The tricky thing about creating a beautiful portrait is that there are so many factors involved in portraiture.
On the one hand, you have to think about technical things like the camera settings you use and the lens you use to take the photos.
On the other hand, artistic elements come into play as well, particularly how to pose the model.
In this quick guideline, I offer up a few tips for female portrait poses.
Editor's Tip: The example images used in this article were shared with us by Sew Trendy Fashion & Accessories. For gorgeous portrait photography accessories, be sure to visit their website.
Have Her Shift Her Weight to Her Back Leg
When you have the model shift her weight to her back leg, a couple of things happen.
First, it creates a more dynamic silhouette, with the addition of the curvature of the leg nearest the camera.
As you can see in the image above, even though the model is wearing a beautiful gown with tons of volume toward the bottom, you can still see the curviness of her front leg as it bends forward from her hips.
The other thing that happens when weight is shifted to the back leg is that it has the effect of slimming the woman's silhouette.
If she puts weight on her front leg, it makes that leg look much larger. So, by having her weight on the back leg, the model's figure is slimmed.
I don't know of many models that wouldn't want that!
Learn More:
- 8 Tips Every Portrait Photographer Should Try Right Now
- These Three Tricks Will Help You Create a Beautiful Portrait
How to Pose in Pictures: Watch Her Posture
If you watch people in your day-to-day life, you'll probably notice that most of us don't have the best posture.
In particular, people tend to have shoulders that slouch forward, which isn't exactly a good look for a portrait.
When posing your model, you might need to remind her to bring her shoulders back.
Now, that doesn't mean that she needs to pinch her shoulder blades together, either. As you can see in the image above, simply having straight shoulders does a world of good for her posture.
Good posture is essential for any portrait, but it's especially necessary when the model is wearing an off-the-shoulder gown like the one shown above.
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Posing for Portraits: Add Some Space
When people normally stand with their arms at their sides, there's not much of a gap between their body and their arms.
This can pose a problem for portraits because if the arms are right next to the body with no gap between, it can create the illusion that the model is wider than she actually is.
To get around this, simply add some space between the model's arms and her torso.
In the image above, the model's figure is slimmed because her arms are positioned away from her body, creating space that helps define her figure.
Again, in this example, you can see the benefit of having the model pose with her left arm extended away from her body.
This helps define her figure while also giving her the ability to bring the train of her gown upward and outward from her body, which adds more texture and richness to the portrait.
With this and the other portrait photography tips outlined above, you can more confidently help your portrait subjects pose.
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