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Tip 3: Narrowing Points
This is something we saw in this example, but we haven't gotten into yet, narrowing points. Narrowing points are like my favorite thing in the whole wide world, like my favorite thing for posing curves. Here's how it works. It's easier if I just demonstrate it because it's real hard to understand unless you see it. Right now, this is a nice curvy lady. I've got curves in the front, curves in the back. But what happens is at the bottom of the frame I exit vertically. I follow her two legs out of the frame. It would be better if I could continue that curve. When you crop somebody at a wider point, your mind perceives them as being wider. So a narrowing point is when I do something so the bottom of the frame the body appears narrower. In this case, I have her bring her legs together. So if you look, that curve, it narrows versus looking boxy. So I'm just gonna go back one more time between these two. Significantly more pleasing. So when I pose somebody, I find some way to narrow their bod...
y. But there are many ways to do this because it could be in her example from the legs, but it doesn't have to be for a cropped shot. Like even if somebody's sitting, okay, and I'm cropping at the legs. Let's get this a little higher, right. If I put their legs one on top of the other like this, this makes the thighs look wider because you're stacking them. But if I do this, this creates a narrowing point there and the bottom of the body looks smaller. So it can be sitting; it can be standing. It could be from crossing the legs in front of each other because that narrows. Could be tucking the knee in because it narrows. It's just something so that you're cropping where the body gets smaller because then your brain thinks it's smaller. So here's another example. What's really cute about this girl is she's like let's be bold. I want a photo in a bodysuit. She's like, they may say it can't be done. And I'm like, okay, let's do it. She was awesome. But notice when her legs are side by side the lower part of her body looks much wider, significantly wider. But when I crossed one leg in front of the other, look how much narrower her body looks. But notice I've also used perspective. Can you see there I'm about level with her midsection on the left. Here I'm about neck to face level. Her body is significantly more flattered in the picture on the right because of the narrowing point. So you can see that. Just a tip about a narrowing point, though. If you create it, you've gotta crop at it. Or you don't have to, but you don't wanna crop where someone's wider. Because here I've actually got a narrowing point in her legs. But if I crop at her hips, you perceive her to be the width of her hips. If I crop at where her legs meet, all of a sudden your eyes follow that curve. You've got that beautiful hourglass shape. So if you create a narrowing point, consider cropping at the narrowing point. And so I can use this example. I've got them over and over and over again. Let's talk about clothing. Walking down the street she looks fine. For posing it's going to be a little bit more challenging, and also lighter tones. I mean, it's fine, but I'm not gonna be able to pose with that. There's no waist; there's no neckline. And my eye is drawn to the contrast at the bottom of the frame. There's nothing helping me with posing there. So she brought this. I told her bring form-fitting things. And she did the same thing, she's like, let's be bold, let's wear a pants bodysuit. So she wore this pants bodysuit. But notice that is a V-line to the extreme. This is what she brought; this is what we chose. But here, legs are standing side by side, you exit the frame vertically, you perceive her to be that wide. But when she crosses her legs in front of each other at the bottom of the frame, you net that nice narrowing point. And I had her lean her chest forward. Look how much bigger her chest looks compared to the one in the middle. All of the things work together.
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Ratings and Reviews
BehindTheLens
I’m only on Lesson 4 and I’ve already learned so much! Lindsay explains everything she’s doing and gives you the why’s and how’s of posing curvy women. This is a must-watch course for anyone who is faced with the challenge of making a curvy woman look her best. These women are so beautiful and they deserve to have the opportunity to work with a photographer who knows how to make them look their best! Thank you Lindsay for such a great course!
Peggy Nugent
This class is so amazing. Lindsay packs a ton of information in, clearly and efficiently. The best part is that she explains the reasons behind every concept, so now instead of setting up my clients in a few memorized poses, I can customize each look for the individual. As Lindsay dramatically demonstrates in this class, over and over, implementing her concepts makes a huge difference in how a woman looks, no matter what her size and shape. And Lindsay does it all with her usual charm and effervescence. This class is worth every penny, and much more.
Laura K.
Quite possibly Lindsay Adler's best class yet on Creative Live!! I own several of her classes - all are informative and helpful, but she is especially helpful in this one, providing LOTS of specific, non-fluff type of tips and quality instruction. The material is well-organized, and I really like that there is so much actionable information provided. Looking forward to putting the tips into practice!!!
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