All language subtitles for 2. The Foundation of Female Pose

Okay guys, I want to introduce you to

one of my best friends.

I've known her for almost 10 years right

now.

She's a gorgeous girl.

This is Lisa, everybody.

So Lisa, I have photographed her several times

at workshops.

I photographed some personal shoots as well.

And I'm very, very excited about photographing your

wedding in Bali in May.

So you're going to be introduced to Dylan.

Very handsome man, beautiful guy as well.

And so it's good that we're going to

have a real couple that we can pose

and then we can actually explore all these

different things.

So let's do this.

Now, very, very importantly, guys, that mirroring is

your best way of actually getting someone to

pose.

Now, yes, you have to know what you're

doing to actually get them to mirror you,

but let's just establish how easy mirroring can

be.

So let's do this.

So if you just go at the foot

of that little area there.

So I will basically say to a bride,

hey, mirror exactly what I do and then

you'll actually be effortless for the rest of

the day.

So we do it with the face first.

Yeah, perfect.

All right.

So now let's turn the body.

It's easy.

It's actually ridiculous on how easy it is.

So remember, posing can be your best friend,

even to the point where your bride or

groom, for example, could be leaning on something,

could be on a bed.

So you could literally be on a bed

like this and then you could move your

face and chin down.

See, sometimes what happens is that when you

overpose or you offer too much direction, you

might lose that feeling.

So now, for example, we could be getting

something very soft and sensual and beautiful.

And if we say too much, then we've

lost it.

So very, very gently, you can just get

the bride to just very gently in turn

and she can mirror your energy as well.

So it's not just about mirroring the physicality

of physiology, it's actually mirroring the energy.

And it also could be the way you

speak.

So for example, if I said, turn left,

chin up, chin down.

It's just very mechanical.

And what I'm saying is just it's a

bit flat.

There's no energy in there at all.

Now, sometimes if you're far away, I would

give you a very clear direction.

But sometimes what I'll do is just soften

my voice.

Now, chin up a little bit.

That's it.

Turn your face this way.

Chin down.

Okay, close your eyes.

On the count of three, look where your

face is pointing.

One, two, three.

Beautiful.

So you see how energy plays a huge

factor when you're actually posing.

Now, let's talk about the female form, the

foundation of a full length pose, and very

many things that has worked for me over

the years, and some things that haven't worked,

and I'll tell you why.

So I'm going to get you stand right

in the center there.

That's perfect.

And just face it perfectly.

Now, guys, really, really important that you actually

ask for permission to touch a certain part

of the body.

I believe that shoulders and hands are a

safe area to touch, okay?

Because you shake hands with someone, it's considered

okay.

You do this with someone, you might just

pat them on the shoulder.

It's considered like normal etiquette that touching hands

and arms and shoulders are okay.

Anything else is off limits, especially in the

time that we're living in, you want to

be very careful.

Now, Lisa, I've known for a very long

time, we've built a lot of trust.

There's no issue, I can sort of move

her legs and shoulders and things like that.

But I want to teach you in a

way where if you're dealing with strangers, or

a relative stranger, because you may have met

the bride three or four times on exactly

how you pose.

So remember, shoulders, arms and hands are okay.

If you also feel a little bit awkward,

you might ask, do you mind if I

touch your hands and shoulders, will that be

okay?

And do you see how I'm actually almost

bowing, I'm saying I'm here to serve you.

That's always a comfortable way of building trust

there as well.

Anything else, I'll usually ask permission.

Like now with Lisa, because I've actually photographed

her countless times, she'll know that I could

walk up to her and I can tilt

her face.

Let's say the mirroring thing is not working,

and perhaps she needs a little bit of

help, then that's where I'll either do that,

if I've built enough trust, or I'll ask

permission.

Okay, so let's look at the female form.

Now, if looking at this camera here, you

can imagine that Lisa, she's got a gorgeous

figure, but she's basically standing to the camera

at her widest.

Okay, she's not wide, but it's at her

widest.

Now, depending on the dress that she's wearing,

so we're going to actually show you a

couple of different styles of dresses.

But this I've actually done because it's quite

loose, but it's quite form fitting as well.

So it's important to show how we can

shape the body.

So when you photograph a girl front on,

you are photographing at her widest.

So you might want to have the lighting

come from the side to give you the

texture, depth, dimension, and form that you're actually

not getting from the angle.

And we'll talk about that in future segments.

And we have talked about that in our

lighting segment as well.

Now, for the moment, now let's have a

look at her structure here.

She's got really beautiful posture.

You obviously work out and you do yoga

and all that kind of stuff.

So she's got great posture already without even

saying a word.

Now, it's important that we need to know

that posing actually starts from the feet, because

even if we're photographing, let's say head and

shoulders, if she's just standing flat footed, then

the energy here is not working.

