Lessons

Lesson Info

Shoot: Female High School Senior Poses

Today is going to be a lot, a lot less keynote basically almost none. And I'm going to shoot a lot of examples and I go through high school seniors, and photographing older subjects and more mature subjects and photographing boudoir. And everything so, it's a whole bunch and we end out the day actually photographing groups. I would say out of anything that's scared me the most, when I was first starting out it would be babies when I was doing portraits and then groups. Because there is so much going on, how do you make something coherent visually? So that is what we're going to be covering. But what I did want to show you and I love dresses with pockets cause then I can. Ain't that cool? What I just want to show you is for our keynote up here. This is actually what we did yesterday so anybody who purchases and you guys will get this and it actually folds and collapses to a nice little reference guide. Okay? Just with like five go to poses. So it's really easy. And I'm not just saying t...

his, I really do bring inspiration on shoots. If anything it's just because if I get stressed out I can take a second, just regroup by glancing and get inspired versus when they're standing in front of you and you did the one pose you can remember and then you can't remember what else to do. So yeah definitely and so we did this for her. And for him and then we also have, our couples shoot as well. So that'll be for everything we do today. Everything we did yesterday and everything for day three. So, it will be pretty fun. I'm going to pass that back to you. So with that, I'm also going to have you bring that late out in a second. I'm going to get started with our very first topic. And so we're going to talk about high school senior girls. So I do know on talking to different people around the world this is not always prevalent where you live like in different countries they don't do high school senior photos. However, when I first started my business, high school senior photos was what I made my living on. And so, I've done a lot of this type of shooting and I really like it. The reason I like it so much is high school senior girls in particular let you get creative. And they let you have fun. So if anything out of pretty much anything that I'll be teaching besides Boudoir besides that one, this is where you can get most creative and have most poses. For everything else I do I have like just simple go to poses. This I have a ton. But we're just going to do five. Okay, we're going to focus on five and you build from there. So let's go to my top five high school senior girl posing guidelines. So you can get more creative but in the end if you're getting really creative and you have the girl pose in a funky way and her expression's gone because she's uncomfortable then it was failed shot. When you do a fashion shoot a lot of times the expression's less important. High school senior photo it's all about what she looks like. All about that expression. So that would be number one is, don't let your desire to get creative get in the way of the expression. But definitely what I recommend doing is go safe, then go crazy. Then get creative. For my portrait sessions for high school seniors what I always, always always did was a basic hands on chair shot or hands on a posing table. Girl leaning towards the camera smile. I'd get those, those are the pictures that I know matched up with what grandma had on the wall and everything so everybody had that shot that they wanted, and then she's lying on the ground and then she is hanging out of a tree whatever it may be. That's why I like these the best. They get really creative. Mi tip number two, is asymmetry. You want to be asymmetrical in your poses. So let me explain what that means. Whenever you have two things. Don't mirror them, usually if you want it to be really interesting. For example, two arms up it's static and it's really kind of I wanna say like a rigid pose. You can kind of work that a little bit if you really want both arms up. Juts make them a little bit uneven. Then you could still do that. But in general just plain old hand on the hips for example. It's a little bit static maybe raise one up and lower the other. Try to get things a little bit more asymmetrical. Same thing is if you go ahead and are having somebody pose in a symmetrical way. At least maybe add some movement to it, so that is what gives it energy. Okay. Otherwise, symmetry is so straight up and down. Okay next one, is if the girl is standing make sure she is not flat footed. And a note for the entire day, there are a lot of things that you'll hear repeated that we talked about yesterday and there is a couple of poses that overlap because these are the essentials. Of course overlap. They should overlap. So one of them is definitely with high school senior girls make sure they're not flat footed. Have them put their weight off on one hip. Or if they're facing towards camera, put their weight on their back foot. Make sure that their weight distribution is uneven. My tip number four is that of any subjects that I pose high school kids men and women, I use hands a lot more than a lot of the other subjects I pose. Cause you can get more creative. So for girls I think that you can make some really great images with their arms and their hands frame their face and frame their body. So this would be a great opportunity if you want to get better