Dressing for Success: Clothing Color Selection for Portraits That Accentuate Your Features
Dressing for Success: Clothing Color Selection for Portraits That Accentuate Your Features
Unposed vs. Posed Portraits
Unposed vs. Posed
When was the last time you had your portrait taken?
Why has it been so long? Are you scared? Do you hide from the camera at family events because you don’t want to see yourself in a picture? Well to be honest, I do too. After all friends and family don’t really care if they make you look your best. The same can be said for trying to find the cheapest photographer around. Do you think that photographer is going to have your best interests in mind?
Professional photographers are trained in guiding and directing you into poses that make you look your absolute best and most flattering for your body type. Isn’t that what we all want? I know I do!
I have never had someone ask me to make them look 10-20lbs heavier, but I have had people ask me for candid’s, but is that what they really mean? What they really mean is that they don’t want to look to stiff and uncomfortable and they want a nice expression. Even the really good candid’s that you may have seen, most likely are still posed ins some manner, by giving them movement cues. By using good posing techniques and the correct camera angles we can make you look 10-20lbs slimmer.
The first image above represents an unposed position. I used myself for this demonstration and these were just done on my phone for purpose of this demonstration. I just sat down on a stool just like what would happen if you asked a client to sit on a stool without giving them any other directions. I look uncomfortable in this image, I don’t look happy because i feel uncomfortable, and I also look wider because my arms are straight down the sides of my body adding to the width of my body at a glance.
In the posed image I look more confident and poised. I moved to just the edge of the stool and added angles to improve the pose, I added interest and negative space. This pose isn’t completely perfect here, because I couldn’t see myself when photographing this, but if this was on a client then I would have asked them to pull the outer sweater in closer to my body to reveal the negative space in between my body and my arms making me look slimmer then in the previous unposed picture.
So if getting your portrait taken scares you, then maybe it’s time to look into going to a Professional Photographer who will take the time to make you look your best. Do it for you, do it for your children, do it for your family for one day they will go looking for pictures of you. What will they find?
Professional Photography is So Much More Than Just the Click of a Button.
Professional Photography is so Much More Than Just a Click of the Button.
Professional Photographers don’t just click a button to capture the moment. There are SO MANY things to think about!
We have to worry about lighting, lighting placement, camera angle, focus, exposure, settings on our camera, backdrops that coordinate well with your subjects clothing, and so many other technical elements before we even introduce a client into the scene.
Then there’s finding the most flattering pose for each and every client and directing them into each and every pose from there head all the way down to their toes.
Finally then trying to persuade and coax them into a great expression while still checking all of the things in your frame and making sure nothing is out of place.
For example the image demonstrates the rule of perspective that changes everything!
In the first image my hand is closest to the camera therefore it will look the biggest.
In the second image my hand is pulled back up against my body and you can see how it looks more proportionate now.
So following this rule, if you want to make something look bigger bring it up closest to the camera. If you want to make something look smaller you push it back away from the camera.
This is why finding a professional photographer you can trust to make you look your absolute best is so important and worth paying for.