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
Basic Standing Pose
This is the basic standing pose. This works for men or women. Let me show you how it's done. Body position. 45 degrees off camera. Okay, so we're gonna like this with me there. Point the closer foot to the camera. Now this is key. Check this out. This is is awesome. So my feet and everything, my whole body's pointed here. You're the camera. You got me. Watch what happens when I point my toe with you. That opens my upper body back to the camera. So I'm not shooting through a shoulder, but I still have the body slightly off camera. Why? I actually saw an interesting discussion on a Facebook group. Um, about do you position your subjects straight on, or do you shoot them from the side? The answer for me is both. I shoot them from both sides and I shoot them straight on because I like to do that for variety's sake. But photography is a two dimensional medium, and our job sometimes is to create more dimension to make it seem or three dimensional to bring it more toe life. And so if you put ...
somebody's shoulders at an angle to the camera, you're creating depth in the image. You're creating visual interest. Not only that, but I am much wider this way than I am This way. In a headshot, you've just taken away 15% of my body mass just by turning me to the side. So you have to consider the subject. If it was a guy whose real thin and he's trying real hard to fill out a double breasted suit, I'm gonna photograph of probably a little more straight on, but your average person 45 degrees off, bring the foot back, Open that upper body back to the camera, shift the weight to the back foot really easy to remember. You want to take the badonkadonk all the stuff that's in the middle of the belly in the bum, and you want to shift it away from the camera because our job is to get the head and shoulders the closest thing to the camera by shifting your weight to the back foot. You're taking the massive massive who? The largest part of the body mass away from the camera. Are you with me so far? Good hand in the pockets, arresting in the side. Here's what happens? People come in and you start to pose them to go. What I do in my hands, you get that question a lot. So I literally just do this a lot. Ladies who don't have pockets, if you have to tell them what to do with their hands before they noticed that their hands are weird, that's don't forget the hands. And if you just rest your hands gently at your sides, that'll be perfect. You with me? All right. Okay. Cool. All right. Always be a mirror. So let's do a quick exercise. Can you stand up, All of you? How many people have struggled trying to get somebody to post correctly for you? Right? We all are. Absolutely. So I'm gonna show you how I do it 99 times out of 100. Are you ready with me? Okay, here's we're gonna I want you guys to turn this way. 45 degrees. Follow me. Good. Now I want to take the foot this close to the camera and pointed back at me. Shift weight onto your back foot. If you have pockets and you can comfortably put it in your hand just putting their or just rest your hands at your sides. Now, I want you to lean towards me just a little bit. And then I want you to tilt your head this way just to touch. I just posed eight People have never posed before because I am a mirror. Don't tell somebody or even direct with your hands. Every person I do it with them. You can sit back down. I do it with them and I do it so that it makes sense. I move with them and you tell them, OK, pretend I'm a mirror. I just want you to do what I do. So you tell them you use your big boy words and then you also show them with your body. Does that make sense? Once I developed that I don't have problems telling Pete directing people anymore because just about any person who has achieved sentence and could talk can follow directions like that. I do that with school Children and they could do that. Four year olds can do that, so grown ups can do that too. Okay, So super easy. You have to be the mirror for your client. Whether they're standing, whether they're seated. If you're trying to direct somebody who isn't a professional model, you're gonna need to do that. And so the last pieces getting the head in the right position, which will talk about. And I will show you how I direct that after another slide. This works from men, and it works for women. Right now, we're just talking about the body position, not the direction of the quality of the light. This is a photo to illustrate the body position, but I use it in many different ways, and it works for women, too. You want to do the arm cross real estate agent? You know, stuff like that works all the time. All you gotta do is that exact same pose way to the back. You know, 50% of people cannot comfortably cross their arms. They look weird when they do. You ever see anybody? They do like this. And you're like, you know, let's not do that. Post That was all the time. So it works for men and women. It's the same thing. Now, if you want to flatter your subject with the lighting is gonna change. But this position you can change your camera angle. You can change your angle of lights, but we're talking just about body position. That is the pose. What I just did with you is what I do. Almost every shoot is what I start with, and it works every time. And especially if you're shooting 20 people that will continue to work every single time.
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