If I was to turn her body and

lean her forward, then all of a sudden

we're engaging the camera and it actually works

better.

For the moment though, I'm actually going to

start with the shoulders and work our way

down and then show you different parts of

the body and some things that we need

to know.

So first of all, so you probably got

too much of a good posture here.

I just want you to relax a little

bit with the shoulders there.

Okay.

So watch what happens now when we actually

bring the shoulders back.

Now, what happens is we eliminate those little

pinches of skin or at least minimize them.

Now, again, Lisa's got a great figure, but

the normal people perhaps might have an issue.

Most girls will wear an off-the-shoulder

wedding dress and that can be quite problematic.

So we're going to just relax a little

bit, bring those shoulders back.

Now, what is a byproduct of actually bringing

those shoulders back?

Well, her chest actually looks a little bit

fuller and firmer.

Okay.

So that works.

So shoulders back, fantastic.

So also we need to remember that we

need to bring the arms off the body.

See, even though Lisa works out, she's quite

ripped in many ways.

She's been working out last few years, all

that kind of stuff.

Now, part of my cold hands here, but

when you bring an arm against the body

part, then it looks flat.

No girl wants that.

I'm telling you now, wouldn't you say that

that's one of the sour points for women.

You just don't want your arms to look

flat and flabby and big or anything like

that.

Even though you've got a great figure, that

is not going to look really pretty in

a photograph.

Now, yes, you can liquefy it and do

that, but don't be lazy.

You just, you don't want to rely on

post-production to fix these things that you

can do in camera because after all, when

you actually put these photographs online and in

the proofs online and things like that, she's

going to see herself not knowing what you

can do afterwards in post-production and just

simply dismiss it as, I don't like this

photograph.

So do what you can in camera, make

everyone look and feel beautiful.

So with her shoulders, we said the shoulders

back, that makes the arms, the chest look

fuller and firmer, with her arm, bring it

off her body.

Now you need to give her an excuse

to bring her arm off her body.

So if she just does this only without

doing anything, she looks almost like a bit

of a robot.

So she can hold the groom's arm.

She can hold the groom's hand.

She can hold the actual flowers.

She can adjust her earrings.

She can adjust her hair.

There's many things that you can do.

So just give her something to do.

And we'll discuss that in more detail as

we go further.

Now we said actually making the chest look

fuller and firmer is quite important because no

bride likes no curves.

Curves is what defines a female form.

They're very, very beautiful.

So what we want to do is this,

there's a couple more ways that we can

actually make the bust look fuller and firmer,

and that is by doing a few things.

First of all, we said bring the shoulders

back.

Then if I, Lisa, if I ask you

to breathe out fully, breathe out and then

breathe in, you see how her chest looks

fuller.

I'm not looking that way, you're looking that

way, but that is a really good way.

That's actually a good way to actually even

make a chest look fuller.

If you're doing boudoir, doudoir, if you're photographing

guys, they want to make their chest look

a bit beefier.

It depends on what you're trying to do

and what you want to do.

So shoulders back, breathe in, and then you

take the photograph at the peak of breathing

in.

Okay, so let's, let's relax.

It's also in the way you ask.

So Lisa, if I was to simply say

to you, just relax a little bit, and

if I just said to you in the

way I'm asking, just lean forward, what would

that look like?

Yeah.

So what's happening now is that your arms

are in the line of your chest.

Okay, so you're, it's basically just on the

same plane.

So we're enveloping them.

It's not, there's no curves at all.

Now I'm going to ask you a different

way.

I want you to basically just lean forward

with your chest.

Now, what was the difference?

Now, let's do it on a bit of

an angle so we can see.

So turn that way.

So lean forward the lazy way.

So just lean forward.

You see again, that plane is just there.

The arms are in line with the bus,

doesn't work.

So come back.

Now lean forward with your chest.

Automatically what happens is the shoulders go back,

we arch the back, the booty's out, we've

got beautiful curve.

That's what it's all about.

Makes sense?

So it's all in the way you ask.

Okay, so turn around.

Okay, very good.

So basically three ways that we can make

the chest look fuller and firmer.

We said the shoulders back, we said the

arms off the body.

Now let's talk about the hips.

Now, especially for weddings, guys, that you want

to understand that a bride really should never

be flat-footed.

Like in other words, just standing straight like

that.

It just doesn't work.

It's boring, there's no curves, nothing.

At the very least, what we need to

do is push her hip one way or

the other.

So what I'm going to get you to

do is simply, so just follow me, just

push your hip to the right.

So you see how we've got a beautiful

curve there.

That looks great.

Or push it the other way.

Now this works well as well.

Now depending on the body type, guys, depending

on the body type, we need to know

which way to push the hip or not.

So let's go a little bit further now.

