Varying the pose

Varying the pose: the three main types of posing by models in magazines I found were standing, leaning and sitting. Standing varied immensely, from profile shots, to walking shots and also less conventional ones like legs wide apart and arms spread as I saw in the photograph of model ‘Alli’ at ‘Photogenics’ by Sondra Stocker in You magazine- 15 April 2012.

1. (Standing)

2. (Standing)

   Of course, in fashion and commercial magazines ‘inviting’ poses are desirable in order to sell products. There were many ways photographers’ work I looked at in such magazines achieved this. Some of these were subtle as well. For example with the cover photo of Nicole Trunfio by Zoltan Tombor in You Inspire magazine (4 March 2012), her hands are raised above her head in a manner that shows off the dress she is wearing. This is because it is quite an extravagant way to have the hands arranged above her head, which attracts the eye. The viewer’s eye then automatically ‘falls’ down to the dress she is wearing. The dress mirrors the extravagance of the hands position. So without gesturing at all to the dress Zoltan Tombor has subtly shown off the dress to its full extent.

4. (Standing)

3. (Standing)

   So I tried to use this principle in one of the photographs of my subject standing (number 4). I thought it worked well. The static nature of her clothes (horizontal stripes) was reflected by her arms raised directly above her head in reflection to her clothes. However, I thought the 1^st photo I took of my subject standing (1) was the most effective. This was because the pose looked unforced, yet interesting. I thought the legs crossed in number 2 was a nice touch but the photograph as a whole was a bit static. For 3 I felt the interaction with the surroundings was interesting and attractive (since it was blossom she was holding) but if she had been facing the camera with her head it would have been better.

5. (Sitting)

6. (Sitting)

   I then got my model to sit in a chair while I took various poses. I thought the photograph where she was looking over the back of the chair (7) was unusual but in an effective way: the pose is quite dramatic and attractive because of this. Numbers 5 and 6 were minor variations of each other with slightly different framing. I liked both but thought the way her arms were in 5 made her look engaging while with 6 they made her look reserved.

7. (Sitting)

8. (Sitting on ground)

9. (Sitting on ground)

10. (Sitting on ground)

   Finally for varying the pose I asked her to sit on the ground with her legs outstretched. This pose was drastically different from just sitting on the chair I found and I was most pleased with these three photographs for this exercise. The reason for this was because each variation of that pose I felt worked well to set a certain mood. Number 8 I decided was welcoming, 9 thoughtful and 10 curious. Overall number 9 was my favorite as it looked very natural as well.