21 Oct Mini Lesson: How To Pose For A Photo | Austin Boudoir Photography

 

I’d love to share some awesome info I’ve learned over the years on posing.  I have a few MUST SEE videos by one of my favorite photographers, Peter Hurley.  I’ll also show you an example of bad and good posing of myself. Let’s get started!

 

The first MUST SEE video I want to recommend to you is called “It’s All About the Jaw”, by Peter Hurley.  I use the techniques he shows you here ALL THE TIME.  I use it when shooting my boudie clients as well as when I take selfies!  It’s awesome!

 

 

Next you MUST SEE “It’s All About the Squinch”, also by the incredible Peter Hurley!  This one take A LOT of practice.  It’s a tough one…but I want to share it with you because it’s helpful and something to at least try!  Once you see what Peter is teaching here (the “Squinch”) you’ll notice it all over the place!  Models and actors/actresses use it all the time! 

 

 

He covers some very important techniques that I use every time I shoot my boudoir clients, and I use when I pose myself for photos.

 

I want to show you an example of how much posing really does affect how you look in even your informal photos, snapshots, even selfies.

 

My hubby, 3 year old son and I visited a beautiful, well-known Austin restaurant called The Oasis last month.  We were meeting my parents there for dinner but had some time to kill.  I had just received my (AMAZING) Sigma Art 50mm lens in the mail so I decided to do a mini-shoot of my son, Utah.  Mid “session” I asked my hubby to snap a photo of me and my baby.

 

*ALL photographers will agree with me on this one, I swear!*

 

I do not have nearly enough photos of me and my son together.  I have a million of him and my hubby, a billion of him and his friends and probably a trillion of just him.

 

So, I asked Neil to snap the shot.  Oh!  And I have to commend him on his awesome back-button focusing skills! I quickly glanced at the back of the camera & immediately thought ‘Ooh! I need to take my own posing advice!’

 

Here is SHOT #1:

   

I re-posed myself, remembering to pop out my forehead & jaw like Peter says to do.  I also remembered something that my friend, and amazing photographer, Jen Rozenbaum said about crossing one knee over the other and also about putting your weight on your leg furthest away from the camera.

 

Here is SHOT #2:

   

For an informal family shot, this looks great!  And it definitely works a hell of a lot better than SHOT #1 up there!

 

Now a side-by-side:

   

Another tip along the lines of photos in general…

 

I’d love to share which editing app I use on my phone. It’s called Pic Tap Go (I am not affiliated with Pic Tap Go.  I just LOVE it).  It is a paid app, but it’s SO worth the $!  I seriously refuse to post a photo anywhere until I’ve run it through PTG first.

 

I love this app because you’re able to see the effect of each filter in real-time, and you can also change the opacity of each filter.  You can even see what the photo looked like to begin with to compare your results.  It’s top notch!  Check it out by CLICKING HERE.

   

Oh!  And for bragging sake, of course – I’ve just gotta show you a couple shots I got of Utah that evening too!  #proudmama

   

Thanks for reading! I hope you learned something.