at posing hands, master it with high school senior girls and then bring it into other areas of your photography. All the rules of hands apply before. So make sure that you check back in day one, we talked about not seeing the palm, always seeing the side of the hand. Things like that. Okay, and number five. How I try to remember and not run out of poses, for these particular subjects, high school seniors, is I think the standing shot's obvious, but you've got sitting leaning and laying. Okay. So standing, sitting, leaning and laying. So that's why I'm trying to think, so alright I did her standing shot. I can sit her in a chair standing and sitting. I can lean her against a wall. I can lay her on the ground. Towards the camera. To the side. So that I can think of new poses without having to memorize. Because I take everything that I already know from my fundamentals and I say, take a seat. And then I tweak. What don't you lay down? And then I tweak. So that would be my tips for coming up with good poses and then also flattering a high school senior girl. So, hi. Hi. I already met her, she's awesome. She's super cute. So she's actually not a high school senior. So here is the thing. We were bonding before. Because she said that she wants to get taller and I'm like I stopped growing when I was in 8th grade and she was very disappointed to hear that. I was like, but I'm sure you'll get much later. I hope so. She said she hopes so. So for those of you who don't photograph high school seniors think of this as teen girl. Okay, if you don't have the high school seniors in your part of the world, photographing a teen girl. So what we're going to do, is we are going to bring out this light, and did those lights go off for a reason? We're good. Oh we're good, awesome. Okay. And I'm going to grab my camera. And I'm going to shoot tethered for this. So as I said, I kind of have those those base essentials up there. The things that I want to keep in mind. So I'm going to go ahead and give you my favorite poses. And then we're going to after those kinds of base five we'll do a couple more. More creative. If you have a chaise in your studio, you could have a girl recline on it, but let's just talk about what we all have which is a ground, a wall, standing. Like basic stuff. How are you doing? I'm doing great. Have you modeled before? No. No. You look pretty confident. Well I hope so. See. She's done this before, she's super confident. So I already went and had a chat with her. If you can do that especially for really any subject for high school seniors or for teens, just to like let them know that you're not awkward and weird, unless you are and then hide that. Actually this is so bad, but that was actually one of my marketing ploys when I first started my business is I was 15 when I started photographing high school seniors. And so, this is not a proper technique. I wouldn't recommend it now, but I would say to all my fellow classmates, oh that photographer is like super weird you should just hire me. Now I wouldn't do that. I was a 15 year old. I thought it was a really good idea. Okay so. Basics of starting out is if I do want her for a standing pose here, I'm going to talk about the differences between general photographing a female, high schools senior, and then a more mature woman. So one thing you don't want to do for high school senior is emphasize body and curves too much. So that is something that I would be aware of. So let's put it this way. For high school seniors sometimes girls mature a little faster and so as they're posing what they naturally think is a good pose is emphasizing way too much on body parts. And that's not what parents want for you. That's not what you're being hired for. So just keep an eye out on that. I definitely have specific examples where you tell a girl I want you to pose up on the wall and kind of pose with her hand and all of the sudden it's all about leaning in. So just watch out for that. So we're going to do a standing pose here. Really basic. And I'm going to have you do, and is this light's on okay? Let me test it, perfect. Thank you. Oh the lights come on, good. Great. So what I'm going to have you do is put your hand really soft on your hip. Okay? And I'm going to have you take your right foot there and tuck your knee over like this. Okay. And then I'm going to have you turn just a little bit to your left. Good. And I'm going to have you stick your butt back. Perfect and now take that hand. What I'm looking at, so I'm going to tell you. We're doing that base standing pose okay? So I say, tuck your knee over, hand on your hip. I turn her to the side, because by default she still had her hips kind of straight towards camera. straight is towards camera is when someone looks widest. She's super skinny so it doesn't matter. But I want a little bit more shape. But then I see her hand. So what I'm looking in my brain, I'm like okay. What can I do to improve this? This hand has nothing to do and it's tight against her body. Like I said she's super skinny so it's like it's doesn't matter, but it make her that much wider, especially since it's the same color, outfit. If she was earing a dress, you might be able to get away with that. For example, if she was wearing a dress I'd have her maybe pull the dress to the side. Use her hand like this for a little bit of movement. And so now that hand is where I can get creative. I can have her. Can you put your hand right next to