Lessons
Getting Headshot Clients
14:06 2Pricing
13:24 3Six Styles of Headshots
29:36 4Posing Basics
06:26 5Basic Standing Pose
04:56 6Basic Seated Pose
02:43 7Head Position
04:16 8Expression Sells the Image
06:27Lesson Info
Posing Basics
I want to talk a little about male, male and female posing. There's a traditional way toe look at posing the difference between men and women, and I fall back on that a lot. But I don't want to get into I don't want to be overly stereotypical. I don't want to throw gender roles because you're gonna run into clients. They're gonna be an exception to every rule. Okay, We live in a world of amazing diversity and especially in the United States. So don't pigeonhole yourself into the rules. I want to set down a couple of basic rules for every single human that works. But we are going to talk a little bit, especially. We start shooting about how I pose men versus how oppose women, and this is a sort of like general rule. But you're gonna find exceptions to that. You're gonna find women that look better in a masculine pose, and you find men that are more natural in what would be considered a traditionally feminine post. So when I say that I'm not trying to put anybody into any holes, I'm tell...
ing you what will work for most people, and I'm gonna tell you that to keep your mind open for something that could come in and make the image better. All right, we cool with that? So here are the things that you need to do when posing. Analyze your subject. This is an art that is dying. And if you learn to do this, you will set yourself apart from every other photographer. You know, pretty much people that they have a set up of lights in their studio and somebody walks in. And that's what they shoot because their lights are already set up. Look at somebody. Look at their body. Look at their face. Look at their eyes. What are their best characteristics? What are the weaknesses? What are the things that they you think they may not like? What are the things that they might be insecure about? Don't ask them. What are you insecure? Your neck is kind of like deliberately wobbly underneath. That bother you? Do you want me to shoot up into it? You know you don't want to do that. You have to look at your subject. Well, I shoot a lot of people and nobody is without facial aberrations. Do you realize that the ideals of physical facial beauty are based on symmetry. Did you ever think about that one side being exactly like the other? And so when somebody is quote unquote less attractive, their face tends to be less symmetrical. That's sort of how it works. That's in our minds. That's how we look at things. Every difference in your face. Your nose points one way. Here. I'm not looking anyway. Specifically, Your honor, your eyes is smaller than the other. You have an ear appear in a near down here you have. You know, you could park a bicycle between U two front teeth. There's so many different things about people that but those differences make somebody unique and can make them beautiful. So you have to pay attention to all of those things because I've met people that have some really, what would be traditionally non beautiful things about them that they're really proud of. That's like who they are, like a knows that goes like this. Like Owen Wilson. You know, that guy act like my goodness gracious that guy. But you know, you could look at that. I think that's a pretty handsome guy in this charming and that sort of makes him who he is, you know? I mean, there are so many things that make people beautiful in diverse. And I don't want you to think that I'm being negative, but it is your job to flatter your client. And so we're gonna talk about that, analyze them and decide how you're gonna like them. How you gonna pose them based on looking at them? I when somebody comes into the studio not necessarily in volume when somebody comes into the studio, I talked to him for five minutes. Just Hey, how you doing? How is the weather? And while they're talking and tell me about the crap in their life that I don't care about, I'm looking at them and I'm thinking, How can I flatter that person? How can I make them look best? How am I going to serve them? Analyze people's facial features? Because if somebody has an eye, that's maybe a little smaller on this site. If you put that I camera forward, then you are visually evening out. The two eyes together. And people don't think that if you have somebody whose ears are slightly lopsided with a little head tilt, you can visually correct that. Here's the thing that might blow your mind. Did you know when you look in the mirror, your brain corrects your facial aberrations for you? Then you stare at yourself for 10 seconds, then they start to pop up. But when you just glance at yourself in the mirror, your brain makes it okay. That's why everybody thinks nobody thinks they're ugly. Do they? Like, you know, people go All right, I'm OK. I look good. And then you see yourself in a picture and you go because your brains correcting that for you, it's wild. It's with the amazing self preservation of our emotional state of being. Our minds are incredible, but be sensitive to your clients and analyze them. If you are taking the time to look at someone and figure out how to make them look their best, especially when it comes to headshot cause you're really close to their face, you're gonna you're gonna come out ahead of a lot of other people, flatter their features. This is important now some people, by talking to them, you're gonna find out. Are they confident? Are the insecure Are they nervous? but you have to flatter their individual features. If someone has a larger body, you may take a slightly higher angle. If someone is skinny, you might want to shoot them straight on to make them look a little more broad to fill up the frame a little bit more. They're all kinds of ways to treat people. Consider there position. This is important, and by position I mean their job title. If someone is a, uh, a powerful attorney who is ah, you know, blob running for governor or something, you're not necessarily going toe to make them look friendly and demure. You know, if someone is a real estate agent, it's their job to look pleasant and approachable. So you want to factor that into your lighting and you're posing, Um, or dramatic light with hard shadows and harder expression is not gonna be good for Martha from Century 21 you know. But if you have a guy come in your studio who writes mystery novels, that would be really cool for him, you understand? Consider there position. Consider what they do for a living to decide how you're gonna like them and how you gonna shoot them listen to their opinions. This is the thing that photographers failed to do so much. If they tell you they prefer one side, you better shoot the side that they prefer. They will tell you sometimes if if some of these people, especially those you really hate, we're picture being taken, anybody ever come into your business or come in for a photo shoot and they just start talking about their flaws right away, like, well, you know, I gotta lose £20. I'm not from around there telling you what they don't want and what they do want. And you have to listen. And if you fail to listen, you're gonna fail to please your client.
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