So when you photograph the girlfriend's arm, like

our bride, we said that that's her widest.

So what I'm suggesting, I've implied already, that

we should basically turn the body on an

angle.

Already now we're getting busts, we're getting waist

and we're getting hips.

Yes, we can actually amplify that even further,

which we'll actually do right now.

So here's what we're going to do.

We're first going to start to point the

toe towards the camera.

Okay, so it's right out.

Then we're going to slide the heel back

in whilst keeping our toe pointed towards the

camera.

Now we're going to bend that knee this

way.

Now we're going to shift the hip back

away and shoulders back.

And for the sake of the argument, the

hands and the hips.

Now let's have a look.

Okay, so we're going to have a look

and see what we've done.

Fantastic.

So now she's shifting her hip back, her

shoulders are back, we've got a beautiful waist

and now we can see the shape of

her body.

Fantastic.

So let's go back to where we were.

Again, flat, straight.

Again, she's gorgeous.

She gets away with this, but we want

more curve.

Turn the body on a bit of an

angle, point the toe towards me, slide the

heel back in, bend the knee, shoulders back,

lean forward with your chest.

Perfect.

And if you can, even booty out a

bit more if you can.

Boom.

So now we've got some beautiful shape there

as well.

Fantastic.

So remember that action.

There's quite a few actions involved because what

we can do guys is a lot of

photographers will just do this and point the

toe that way.

Why does this not work in my humble

opinion?

Because if we just get straight into it

rather than go through the process of doing

it, then we're going to expose the thickest

part of her thigh.

So that's why I say do it along

with me again as well.

In fact, we'll do it through in this

camera now.

So even though it's at a three quarter,

we're going to point the toe towards that

camera there, slide the heel back in, bend

the knee, shoulders back, lean forward with the

chest.

Now what we do with the hands, it

could be holding flowers, it could be different

things.

We'll come to that very, very shortly.

But this is going to be a foundation.

Now how far do you go with this

particular kind of posing?

Well, it depends on the person.

So for example, if you have someone who

needs a bit more emphasis on the chest,

you might bring the chest forward.

See, anything you want to emphasize, you push

towards the camera and towards the light.

Anything you want to de-emphasize, you push

it away from the camera and away from

the light.

Let me explain that one a little bit

further.

So turn around this way.

So what I want you to do is

simply, so you've got your feet together now,

right?

I want you to actually shift your hip

towards the camera.

So now let's have a look and see

the difference.

So now she's actually shifting her hip towards

the camera and it just doesn't look as

nice.

If we shift her hip away from the

camera and now let's just put your hands

on your hips so we can expose the

waist and just turn your upper body towards

me.

Beautiful.

Do you see how now her beautiful shape,

it's being emphasized and it works really well.

Now let's say for example you get an

awkward bride that arguably doesn't really know, like

she's not mirroring you quite well yet, she's

getting a little bit awkward.

What do we do?

Well I'm not going to touch her hips,

they're not mine to touch, okay?

So what I do is this.

I grab her own hand, we said the

hand is a safe area to touch, I

bring it on her hip and then I

push back and that is a basically a

safe gentlemanly way or a lady kind of

a way to push that hip back to

understand.

Again, how far you go or not depends

on the person, the body type, the height

and how it basically works.

This is also good if you're a short

photographer.

I like to call you down to earth,

not short.

So if you're closer to the earth than

short, this will bring you closer.

In other words, the couple a little bit

closer towards you and make you sort of

more parallel.

So rather than you being shorter and you

being over here that you're actually more parallel

to them and that's going to work really,

really, really well.

The golden rule here guys is that you

want to bend the knee that's closest to

the camera.

That's going to be really, really important because

again, if we put all the weight on

the front leg, so let's just do that,

all the weight in the front leg basically

means that you can lift up the right

leg.

We don't want that.

If you're doing this pose correctly, you're shifting

the butt away, let's do that.

Now, if you're doing this pose correctly, guys,

you need to do this and you can

lift up this front leg.

Makes sense?

Sometimes if you do this and you're putting

all the weight on the front leg, you

realize something's awkward.

It's going to be a little bit weird.

Now, let's say for example, you had a

bride with a big bust, like almost to

the point where you want to minimize the

size of her bust.

This is where you might not bring the

shoulders back.

You might actually bring the shoulders in a

little bit and even turn the shoulders a

little bit this way.

In other words, you're making her bust a

little bit more concave and that's going to

be perhaps a good thing as well.

Just again, depending on the bride, depending on

the person, all these things will come into

play.

But what we've done here is looked at

the foundation.

Now, what we'll do, let's do it one

more time, but can you just lift up

the dress so people can see the feet

and what they're doing?

Okay, so basically we're turning our whole body.

It's almost like we're pretending that we're on

a turntable.

We've come from here and we've turned on

a bit of a 45 degree angle.

