Posing Techniques

I need some ideas for posing models so I have purchased the following from Amazon:

Most of the models I've worked with have clear ideas about poses and the looks they want to achieve, but thinking ahead to the photo sessions I will be doing with friends I will have to give more direction.

I'm particularly interested in learning about ways to place the hands and using the body to create shapes that look natural.

Project 1: Portrait, scale & setting

Brief
Four scales of portrait in one session:

• Face cropped in close
• Head and shoulders
• Torso, taking into account arms and hands
• Full figure

These were taken recently for an urban styled photoshoot with a model and make-up artist, on London's Southbank. The location was chosen to provide a vibrant backdrop and the challenge for me was to try to prevent it from becoming the main focal point. I moved the model around to alter the background and varied the distance between her and the walls to enable me to throw them out of focus. I recently acquired an 85mm 1.8 lens and this was my first outing with it. I used available light and a silver reflector for the close-up shots.

What have I learned?
Image 1 - In this shot I found a way to make the eyes prominent (with the aid of make-up) even when the model is looking away from the camera.

Image 2 - In order to keep the eyes prominent, I have blurred the foreground whilst cropping the background to a minimum. I usually concentrate on simply throwing the background out of focus, but this photoshoot really made think about different ways to use it.
Image 3 - In this shot I was trying to provide some separation from the background by using a section of wall that contrasted with the model's clothing. I also angled the camera to produce some leading lines.
Image 4 - I debated whether to try and lose the detail in the background of this shot and finally settled on this with only a slightly soft background. Both myself and the model ran out of ideas with regard to the placement of hands. I didn't want the hands hanging limply by her sides, but found hands on hips or hands held up to the head becoming quite repetitive.

People & Place

I received my study pack for the People and Place course with the OCA. Initially it seemed a little light because it only has half as many pages as Art of Photography. However on closer inspection, it is much wordier and the projects are more involved and difficult to set up because they involve people in different settings.

I can see that I'm going to have to rope my friends into posing for me in order to complete some of the exercises, but hopefully they will end up with good quality photographs so it will be mutually beneficial.

I have jotted down the requirements of all of the projects for part 1 so that I can start planning them. My aim to is to complete them as opportunities arise, so they won't necessarily be completed in the correct order.

Formal Assessment - AOP

The postman has just delivered the result of my assessment for Art of Photography. I got 60% overall, which is equivalent to a 2:1. There are individual marks for skills, knowledge, invention, communication, and judgement.

The written feedback made references to my experimentation, inventiveness, and developing technical and communications skills. My work was described as 'visually engaging and showing emerging personal identity'.

What have I learned?
The detailed marks give an indication of areas that I can improve upon. This is something that I will bear in mind as I progress to the next module. It's not just about fulfilling the brief and taking interesting photographs, it's also about developing and demonstrating a specific skillset.

I'm very happy!

Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning (APEL)

I received the results of my application today. I applied for exemption from the remaining two level 1 units of my photography degree and  was granted exemption from Digital Photographic Practice but not People and Place.

I have enjoyed working my way through Art of Photography. My pictures have definitely improved and I was forced to tackle subjects that I wouldn't normally photograph, but I wanted a more demanding level of study.

I'm a little disappointed that I can't start level 2 immediately, but think People and Place will be interesting, particularly in view of my new role with the casting agency. My enrolment form has been submitted and I look forward to receiving my new study materials.

GBSEx III

I spent the weekend in Manchester at the third annual Great British Salsa Experience Congress. This is by far the UK's best salsa weekender and an opportunity to catch up with friends from all over the country as well as overseas.

This was also a very important event for Dos-Seis Dance Company who were able to showcase their current routine to an international audience for the first time. I captured the girls preparing for their congress début in Manchester Town Hall and converted the images to black and white in Lightroom.

Dos-Seis Dance Company

My friend manages a dance group and asked me to take some publicity shots of them last Saturday. Their début performance is this Sunday and the images have been posted on Facebook, included in a promotional video and will be uploaded to their website.

I bought a background support and some black muslin recently. I have played with this set up at home, but this was my first opportunity to use it with live models. We were in a large studio as the group had planned to rehearse after the photoshoot so there was plenty of room and plenty of light. I used a couple of the studio's built-in spotlights as continuous light sources rather than use my speedlights.

What have I learned?

These dancers all had poses worked out in advance and in view of the purpose of the photographs, they are highly stylised. However, I still think their individual personalities shine through.

I had to darken the background in Photoshop so, in future I need to try and underexpose the background at the time of capture. In some instances, a bit of back/rim lighting would have been useful to lift the subjects from the background.