Dealing with baggage

“I love my body shape, in particular my arms, I think my skin and hair are fabulous and I’m at my perfect weight. I’m also incredibly proud of every single line on my face; they are proof that I have lived!” said no woman… ever.

I’ve photographed thousands of women over the years and I’ve never met one who is completely happy about their body image.

Every woman carries baggage around about her looks. It may be the size of their thighs, the texture of their skin, the shape of their nose, arms, hair, or ears. I’ve heard them all.

These imperfections may be real or perceived, and usually completely overinflated in the woman’s mind but it’s our job as photographers to find their true beauty and show them.

Posing womenA beautiful mind

Many women grow up thinking they don’t look great in photos. I don’t think they do. At all. The reason many women don’t look great in photos is they haven’t been posed and lit by someone who understands how to pose and light a shot. It’s that simple.

When I’m photographing a woman, I usually spend a great deal of time trying to change her mindset. Left to her own devices, a female model will usually focus on her flaws for the entire shoot. Most women would never speak to their worst enemy the way they speak to themselves and I can often almost hear their internal dialogue:

“I think I look fat in this dress.”

“I hate how my hair looks today.”

“Why am I here? Who am I kidding, I’m too old for this.”

“I wish I didn’t eat the entire jar of Nutella last night.”

“I can’t smile. It makes my cheeks look fat.”

“Does blue and black work together?”

These thoughts are played on loop throughout the shoot until I step in and stage an intervention. I will use all the visualization techniques outlined in the section on head shots.

When a woman feels beautiful, she is beautiful. The eyes sparkle, smile and body language is confident. Always pose a woman to highlight her best features and diminish the ones she is least confident about.

“Beauty comes as much from the mind as from the eye.” – Grey Livingston

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Here is a list of the most common areas most women are concerned about when being photographed. This list applies to every woman; even supermodels.

1. Upper arms

Aside from being asked, “does this make my butt look big?” the most commonly asked question I get from female models is “can you make my arms look better?”

My answer is always “yes!”

It begins with the clothes. If a woman is really unhappy with her arms, I avoid strapless tops or skimpy straps, which will make her arms look bigger.

How you position your models also impacts how they look.

You can also use poses that hide her upper arms, crop through the upper arms or hide parts of the arms behind doorways or poles.

The usual suspects

Keep arms away from the body. If they are pressed against the body, they will spread and look thicker. Bending your model’s arms instantly adds tone and shape.

Avoid upper arm bulge by asking your model to always bend their arms and never rest full bodyweight on their hands.

2. Hips and stomach

Posing your model’s hips side-on to camera will diminish how big their hips and waist look. The contrapposto S pose is perfect for the curvy woman as it flatters every figure.

3. Skin

Overexposing your model’s skin by 1 f-stop will help to give the illusion of flawless skin. You should also avoid hard lighting such as direct sunlight.

Achieving perfect skin tone is an area I cover in a lot of detail in my first book: Making The Shot.

4. Bottom

Asking your model to arch her back and stick out her bottom will give her figure a great shape.

5. Legs

The best technique to lengthen legs (and make them appear thinner) is to put them in high heels. This also makes legs appear shapelier because the leg muscles are engaged for balance.

If your model is seated, make sure she is sitting on the edge of the chair rather than resting her total weight on the chair as this will enhance the size of her legs.

Asking your model to point her toes when she’s seated will also make legs appear longer.

Two styling techniques that also work are:

• Wearing dark stockings or a monochromatic outfit.

• Wearing a high-waisted skirt or pants creates an illusion of longer legs because it makes the waist appear shorter.

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The way

Directing women is all about making them feel good about themselves and confident about their bodies. Ensuring they love the way their hair, makeup and wardrobe look is essential.

I always give my female models something to do with their hands, somewhere to look and something to think about while they are doing any pose.

I like to give really detailed direction to women and explain why I am doing each position. For example: “If you stand with your feet like this, hips like that and arms like this, it will be very slimming and give you a really flattering shape.”

Generally, I find men are not interested in the details. It’s enough to say, “stand like this because it will make you look really good.”

Some women are too shy to say anything negative for fear of offending you. They will go along with an entire shoot and then mention after the shoot that they hated their hair, lipstick or the dress they were wearing. Getting an open dialogue going from the first meeting with your model can help make sure they feel comfortable telling you what they think, honestly.

