Channel: Michael's Photo Tips

Category: Education

Tags: lingerieit made clickbookfemale (literature subject)picpicturestipssettingboudoirphotokina workshopstrike a posephotography (visual art form)tipmodeltutorialcameragood light! clipsposeslightroomflowmodel (profession)digitalimagesposetricksportraitmodellinghelpfemale photo modelmichael zelbelphotographebookphotograph (media genre)boudoir flow posinggood light maggood lightnudebody typesphoto shootposingphotographywomenstory

Description: goodlightmag.com/boudoirflowposing - Flow Posing: In this episode of It Made Click! I am answering a question that I got from our audience at the photokina workshop... twice. As a photographer, do you ever find yourself struggling to explain yourself to a model? Do you ever find yourself struggling for the words to describe a pose? Do you sometimes struggle to recall a particular pose that might suit the moment? In this article I would like to share with you a trick that I use to remember my poses, call it a brain-hack. This hack allows me to quickly and easily memorise even large sequences of poses and recall them at any point in the future. Why is this important? In my line of photography: Nude, Lingerie, Boudoir, it is of the utmost importance that I have the confidence and trust of the model right from the beginning of the shoot. This trust shines through in the finished photographs. To be able to get good photographs right from the start, I use a wide variety of poses; poses that I have tried and tested and that I trust. They suit a huge range of expressions, and there is something for all body types. These poses have the added benefit of giving inspiration to clients who may not feel so confident on the day. They help to get the creative process started and get the models imagining how good they are going to look in the finished photograph. This is a huge confidence booster and a great kick start to the creative process. To achieve this, I need to have a wide variety of poses up my sleeve. I also need to have my poses arranged in a sequence that makes sense to me and the model. The sequence must be easy to follow through, with only small differences between each one. This way, I can re-pose the model quickly, aiming to get through around 30 poses in 30 minutes. Now, the main issue for any photographer in this situation will be the question of how to recall thirty poses in quick succession. In my experience, many photographers struggle to recall poses in the heat of the moment. I have to admit that I have suffered from this myself, and like many people, I find it difficult to recall long sequences of anything. To help, I have developed a few memory tricks to help me along, these also work with poses. The first thing that I do is I give the pose a name. It can be hard to recall an image, but an image and a name, that’s much easier. And not just any name; in every pose I see I try to visualise a letter of the alphabet within it. Then I choose a name which starts with that letter. For example, if the pose reminds me of the letter “Y” I name the pose “Yeti.” Is the pose reminds me of a “P,” I call it “Pool,” an “A” would be “Anchor” and so on. Later, if I can think of the letter, I can think of the name, then it’s much easier to recall the pose. Now I have a list of thirty names. That might seem like a long list to try and remember, but what I do to help the process along is make up a story that includes all of the words. The stranger and funnier the story; the better. Once I started doing this, I began to remember all of my poses with no difficulty. For example: On a sunny day, a Yeti jumped into a pool. At the bottom he found an Anchor. Once I have come up with my story, I will have no trouble remembering it at any point in the future, a week, a year, no problem. Because the story is hilarious, it stays in my mind, and there is no learning involved, your own story will sink in very quickly. Try this out. Take the series of poses that you like best. What letters can you see within them? Now come up with your own strange story. I promise you will find this is a lot easier than you think. If you would like a shortcut, I have created a very useful guide detailing the thirty poses that I like best and find myself using most often while shooting. It’s called "Boudoir Flow Posing – A System for 30 Hot Poses in 30 Minutes" It is available as a PDF download and can be purchased here goodlightmag.com/boudoirflowposing.