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Lesson Info

Couples Posing

Telling a better story, that's really what you're doing is when you're learning how to pose somebody is that you're actually telling a better story. And let's get into these things and we can demonstrate this too, okay. First of all, keys to couple posing. Pose one perfectly and then add the other. Okay, this is a technique that really helps you a lot because if you can pose one person, you can pose 100, okay, but if you don't know how to pose one person, then when you pose two, that's gonna be a crapshoot. You don't know if you're gonna get it done or not. 'Cause you don't know one and that point, you're, guess what, you're relying on luck at that point. So, that's why if you can pose one, right, and then add another (snaps) you're golden. Right, so learn one first. Try to feature both faces. I know some of the in-photography now is you pose, you look on Instagram you see a lot of this, you pose the woman or whatever and you just bury that dude's face behind her. And, the reason why p...

eople do that is because then now they don't have to deal with that other person, they just deal with one and it makes their life easier, but you gotta think about the mom of the guy, I mean, she, doesn't she wanna see her son's face. I mean, I see that over and over on the internet. It's like dude I don't even see the guy's face, right. So learn how to feature the face of both and it's gonna be very strong for you. Create a connection. So, a lot of times if you pose them I'll have her reaching back or have them touching in some way or their hips have gotta be connected. They oughta be touching in some way. When you're doing a pose, and so create a physical connection between them, a physical connection. Okay, so here's some classic poses where they're doing hip to hip. Doesn't she look like she's doing this. Right so, right here's how it's goin'. She, I'll do it this way, she's doin' this pose, and the dude is just right here, right. Isn't that what happening? So, I've basically, no source of light, body away, hip away, she's doin' this, bring in guy, right here, standing strong. Look's beautiful, k. What looks great about this pose is contrary to what you're thinking is when you're posing couples you want 'em all pressed together like this. But, actually what looks more classy is when you create a V, do you see a V. They're joined at the hips, but their bodies away. That looks good, this looks classy, right. You see both of their face, they're both towards the light. Now you could do a variety of things here. You could have them look at each other, you could have her look down that way, him look at her, whatever. She looking at him, so that's all I do, is I just vary the faces a lot and then change the emotion they're still in the one place. I shoot tight, I shoot far away. 'Cause sometimes I only got one minute to pose, with a couple at a wedding because that's all their time is and I just mix it up that way. (snaps) Got my session right there with one pose. Alright, so here again, if I took the dude away, if I took the dude away it would still look good right, then I throwin' him in. Bam, there it is right there, k. Same thing here, if I took him away would that still be a good picture. Then I'm just throwin' him in, k. And, I'm not covering his face up. I can see who he is, right, and so that works. Here again I'm doin' a Classic "T" Pose where her shoulder is kind of into his chest right, and I'm popping her hip out. And I like this feeling of, you know, showing a profile of one person and then more of a 3/4 or full view of the other. I like that interplay between a profile of one and then somebody's who's not profile. It looks good, Okay. I'm posing her, and this time, I'm separating them, so you should have some shots where they're separated too. And so they don't always have to be together but you can separate them and this is, look if I took him away, she's beautiful. That's what's maximizing the beauty. It's because she's being set up or he's being, whoever you wanna feature. The other person is the compliment. That's what creates impact. If your eye knows exactly what to look at (snaps) that's impact. But if you're looking and go, who do I look at first, confusion, you're losing impact so I always like who is the person here that I'm focusing on and everything is complementing that person. That's what makes great posing. Okay. This is The Hinge, right. It's very, this is something very, very easy is where they're holding hands or they're connected in some way and they're like a hinge, right. And this way I have the weight shifted on their back leg, of course, right, 'cause you don't want fat thighs so their weight is always shifted on the back leg away from the camera, right, and they're holding hands. It creates a slimming effect if you do that, right. And it's great for landscape shots, right. I told you when you're shooting wide, then you need a big pose, right. And so this is great if they're holding hands because they're going to be bigger. You don't want a landscape shot like huge where they're like this big in the frame, right. And they're pressed up body to body. Because you won't be able to see them. It looks like one tiny little stick so that's why I need something bigger they can hold hands and you can get a bigger shape and it looks better together. Okay. So this is the hinge where the hinge is in front, closer to the camera and they're away, okay. Now you could do something opposite where the hinge is in the back, right, of them and you can just, this is very easy thing to do, just back and forth. If you don't got anything you can always use this. And here's some example of how I use it, right. Creating just a different look where they're together. Now