your neck for me. Perfect. I like the little head tilt that was cute. And then, okay now ready get dramatic elbow up. Good. Okay, so if you wanna do more of like a kind of fun fashion session, I'd start really basic. Can you put your hand on your hip again? Okay, so if I have her hand on her hip, I don't want it to be totally symmetrical. Cause it's this. Doesn't have that same movement. So what I'm going to have you do, is I'm going to have you raise the hand up a little bit. Good. And I'm going to have you lean juts a little bit back. Good. So see how now I have movement versus before it was static, straight up and down. I had her make her hands uneven and then give me a little bit of a lean. Now it looks like maybe she was like, hey. You know like cute. I kind of want personality to show through versus I want cute. For every single thing that I teach know that I don't do the same poses for everybody. If I can read from their personality if a girl is not a flip your dress kind of twirl girl then I'm not going to have her flip and twirl. So it all depends on the person but, she is super cute and seems super comfortable with that so I'm going to take a couple of photos. So I'm going to have you stick your butt back. Even more. Perfect. Juts like that, I'm going to test the light. For her, her hair looks fine straight on, with it being on either side. If I had her turn a little bit, further to your left, in that case I would pull the hair off of the front shoulder. Kay? So come back at me again. Juts like that do your cute little lean again. Let me test my light. Perfect. And it's cute because her hands are like nicely posed. See it looks super cute. Now put your hand up next to your neck. Super cute. Awesome. And then one more right here. Great. So I start off with that base pose and I just say okay, hand on your hip. Make it a little uneven. Lean back and tilt your head. Hand up and I just basically use this hand to make different poses. So that's like my base standing pose for high schools senior girl. Okay so the next thing that I would do, well actually, in order honestly I would start with them seating cause it's least pressure. Like you don't really. You don't have to feel confident at that point. You're just sitting. It's not too much high pressure. So I think that's what I'm going to do next. Let's do, can I have that little stool. Any stool is fine. Actually that one is fine, you can bring that to me. Yeah. That's great. Thank you. Our high school senior boys is offering to help that's so sweet. He's super nice. Okay I do have to say, this is like ideal of what you want, when I told him I was taking his picture he's like yeah. I was like, that doesn't usually happen when you do high school senior guy photos. Doesn't usually happen. Okay perfect. So. When she's sitting there. Right now. She's very static. Straight on towards camera. Doesn't have any movement. So I'm going to have you rotate towards the light. Rotate to your right. Notice. I'd say her right. Like if you can really practice that and try it makes it a lot easier then just saying like. Turn that way. Cause sometimes it gets confusing. Or if you just say turn right, they're trying to help and they don't know which way. And so that's perfect. I'm going to have you flip your hair off of your shoulder there just do a little flip. Perfect. Great. So now, head tilt. For girls, for high school senior girls. If you want them to be more mature, I will have them kind of just lean a shoulder towards me just a little bit. More mature would be leaning your head away from the camera just a tiny bit. Like she has airs a little it more thoughtful. Cuter like, more happy and cutsie is towards the camera. Okay so those are kind of the differences there. So a lot of times if I were doing maybe a serious pose I had a posing stool. Hands like this. I might have them lean out and turn their head towards the camera. But, I'm going for cute. I do it that way. Tilt it this way. Two different things so. This is perfect. All I want to make sure, I can see her neck. I'm going to have you lower your shoulder. Good and turn your head back this way, great. Perfect. And so a very super, super duper, basic portrait. Okay, so that isn't particularly a pose yet. It's just kind of I mean, it is. But it's the base of where you start. So what I want to do is talk about using hands. A High School senior girl I said is a great place to use hands. So let's just see I'm going to test her. Would you put your left hand beside your face please? Okay, she's pretty good. Alright so this is what I would say. Is I would have them put their hand up and you say what do you see? In my opinion, what I see is the hand covers her neck totally and it's closest towards the camera, and so this is distracting to me. That would be how I would perceive it, so what I'm going to have you do. Have you switch. Put the other hand beside your neck. So that would be a lot less distracting to me. But let's say that maybe I think, I think it's a little boring like I could of thought of that pose right. Put my hand there. So what I'm going to have you do is just what you're doing. Have you bring the other hand up and kind of go like this. Okay. I'm going to flip your hair out just a little bit. Perfect. Thank you. And instead of hand behind your ears, I'm going to have it real soft next to your face. Good. Alright so, I have like a little bit of movement there. And I'm going to have you kind