How to Pose Model for Most Flattering Photo

"Hi again, Rob Mitchell for Expert Village. Well, this is the final step. We're going to actually be taking the photographs of our model so we're going to do a little lesson here on posing. Up until now Nicole's had it really easy. She's been able to sit back and relax in this comfortable chair and all she has to do is give us a pretty smile and it's worked really well. Now we're going to go for that fashion look. I'm turning the chair. You can see the camera is right dead center in our frame here. I want Nicole, her body to be facing forty five degrees away from the key light. You have to come away from the back of the chair. I don't want her leaning against the chair. Far too comfortable, not going to give us nice lines. Slide forward just a little bit more. Now she's facing three quarters away from the camera, but I'm going to get her to turn at the waist towards the camera, bring this elbow up here. Now the natural thing when people put there elbow here is she's going to lean on the elbow and it's getting a bulky shoulder here. See what's happening with the shoulder here. That's not going to photograph well. So, I want her to turn a little bit, she's leaning out this way, but putting very little weight on the actual elbow. It's more for style here. We're going to bring her other arm up here and bring it forward. The other thing that I always do is put my hand just in the back and say arch the back. See how it brings the shoulders up. Slouch down again. We arch the back and it creates it much better picture. So, she's turning towards the camera, leaning out this way a little bit, that's perfect. We've already got a much better pose going on here. She's got good posture, the back is arched, the elbow is out this way. What you have to remember when you're shooting is you are the models eyes. She can't tell exactly how she looks. Now what we're going to do is when we shoot is I'm going to direct her. Lean a little this way. Turn your head. Move it around back and forth. Until we get a variety of shots. You'll see through the lens that some of those positions look a lot better than others and others they don't quite work that well. What you have to remember if you get a position that doesn't work that well for the model, don't go, oh my god, that looks horrible. You're trying to create a rapport with the model. Make her relax. Make her comfortable. You have to talk to her, tell her which way to move her head, how to position it, and that way you're going to get the best shot. We're going to zoom in a little bit tighter here and take a few shots and see what we get. What we've done now is I've tried to position the video camera to closely resemble what I'm going to be seeing through the lens of the 35mm camera as I shoot. Again, the main thing to remember is that you have to direct your model. You are her eyes. Now, instead of leaning into me with the top of your head a bit, just this little, let's tilt the other way. Good, good. Perfect. That's it. Tilt your head, yeah nice, you're reading my mind now. Chin down a little bit. Good, good. Just a little bit more, that's really good. When you tilt the chin down, it brings out the eyes in the model and it gives her really sexy eyes."