they're apart, but there is some connection there, right, then you can do the look back where they're holding, right, but they're looking back like that so there's different variations of it. This is very easy. I'm not gonna go into this that much because a lot of people can do this pose and it's just the starting point, right. Here it is, it's kind of a hinge. He's off to the side but they're not holding hands but she's just using him as support. And that works their too. Okay, so now I wanna talk to the face to face the most popular pose in the world and then after this I wanna do a demonstration if we got time. Okay, so this is the most popular pose in the world. And this is kinda like Oh, can you guys go over there and then act natural and look at each other and kiss each other. Click, click, click, click, click. We do that shot. Well I have a problem with that shot because most of the time when you tell a couple to do that, they will literally look like two sticks together, like standing straight 'cause like he'll stand straight and then she'll be like this (smacking) kissing and it just looks very not natural. So, I'm gonna show you how to create a natural, face to face pose, Okay. Female walks into partner with, this is the key, her back arched. So she's, it's like the golf swing, but instead of the golf swing she's bowling. Right, just gonna bowl, oh you're so handsome. And you arch the back, oh kiss me on the cheek because I just want to feel your warmth on me. (Laughter) I enjoy this a little bit too much. I'm always creating stories, like I will literally tell the couple like that and do it because I want them to, like to me, posing is about role playing. You gotta pretend things, right. And I guess I like acting and doing stuff like that. So you gotta think of these stories in your head and talk to your clients like that. Okay, and the man walks into female with the back straight. Right, so you get a contrast. Like I'm the man, straight back, I'm shifting all my weight but my back is straight if I'm do, if he's tall and you need to lean him forward, you don't just have his head, does that look good, no. Whadya you do, he bends the whole back. And says, it's almost like dipping a person, right and so he's like this and if he has to lean forward, it's his whole back forward and he's looking at her this way. She's (sigh) take me now. (laughter) I wonder if they're laughing out there. Do you think so? I'm performing for you guys. And them, okay. Do not kiss, okay. You can make 'em kiss but I do the after-kiss because then their faces aren't distorted and I get a perfect profile 'cause it's about beauty for me. So I wanna make each person look beautiful so my kiss is actually them real close together and smiling, that's my kiss. 'Cause I wanna keep that perfect profile. Okay, then you just change expressions. So you got them there, they look at each other, then she's looking away, she's smiling, (laughs) you know, just, I just in there you shoot it wide then you shoot it tight, you change their head positions then you change their expressions. You gotta whole, you got one pose, you got a whole bunch of shots. You could just live with that and be done with it if that's the only time that you got, okay. And so here's, here's how it's supposed to feel and look. Right, smiling, walking into it, she's got her arched back, his back is strong and straight. Right, okay. And so that's the full, right. So I did the full view of it. Look at how they're walking into each other. Right, and so he's got a straight back, her back is arched. Right, this is not so much. It's okay, I could've done a lot better on that. Okay, but here, changing the emotions, changing the face angle where I'm having her look more towards the camera so I could see her face and so I'll do that a lot is that they'll be together then I'll change her face and I'll put the face more towards the camera so I can see it but maybe, here's the camera, but I won't have her look at the camera, I'll have her look off this way, k. Once a subject looks at the camera the story is gone, the story between them has been destroyed because now it becomes a portrait, k. So that's why very few of my shots they're looking at the camera because I'm trying to accentuate the story and once you're camera-aware it's not a story anymore it's more of a portrait, okay. So that's why you'll see a lot of my shots where they're not looking at the camera, okay. Alright, so here's a face to face but it's a little bit different where this is a very easy pose to do that looks great is where their back is facing the camera, the female like this, and then she's looking off to the side. Right, and then you're just having the guy stand right here. Okay, and it's a great shot and you see both faces. Just don't, make sure that her face is completely covering his. So just make them off to the side. That way, let me show you some examples, right. Female back towards the camera, feature the profile of the female, okay. This is, if you notice that that somebody has a beautiful profile of them, you can feature that doing this pose. The groom's shoulders are pretty much square to the camera because you want him big and large. Okay, and then you're turning her body and you're showing the female there. And, if you could use side light where, if her nose was towards the light, it would look even more dramatic, but if you don't, that's fine too. So here it is, right. Same thing, profile, the light is coming from the camera right and they're looking at each other and they're smiling. Okay, same thing here, instead of him looking at her, I have them both looking towards the, so you could do the first shot where he's looking at her. Second one, they're both looking away. They both work, you just do a variety of different shots here, k.