of, tilt into your hands a little bit. So I would do a nice tight shot. But if you look, see I can see your palm. Juts a little bit too much. So I'm going to have you just flip your hand this way a little bit. And now I want you to caress your face real soft. And then right there, and now wiggle your fingers. Good perfect. Good. Now the only other thing I would change is I told you I have a pet peeve about the thumb. Can you hide your thumb? Like tuck it back. Yeah, yeah, perfect. And soft fingers. Just loose. Good. Okay perfect. So I'm going to take a shot like that. And so I just get their hands kind of comfortable. Good. And now put your hand up even higher. Good. And don't push it. Just real soft. And lean towards me. Good. Perfect. Good. You look very cute. She looks so cute. Awesome. You don't mind cute, right? Cute's good? Cute's good. I like that, will you do your little shoulder tuck thing good. And lean towards me. Perfect. Awesome. Alright so. Basic hands. Another thing that I could do, is with a posing table. Would you grab that posing table for me? Really high school seniors and more kind of like headshots, are the only times that I personally use posing tables, usually. I don't know, it's a little bit more traditional but I'm doing like close face shots, so it doesn't really matter. I'm just going to defend myself here. This isn't a real posing table. It's not like the pneumatic kind that go up and down. So we'll see if it will even workish. It might need. We'll see. Let's see. Okay would you turn to your right real quick. Okay awesome. So is that as high as it goes? I thought so. Okay. So we're going to try this. Can you put your hands like this and let's see. Okay. So this is another kind of go to pose there and I would bring it up a little bit more. But she's doing pretty good cause what most people would do is a posing stance too low. Is they would hunch. What she's doing is she's leaning just a little, straighten out your back. She's pretty good. Now lean forward, you're great. Yeah, she's got it pretty good. This is exactly what I would for hands because it frames her face. Would you drop that arm for me? Juts hide it. See how that's much less visually interesting? Your eye doesn't do a circle around her face, until you put the hand back up. And now she like knows how to pose. This is cheating. But now my eye actually kind of follows that circle of her face so. This would be a super traditional high school senior pose. Great. Good. Perfect. Okay, it's still like a little fake smile. Good. Good, perfect. Awesome. Okay. So that is where I would start before I did the standing pose before I did anything. I would just start there. Basic pose. Where all I'm trying to do is really focus on expression. This is where I said the personality chameleons thing becomes important. Do what you can to make her laugh. Tell a joke. Even if she just thinks you're crazy. Because I found for highs school senior portraits nine times out of ten, the parents would buy the close up shot of the girl's face, whether it's out on location or in the studio. The girl, picks the photo of her on the ground with her feet kicked up or her hand in her hair. That was my personal experience. Or if she's wearing a dress twirling she also picks that one. So you don't really need to get too complicated for the ones that bring you the money. Usually, which is something basic like that. Okay. So you've been wonderful so far. Are you ready for some floor poses? Sure. Okay cool. Thank you. That's cool. I will move right over here. Awesome. Okay great. So, first thing I'm going to have you do I do mirroring. Okay so I did my sitting poses with hands okay? Usually I don't do standing with hands as much. I don't know, just cause then people's weight the way they're shifting, their weight makes a difference. When people are sitting they're more comfortable. They're not worried about what this looks like. So they know okay it's clearly here. And then they're not stressed out a much. So for sitting. I can do a couple of things. So I told you often my default is to say just take a seat, just be comfortable. That's my first default one. Let's take a look. I have not seen what she's done yet. Okay. So I take a look, are you a dancer? No. I didn't know legs bend that way. I mean it's cute. Okay, so I have a dress on so we're just going to try. I actually when I do a high school senior portrait session, I just pose. Like I don't try to explain it, I just do it with them. Personally. So what I'm gonna do is I'm going to have you just put your knees together and then lean out on this arm. And put that hand kind of soft on your leg here. Perfect. So that would be kind of a first pose I would do. Just soft, you can help tilt your head either way. And then could you cross your left hand over in front? Perfect. And what the one thing that I see, is you have a little bit too much weight on your hip. Just soft. Like don't put any weight on it just barely touch it on the floor. And lean out just a little bit more. It's okay, that's like a basic she's out in the park and then get that basic photo. Okay, so I'm not going to count towards one of our poses just cause I want to do some more interesting ones so we're not going to do that. Okay, the next one is I'm going to have you lean out on your elbow. Okay. And I'm going to have her. So what I see so far, is that looks good. Her torso looks good because right now she doesn't have too much