Find of the Day 2

Here and there I can easily find useful posing guide for women, but hardly do I found any decent descriptive posing guide for men.

So here it is what I found:

Posing Men Portraits

 

The link above provides a very good explanation along with some examples as reference. Very good read indeed. Below is a brief summary of the guide. For the pictures, please refer to the link.

  • The Face – The Jaw Line
    • The jaw line is a critical measurement of perceived manliness.
    • Make sure the jawline is well defined and as angular and sharp as possible.
    • Ask the subject to push their chin out and a little bit down.
    • Never let your subject pull his chin back
  • The Face – The Eyes
    • Big round puppy eyes do not look good on men.
    • Ask you subject to do “squinch”: It is a half squint, where the lower eye lids raise a bit to narrow the eyes while the upper eye lids don’t move much or at all.
  • The Face – Head Tilt
    • Never let a man tilt his head towards the camera.
    • Keep the head neutral or tilt slightly away from the camera.
    • Tilting too much away from the camera can be perceived as being rather arrogant and a bit aggressive.
  • The Body
    • The ideal male body form is a V shape: broad shoulders, thin waist.
  • The Body – Shoulders
    • Should look as broad as possible.
    • Square the shoulders towards the camera and if possible leaning a bit towards the camera.
  • The Body – Waist
    • You waist will look slimmer if your lower body does not exactly square the camera. Also, keeping your upper body closer to the camera will make your waist seem slimmer
  • The Body – Posture
    • Make sure your subject is standing tall, with shoulders up yet relaxed and keeping his core tight.
  • The Body – Hands
    • You need to keep your subjects hands busy by giving a reason for being where it is. 
      Here are a few ways to take care of this problem:

      • hands in pockets, either thumb in (GQ style) or palm in and thumb hooked on the pocket
      • hands hooked in the belt loops or one hand hooked on the belt buckle
      • one hand loosely to the side, one hand in pocket
      • arms crossed on chest with shoulders a bit down (relaxed shoulders)
      • holding newspaper with one hand
      • fixing tie with one hand
      • fixing link cuffs
      • hands on football, guitar or other prop that your male subject may have brought with him
      • one hand in pocket, the other hooked on a jacket thrown over the shoulder
      • when standing, you can have your subject rest his hands on a tall chair, desk, etc
  • The Body – Legs When standing
    • Legs crossed at the shin level with weigh on back leg
    • Legs shoulder width apart, one leg slightly closer to the camera
    • When leaning against a wall, the leg closer to the camera gets higher on the wall and the knee gets bent
    • The leg closest to the camera higher (on a rock, step, etc) with the outer tight facing the camera
  • The Body – Legs When sitting (chair, bench, desk)
    • For a natural relaxed pose when sitting on a chair, the ankle of one leg goes onto the knee of the other. Shoot slightly from above (avoid getting too close
    • Leaning against a desk at the waist, feet a bit forward, arms crossed on chest
    • when posing sitting, the subject should not sit square with the camera

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