Posing very overweight seniors

Got a graduation & senior portrait session this weekend with a girl who is very overweight. I'm comfortable posing average seniors but but I find ones that are way overweight a real problem. I photographed a very heavy girl a few weeks ago, and she looked scrunched in almost any kind of pose. Anyone have any suggestions of poses that will be complementary to this next girl?

I would like to hear some ideas on this as well. As I have also had this problem.

That can be tough. The only tips I can give you is to make sure her chin is held up to help reduce the double and triple chin effect, shoot from a slightly higher angle to give a more flattering perspective and crop kind of tightly (for instance; if her arms are very large, crop the photo so that the back of her arm nearest the camera is not included....it looks more flattering)

Déjà vu! Didn't were just talk about this in another thread?

To repeat myself, I am a "person of size." I have found that the most flattering portraits of me are:

1 — taken when I am standing. This lets gravity work for you instead of against you, and helps get rid of the scrunched-up look,

2 — taken at a 3/4 angle. This helps to compensate for the puffy cheeks of full-face shots and the multiple chins of profile shots.

3 — taken as head and shoulders only. This minimizes the size of the torso.

4 — taken at my eye level. This minimizes the roundness of the face, effectively lengthening it, without being so high that it shows the top of the head. (If you're a short photographer, stand on a stepstool.)

5 — taken from a little farther away than for those malnourished skinny people. This also helps to reduce facial roundness.

Hope this helps.

DO NOT have the person look down at you. Have them lift and push their chin out a little bit. This thins the neck out a bit.

Moving the key light further to the side can thin the face.

In addition to shooting from up high, if you have the person lean forward and stick their chin out just a little it helps to tighten the skin on the neck.

Searched beforehand but didn't find anything. All great comments. Thanks for sharing them.

What about sitting them on an execise bike...hahaha

Sorry - couldn't resist that.

philwillmedia wrote in post #10159190
What about sitting them on an execise bike...hahaha

Sorry - couldn't resist that.

hahaha...

I would have to say let them stand... can you let them use shoal or something during senior shoots?just to cover the arms etc...

any example pictures? would love to hear!!

philwillmedia wrote in post #10159190
What about sitting them on an execise bike...hahaha

Only if you want some fat person to shove your camera up your....

Many of us have considerable muscle under all that blubber, and can move surprisingly fast.

You should have. Making fun of people because they are fat tends to piss them off. We know we are fat. We know it's unhealthy. We don't need to have our faces rubbed in it.

I, for example, have a slightly overweight lawyer who lets people know very litigiously that it's not nice to make fun of people of size.

Short lighting helps.