weight on her arms. She doesn't look like her neck is straining. This arm that's brought over is a big circle. So I'm kind of held in that pose there. But I'm looking at her legs. And because of foreshortening, her knees are kind of coming at the camera. Looks like she has short legs. So I'm going to have you kind to extend your legs out a little bit. Something like that and it makes them uneven. If you wanted to have a girl, have more curve, you would tuck the top knee over. If that's not what you're going for you would do the opposite and you would kind of hold that leg, extended out. So I'm going to have you extend your top leg out. Okay. Just something like that, versus if I curve it over now her hip pops out. So it just, kind of just depends on what's the style you're going for. What look are you going for there. So I would get that nice shot. I'm going to grab a photo of that. Kay. trying to be aware of the camera over here, as I'm running around. Okay. Perfect. Great. And one thing I see, she's not too bad, but I see a little bit of tension in her hands, not too much but they're a little ball. Just wiggle your fingers real soft. And then turn back to your, good. So I think she looks more comfortable versus when her hands are in a ball. Looks a little mores stressed. Okay cool. Notice as well. I'm down on the floor with her. If I shoot at a higher angle I lose the negative space of her arms. So if I come up into this way. Notice, its not bad but that negative space from the top arm disappears. We'll see in a second. And I know this kind of from shooting lot. It's not terrible maybe if she's wearing, if she doesn't have matching colored sleeves. And so, it doesn't look like it all blends in. But when she's wearing black it's not as flattering as the alternative. Okay, so now. I'm going to get a little cuter. Okay. And so I'm going to have you scoot this way just a little bit. And I'm going to actually have you like lay out with your hand in your hair. Lay, lay out. Perfect. Okay so like. Pretty naturally, teenage girls kind of just flock and pose. They look pretty good. I will have you pull your left knee over real quick. Yup and just flip it on the ground. I want to see how it works. If I am not getting a full length pose, then I just want there to be like a little curve that works. For full length, it looks kind of sprawled. So I'd have you tuck it back. Just like that. You can put it even behind, whatever is comfortable. So I'm going to do a pose like that. And you can even sprawl out even more. You can actually lay on the ground. Okay that's fine. And then put that hand real soft just there. So that would be another pose that I would do. And her hand is great. What I would watch for, turn your hand this way. I'd watch for that if somebody is balancing cause then you have four shortened fingers. It's at the camera. Just want to turn inside, turn in. Good, a little bit more. Little more, right there. And then wiggle fingers. If people have their hand flat on the ground you can tell they're stressed. I want them to be super comfortable. Super natural. I'll just say wiggle your fingers. Perfect. She's super cute. Can I move your hair? Okay. Teenagers, don't touch them without asking. Flash, if you can avoid it just have them do it themselves but I'm just going to flip your hair real quick for you. Perfect. Great. Alright so let me get a photo of how super cute you look here. And can you bring your hand up even further? Wait there. Great. Good. And do one serious. It's cute but like, I think I'd like her serious a little bit. She looks cute. Nice angles. You look nice. Very cute. Okay. So that would be kind of, alright I got my basics of standing. Got my basics of her hand and her hair. I got the basics of laying down. So now I go a little cuter. Okay I'm going to have you lay on your stomach with your head towards me. Okay. Okay so she's a ham. And so, when I see that. This pose for me, because of how her hands are, are younger than she even is. So she's fourteen. This pose I would see probably more for like a kid. Six, seven, eight. Something like that. With the two hands. So if you want her to look a little more mature, I'm going to have you drop your left arm, good. And then soft hand on that side. She did it perfect. Okay so, I would zoom in and I know I get a tight shot right away. Right off the bat. Let me move my leg just, a little. Perfect. Now let's get a close up shot here. Great. And now if I wanted a full length shot I'd have her cross her legs. Perfect. And I would shoot from here. Whatever is closest to the camera looks biggest. It looks cute. You look adorable. When I shoot the Bourgeois shoots later, I would shoot a little more from the side. Have the girl arch her back. Put a little weight on her knees. Make a little more curve. I'd have pull her hands in tighter. So these really are all the same poses you're just kind of tweaking for what your subject matter is. Awesome. So you look super cute. I'm going to have you sit on your bottom real quick. Awesome. And I'm going to break a huge rule, I'm going to have you curl up in a ball. And put your hand on your knee. And then cross this hand over. Perfect. Okay, so. This is bad pose, right. Everything's like kind of tight together. I'm going to tweak it to make it better. I'm going to have you tuck your outside hand underneath. Like even further back. Good. And put your knees down just a little bit. Okay so now, lean down on your