Posing questions.....

I have literally been on over 100 photo shoots now.... I have never second shot with any one, just grabbed my gear and went out to practice. It seems like no matter how many times I go out the one thing I ALWAYS worry about is positioning. With single subjects. High school seniors mostly. Is there a course or a book or DVD that can help me get more creative in this process?

no one has any input on this??? I am the first guy ever with this problem?

just some insight here are my last photo results.....

http://www.lnjphotogra​phy.net …G#!i=1737951127​&k=tn4zcxJ

there are some posing books you can get, and just try to get your subjects to do those poses.

here's one:
http://www.amazon.com …F8&qid=13310604​54&sr=8-12

James504 wrote in post #14035294
no one has any input on this??? I am the first guy ever with this problem?

just some insight here are my last photo results.....

http://www.lnjphotogra​phy.net …G#!i=1737951127​&k=tn4zcxJ

google is your friend. Go to other photographer's sites and see what they are doing and copy poses that you like.

banpreso wrote in post #14036178
there are some posing books you can get, and just try to get your subjects to do those poses.

here's one:
http://www.amazon.com …F8&qid=13310604​54&sr=8-12

Thank you maybe this will break the writers block I am having

suecassidy wrote in post #14042873
google is your friend. Go to other photographer's sites and see what they are doing and copy poses that you like.

I am not big on stealing other peoples ideas... I am mainly looking for a guide that could help me be more creative. Something that tells me why you pose some one a certain way and gives details on posing.

That's sometimes my sticking point too, though for different reasons. I don't feel that having my model emulate a pose I saw somewhere else can even begin to approach "stealing" the idea. There's no way to pose a person that hasn't already been done by someone somewhere.

However, poses that work well for one model certainly don't work for all models. So copying something that I like that someone else has done, doesn't always work.

I'm still getting the hang of studying a model's features and determining how to pose them to make them look good. Sometimes you see an image that just has that "something," but I can't always identify it (and therefore, create it) yet. Still a lot of trial-and-error for me, more than I'm really comfortable with, especially when I'm using someone else's time.

Here is a great article about just this!

http://neilvn.com …day-people-for-portraits/

Check out Monte Zucker's "Portrait Photography Handbook".

This may be of interest - toying with the idea of the DVD myself! http://peterhurley.com​/dvd/

Justaddwata wrote in post #14053994
This may be of interest - toying with the idea of the DVD myself! http://peterhurley.com​/dvd/

absolutely amazing lol.... I AM SOLD!!!

Kirk Voclain just released a posing DVD.

http://youtu.be/UHxdom​5pIdY

James504 wrote in post #14048942
Thank you maybe this will break the writers block I am having


I am not big on stealing other peoples ideas... I am mainly looking for a guide that could help me be more creative. Something that tells me why you pose some one a certain way and gives details on posing.

Just start with them as inspirations and make changes to fit the mood, scene, and subjects.

RDKirk wrote in post #14107276
Just start with them as inspirations and make changes to fit the mood, scene, and subjects.

I was taught to do this in photography school and to use this as a starting point. Eventually, you will develop your own style and you will learn how to vary the pose you are "copying" to suit the model, the mood, the lighting, the intent of the image. Some people can do this without the need to mimic initially, but others need to do this to get kickstarted. It's not stealing, it is "mirroring" and there really is no way that you can do the EXACT thing as someone else anyway. Whatever it takes to just get you out there shooting!