Heels will make legs look longer and add muscle definition.

Wonder Woman

The standing pose is all about attitude. A great standing pose is confident, beautiful and natural and it works for portraits, fashion, corporate and advertising shots.

Putting a woman in this pose not only makes her look confident but it will help her feel confident. Research on body language has shown that if you stand in a confident manner, your brain will listen and make you feel that way.

Arms can be on hips and back slightly or in pockets or playing with hair.

This pose can be softened by the expression somewhat.

Image credit: Claire Hocking. Image courtesy of Foxtel.

Image credit: Catherine Grant for Piper Lane.

Image credit: Jessica Napier. Image courtesy of Nine Network Australia.

Image credit: Rachael Perks. Image courtesy of Foxtel.

Image credit: Nerida Bourne. Image courtesy of Foxtel.

Image credit: Catherine Grant for Piper Lane.

Image credit: Catherine Grant for Piper Lane.

One size fits all: 5 essential poses for every woman

The wallflower

Having something to do, like lean against a wall, will always make your model feel more confident. There are dozens of variations on this pose and it works for every body shape and style of portrait.

Image credit: Suzie Wilks.

Image credit: Shelbie Koch from www.nichemodelsandtalent.com

Image credit: Kimberley Davies.

Image credit: Diana Glenn. Image courtesy of Nine Network Australia.

Image credit: Michala Banas.

Image credit: Natalie Gruzlewski. Image courtesy of Nine Network Australia.

Image credit: Zoe Naylor.

Image credit: Kate Ceberano. Image courtesy of Nine Network Australia.

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The laydown Sally

This lying down pose mostly focuses on the face but it can also be a great body shot.

When you’re using this pose, ensure your model’s hands only lightly touch their face or hair, and their chin is forward (to avoid any double chins).

You can vary this shot by having your model sitting and resting their body over an ottoman or the back of a couch.

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Image credit: Diana Glenn. Image courtesy of Nine Network.

Image credit: Elise Jansen. Image credit: Kimberley Davies. Image credit: Shelbie Koch from www.nichemodelsandtalent.com

Image credit: Jocelyn Idriss from www.nichemodelsandtalent.com

Sit tight

I think the sitting pose is probably one of my favorite poses because you can achieve so many different variations. One pose can very easily flow into three or four different shots, from full-body shots to tight head shots. This is especially useful because when a pose flows with few interruptions, it’s much easier to maintain a great expression.

Far left: Image credit: Gigi Edgley. Image courtesy of Nine Network Australia.

Top middle: Katrina Aguirre from www.nichemodelsandtalent.com

Bottom middle: Image credit: Suzie Wilks.

Top right: Image credit: Ariel Kaplan.

Bottom right: Image credit: Cindy Sargon.

Below: Image credit: Kimberley Davies.

Lifestyle pose

The lifestyle pose is all about posing women doing everyday things. I think of a scenario and get my model to repeat it over and over. I also love to give these shots a candid feel by capturing the model laughing or glancing off camera.

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Far left: Image credit: Cindy Sargon. Top middle: Image credit: Jade MacRae. Bottom middle: Image credit: Suzie Wilks. Above: Image credit: Katrina Aguirre from www.nichemodelsandtalent.com.

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Image credit: Jocelyn Idriss from www.nichemodelsandtalent.com

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Image credit: Gia and Roxy.Image credit: Cindy Sargon. Image credit: Suzie Wilks.

A few more poses worth considering…

MASCULINE POSES FOR WOMEN

With the right hair, makeup, accessories and styling, I think a woman can look incredibly sexy in a masculine pose.

ADD SOME LIFE

“The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind”– Bob DylanIt’s quite simple to add some extra life to a portrait.

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These images are achieved by simply asking the model to twirl. Image credit: Piper Lane.

You can achieve this look by asking your model to leap and then have a stylist or assistant flick the dress up from behind. This is all about timing and will take a few attempts before you get the timing right. Image credit: Manuell and Moore.

Image credit: Manuell and Moore.Image credit: Manuell and Moore. Image credit: Kasia Zachwieja.

These are some more shots with the fabric flicked up at the last moment. The thing I love most about this shot is you will always get a completely different shape of fabric every time you do it.

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