knees. So I'm trying to make her a little less bunched up. So I'm elongating a little bit. And I see her hand is in front of her chin. Right? I don't want it to be in front of her chin can you put it back just a little bit? Greta so. Much better angle. Looks much more flattering to her. I would fluff out her hair. For girls fluffing hair is important. Can you flick it out a little bit. Good, perfect. See how much more of a natural flow it has there. I would not shoot this pose, like this I wouldn't shoot it like this I would over here. Get in there, look up at me. Good. Good. I would shoot closer. I would probably shoot this like on location or something. I'd shoot it horizontally So her eyes are in focus. I can see kind of a green grass behind her. Something like that. So just know like a bad pose isn't necessarily bad when you can crop it. Let's do. Even funkier. Okay, so let's bring inspiration. Bring inspiration out here. Alright so we're going to try one okay. What I want you to do is I'm going to have you do this. Okay, Something like that. Okay. So lets just see. You guys don't know what it is. Okay. I'll do that. What do you think about this pose? They'll be, okay sure. I can actually get their feedback. They'll tell you right away if they don't like that one. So this is kind of the pose that I was directing here. If she didn't have solid colors on, it may be a little better with this hand. So let me explain. So what I'm looking at here is I like the negative space that she has. But because she's wearing all black this is when to blend in. And so it's too much merge. So I could have her put her hand kind of on her hip. So now we have nice triangles and that's cute. If I wanted her to have a little more length instead sitting I could have her stand up. So you try something like that. And you can lean out and tilt head or sit back down. So like this is another starting point that I could kind of work with here. Let me take one more photo there. Perfect. And we sit up a little straighter. Good. Could you pop your elbow out back, yeah. Good, there you go, good. Perfect. Alright. So that would be another one. Alright, so I'm going to do two more things. Last thing. Last thing right here. Would you just lie on your back. And put your head over this way. Okay. So for me, this is not a studio shot. This would be outdoors. Okay, lying in the grass. Something like that. So what I would do, is I would have her fluff her hair out. So I would come over and make it all fluffy and pretty okay, girls if they have long hair, love the pretty fluffy pretty shots. Okay, you can bring your head back down. Alright. Fluff her hair out all cute. Perfect. And I'm going to have you put your hands above your head. Kay. I like that. Superman. Alright so what I wanna do is I know I wanna photograph shooting in downward angle. Okay. High school seniors love that I don't know. I would always shoot this. So I'm going to have you. Put your hands in. Something like a little bit more above your head. Good. Alright, so now, she's symmetrical. So I need to make it asymmetrical. So I'm going have you put one hand higher than the other. Yeah, just like that perfect. Okay, so what she did is she shifted one arm up, the other arm down. But I'm seeing a lot of palms. So to come in, and I would just say, can you just tweak your hand like that. Perfect. And tweak your hand like that. Great. Juts like that. And I'm going to actually put this hand much lower maybe just on your head. And make it like asymmetrical. And let's take a shot like that. You're going to turn your head towards me juts a little and I would stand on a step ladder. I don't know if we have a little step stool. Or an apple box is good. Apple boxes are my favorite. I need them all the time. Perfect. Great. Perfect. And so what I was looking for is asymmetry. My hand kind of follows around. If I wanted do a full length shot as well, if I want to get mid length, I'll show you what I would change, Get one quick shot here. Did not fire. Could add more time? Good, sorry. And okay, let's try it. Try again. Yeah that one worked. Okay good. Let's see. I like, kind of see it kinda. Okay so shooting from a higher angle. If I wanted to do fuller length, I take that one arm and put it across her stomach. And so now, what I have is I have an s curve. Cause what you'll see. Can you bring that hand a little closer to to your head? Perfect. So now what you'll see and lean towards me just a little bit. Good. Perfect. When you watch her arms you just see that it starts near her head, and does a little curve down her body, so you're eyes kind of follow her pose. So this one was also very popular, but notice negative space on that back arm. So it's not right tight up against her. She's nice and relaxed. On that hand I do see the back of her hand. It's okay because it wouldn't actually really work to do pinky, unless I had her put her hand on her hip, which I want it just relaxed. I do see pinky side on the top hand. And so my eye just kind of, curves like that. Alright so the very last one I'm going to do for high school senior girls is your kind of my go to poses. As I am going to take her over to that wall there. So Iris would you help me with that. And I'm going to go have you lean up against the wall however you want. Okay. Okay. I am personally a fan of trying to read the person's personality. So we actually had a discussion about this yesterday. A lot of times the people that hire