Posing tips, Progression (Part 2)
I thought I would just go through briefly what to expect as a model on set. There’s another resource here talking more about photography strategy and prep. This one’s more about posing, interacting with the camera, etc. It's geared towards modeling and might be useful if it’s your first time or you need a refresher!
Posing and Activity Focus
The good thing is, much of our work involves activities you already do. We’re not asking for complex modeling poses. Instead, we're focusing on making your natural activities work in the images, with adjustments as needed. This could mean keeping your eyes up while running or not tensing your hands too much. It’s about enhancing what you already do, not changing it.
Modeling Approach: Authenticity and Movement
There are two main aspects to posing for our project: traditional exercise motions and other modeling poses. Being authentic is important; it brings something new that planned poses sometimes can’t. We’re after your unique touches, like a different way you might turn your head or stand. The goal is to create content that’s fresh and hasn’t been seen before. For females, this could be considered the part that is a little more fashion forward, artsy. It’s creating art through people. For men, we probably aren’t getting quite as flowy or fashion forward but still want to show your personality. (Btw, I hesitate to refer you to tutorials on YouTube because they tend to encourage bad habits, things done on every fit shoot!)
Philosophy on Movement and Poses
We like movement and capturing transitions. Static poses aren’t as interesting as seeing you move or transition between poses. This approach helps you relax more and brings a natural less rigid feel to the shoot. We'll work together on this, making small adjustments which add up to a greater variety of poses. An example might be shifting your weight to your opposite leg, or adjusting your hands. I’ll do my best to be clear when we should do something again to get more looks at it or if we can move onto something different.
As the photographer I am looking for interesting light but you can also gravitate towards light. Think about adjustments you can make to poses to allow light to hit your face (we are typically looking for light perpendicular or mostly straight on to your face). Turning your face towards the light more frequently can be a huge help.
A progression of “other modeling poses” might look like this:
Stoic facing camera symmetrical, hands come up to hip, one hand drops, smile with your eyes, weight is shifted to one leg, weight is shifted to other side, head tilts, hand comes up again, hand do a natural movement such as fixing hair or adjusting clothing, squat down to tie shoe, head looks up, head looks at the camera, stand up, look up, close eyes, etc. etc. You get the idea! It’s just constant intentional movement from one pose to the next, a bit of a dance.
Encouragement and Experimentation
This is a collaborative, fun process. Don’t worry about making mistakes; it’s part of finding 10 or so images that we can walk away with. We might take thousands of photos to get just those few that work and that is totally okay. It’s all about experimenting and enjoying the process, deleting things that don’t work for us.
Preparation and Collaboration
Consider practicing some movements or poses beforehand, just to get a feel. We’ll also have the mood board containing poses for inspiration. Feel free to contribute to that; it’s a tool for us all to shape the shoot together. While we don’t like to imitate traditional fit modeling poses, there are some poses we find that we’d like to touch on during the shoot and those are usually kept on the mood board. Feel free to check those out so you can use them.
Looking forward to the shoot and really appreciate your participation. It’s about making fun, creative content together, and I’m here to guide and work together with you.