you they want you to direct them more just so they know why they're paying you. It's like, sometimes they just want to hear that you have ideas and that you're directing. High school seniors, sometimes when you ask them or tell them just to go, go lean against the wall, they feel more involved. They feel like they're partaking in the process, versus if it's an adult, they don't want to partake in the process. They're just like, just tell me what to do. Let's make this fast. Whereas some highs school seniors they get excited about it or teenagers. So she looks cute. She went and posed against the wall there. I'm actually, this might be a bit of a pain so I'm going to try. I'm actually not going to shoot flat onto the wall. I'm actually going to shoot down the wall a bit. So you're fine with that. I'm just going to stand over here. Will you move it out to the front just a tiny bit? Okay. Perfect. So let me just see how this looks lighting wise. Take a look. Can you bring it way up to the front, like way way way way flat light. Keep going. Perfect. Perfect, okay, great. Let me test this. Alright so I'm going to take a pose like this. Everything is kind of blended in. I know you guys can kind of see that. Everything is kind of blended in. I want to have a little bit more shape. I want to have a little bit more pose to it. So what I'm going to have you do is I'm going to have you turn towards me just a little bit. Great. I'm going to have you put your hand on your shoulder. That one perfect. Great. And I'm going to have you put your hand on your hip. Perfect. Just like that. Okay so what I just did, I know you guys can't see this/any cameras can't see this. Let me articulate since I realize you can't see this, I have her leaning up against the wall. When she was leaning flat from that angle it's flat. You can't see anything. So I had her turn sideways so she's not totally reduced against the all. Then she has a little more command of the frame. Okay. If she just leans flat with her arm there is no negative space. It's squished. So I had to put her hand on her hip and she's more leaning on her elbow than anything else. Well now this arm, doesn't have anything to do. So I had her just kind of put it here for negative space. Will you lean on your back again, hands down. And tell me when you feel good about that camera. Good. Okay. So, what I'm going to have you do is turn sideways. Put your hand on your hip. Okay so we've got a little bit of negative space there. And I put that hand up on your shoulder. Perfect. Alright let me take a look and let's shoot from over here. Great. Now let's get the right camera angle. And let's take a look at my light, and now will you look at that light. And now put the hand in your hair. Good. Perfect. So something like that. Of course, I would be not having that exact light, but that's what I'm thinking about. A lot of people when they pose somebody up against the wall they just have them lean. There is no shape there is no negative space, it's really, really flat. So I'm looking for ways to give a little bit of negative space. Kick some weight down in the hip. Give more negative space here. Occupy this hand. Same thing as when people pose high shool seniors up against the wall. A lot of times, they just have flat. I tried to think of the same thing. Can they lean back? Have the hand soft? Or hand on the hip. And one hand. Well both hands on the hips and kind of lean on an elbow. So watch for not flat and not merger. And this give her a little opportunity to do the like personality. And she can kind of lean. And interact. So those would be that was perfect. Thank you. And I'm going to but super tangled. Sorry. I'm going to pass this around here. Those would be, I'm going to leave it for you. My go to high school senior poses. There are more than five. I'll pick out my key five. But what it would be is standing, something close up with hands, sitting, laying, leaning. My creative one would be laying down on their back if you can shoot in location. I don't really like it in the studio, it feels more natural to actually be lying out say in the grass. So, let's see if there is any questions for five senior high school senior girl posing tips. Absolutely so we have, one starting out with, from Santos1, says what poses would you do for a girl that is not quite so confident? Someone who's a little shyer. Would you change it up at all based on that personality? Sure, so, one of the things that I would probably stay away from right away would be just plain old standing shots. Because standing is very vulnerable. You're not holding onto anything. So I would start with sitting. And just hands. Sitting in a chair. The I would have sitting on the floor. Then I would have leaning on the wall. I wouldn't do laying out on their back. I wouldn't do posing with the hand and the hip. I would just keep everything, so they're always in contact with something. Because that, it gives you stability, something to basically feel like your holding onto. So if someone's not confident. And then if by the end they're feeling a little more confident I test the waters and I say, alright let's see something different I've got one more funky thing I want to try. You can read by their body language if they're up for it, and you know what this is why I start boring and then go more creative, because if I got the shots I need and the last one sucks, I go that looked great. And we're done. And then we just move on. Yeah. Cool. So from Amyage, she says I have a problem when I shoot down on somebody laying on the ground. Sometimes all their flesh sort of rushes up and gives them a very round face. Is there a way to avoid that? Do you have any secrets to making that not happen? Yeah and if you looked at that pose, I didn't actually have her look up. I had her tilt to the side. So she actually was tilted towards the camera. If a girl already has a very round face I would do the chin out to the side. And If she's laying on her back here, instead of leaning straight up and have her kind of lean and tilt. And I would adjust that way. And that's true. And it's much more noticeable on older women. Everything is. It happens to all of us. Question from Renee. What do you do with a girl who's more tomboyish, a little bit more masculine in her attitude and dress. Definitely, and so this is why you take this class to learn all the poses and then you kind of put it in between. So maybe, then instead of doing the soft hand and the hair I might just do two hands together and they're leaning on a posing table. For example, or sitting on the ground, maybe not soft laying maybe more like the pose that I did for the guy yesterday which would be totally fine for high school senior girl, one knee up, hand on the knee, arm out. And that would be totally fine. And I've photographed a lot of high school seniors and it would be exactly that. You can tell by the way that they present themselves and the clothing that they chose if they want to be twirling in a dress or if they want to look a little tougher. Cool thank you. Lindsay, first newbies out there, could you define exactly what a posing table and a posing chair are. Yeah perfect. Can I have that, the pneumatic stool first of all. The stool that, it was over here somewhere. Okay so. If you have a portrait studio where you'll be shooting actually indoors, these things are really useful. And I call it, it means the air lift up and down, so you can actually adjust it. So this would be my posing stool. Thank you. Go up and down. Lets see if I can do this. Maybe not. I don't know this one. You push down? Okay anyways. This is not mine. This would be the posing stool. And a posing table is the one that we had over there. And the reason that if you're doing like headshot or high school senior portraits if you do family shoots, this is not something that you need in my opinion. If you're photographing bridal shoots, you don't need these. But the reason I say that is, as you can see when she was higher up on that stool before, when I wanted to do that pose, she kind of had to lean. You want these cause they're variable heights so you can actually get it to a comfortable height cause you don't want them to be stressed or trying to manipulate their body. You just want them to be comfortable. So yeah. And they're really, really inexpensive. I think, I know you can get them at like a, Denny's makes a couple of them for like $100, $79. It kind of depends. And I definitely use them. And I've used them for my fashion and beauty photography as well. And it's nice too for beauty photography. Sometimes I'll even put, the reflector on the stand so that I don't have to hold it, and so now I have that nice fill and it multi purposes, and then if I want them to pose, then I can use the stand. Awesome. We're getting a lot of questions about props and while this is not a styling or prop based workshop do you have any thoughts on posing with props? Is there anything that you consider when you're thinking about that. Yeah, so for anytime you're photographing teens I almost, almost always ask them to bring some kind of props. Something, and I don't call it a prop I say, bring something. Do you play sports? Do you have a hobby? Do you play an instrument? Something like that. Two reasons. One, it is so much easier when they have something in their hands. You can basically pose them and work that in and you don't have to worry about hands. Like their hands are posing with that. So actually for our high school senior guy over here, he brought his basketball. So I'm going to pose him the way that I would with sporting gear. Props in general, I tend to stay way from like blocks and things like that not cause I have a aversion to them but I always had a small studio space with no room for props. That wasn't really something I had access to so I would shoot on location and if I need variable heights we'd shoot on stairs. Or if I needed variable height I would shoot on a bench or something like that. Cool thank you and then we do have a question regarding from Mark from Chicago, posing more conservative females even with religious implications. Do you have those types of clients? I don't have those now, but I definitely had, I was doing a lot of High School seniors photos for the local Christian academy. And then also people that were home schooled, in particular where I was head of studio they still got senior portraits done. Most of that was dress. A lot of the times. And generally, I found that they were still fine posing on he floor. Just not lying on their back. For example. It would just be even more acutely aware of where you eye is being drawn to. And so if the girl did a scoop neck shirt I wouldn't shoot from a higher up angle but I didn't really change too much besides sprawling and I might not have leg up leaning on the wall. I might just have leg up arms crossed. Juts like a little toned down.