Now we point our toe towards the camera.

We slide the heel back in whilst keeping

the toe pointed, bending the knee and then

shifting the butt back and then shoulders back

and the arms off the body.

Beautiful.

Now from there, this is an important one.

Do you see how she's tilting her face

this way?

If she turns her chin to her outer

shoulder and then you turn your shoulders more

towards me, beautiful, and then eyes back into

the camera, you see how it's a bit

more feminine.

Let's do it in this one now.

All right, so we're going to turn the

shoulders a little bit this way, turn your

chin to this shoulder and then eyes back.

That's considered very, very feminine.

It's very pretty.

It's very beautiful.

Now if she keeps her face there, now

pretend like your face is clamped and I'm

just going to turn your body this way.

Yeah, so turn your face back towards me.

Now relax your body a little bit.

So as you know, I've changed my mind.

Let's do it.

Let's do that again.

The exact same pose that you just did.

So hands on the hips and then lean

forward, chin to the outer shoulder.

See, if I did that, forget about the

even if it was like a, you know,

a strong male pose like this, it looks

still feminine.

But if I turn like this, do you

see how pretty much my face is in

line with my shoulders and then I'm looking

back, this is a masculine pose and that's

a feminine pose that Lisa is doing right

now.

Does that make sense?

All right, so ultimately whether she's standing, whether

she's sitting, whether she's lying down, the golden

rule here, or as I call them common

denominators, is that bend the knee that's closest

to the camera.

That's going to work for pretty much most

people.

Now let's say, for example, I was photographing

Lisa Boudoir.

Let's say we're doing some lingerie photographs and

let's say I wanted a bit more junk

in the trunk, so to speak, and I

wanted her booty a little bit more pronounced.

Then that's where I might break my rule.

So this is where I might actually get

all the weight on the front leg like

that.

Let's just hold your hands together in front

of you there for a second and you

see this area just looks a little bit

bigger and the cool thing is that in

2020 and when this was filmed, it's great

because big butts or shapely butts or curves

are actually celebrated, which I think is fantastic

because I think it's been a long time

coming that we should celebrate different body types

and shapes and things like that.

So some girls, you actually want a little

bit more curve there, but this is the

thing, the leg will not look as nice

all the way.

So if I'm photographing a bride, let's say,

or someone with an exposed part of her

body, so she's wearing lingerie but I can

see a little bit of butt here, I

will do that and then this will look

a little bit firmer and fuller, but then

I'll crop just underneath the curve and that's

going to really work well as well.

So remember all these things.

Okay, now let's talk about it here.

Let's turn right around again.

Now, as far as the face is concerned,

there are many ways that we can actually

pose a face.

Sometimes, depending on who you're photographing, if you

bring the face a little bit back, of

course, we all have a problem area here,

like a bit of a double chin.

Nobody wants a double chin.

Now, Lisa has a beautifully defined jawline, she

actually works really well, it's not an issue,

but ultimately there'll be a time where you'll

be like the rest of us.

Now, if, for example, we turn our body

on a bit of an angle, okay, let's

just get into that little foundation pose again,

okay, beautiful, you might want a chin to

lean forward.

So I often will actually look at my

bride's and if you look at me for

a second, so imagine like I'm a turtle

and I'm like this, I want you to

do this.

Perfect.

So we stretch out the face, we bring

it out.

Now, if we bring that chin down and

then turn your face this way, and the

more we bring the chin down and the

eyes into the camera, it's a very soft

and sensual look.

Also, it actually makes the eyes appear larger.

So let's get back into normal pose so

we can relax a little bit again.

So let's just turn your body directly towards

that camera.

So again, forget about the foundation pose and

the full length pose or anything like that,

simply bring the chin forward and then down

and do you see how there's a bit

of a sexy sort of vulnerable feel to

that look?

The problem when a guy does it, I

look like a serial killer, okay?

So let's just do the same thing, we're

passive right now, nothing's happening, bring the chin

forward, down.

So what happens is, yes, the whites of

the eyes, depending on the eye shape and

size and type, will actually envelop the pupil,

therefore making the eyes larger.

So there's a really cool tip, if you

want to make the eyes larger, drop the

chin and then look up or you can

just stay there and just look up that

way.

Again, the whites of the eyes will give

the impression that the eyes are actually larger.

But remember, for a girl it's a bit

soft, it's vulnerable, for a guy it can

look a little bit aggressive depending on what

you want.

So also, you've got to be very careful.

Most people will sometimes look at you with

their forehead, like they'll be like this, all

these little creases and stuff like that.

I'll often go up to a bride and

say, just relax your forehead, just relax, you

know, it's a problem, you know, maybe Botox

is in order, but whatever the case may

be, it's important that we just relax the

forehead, there's no creases and it actually works

really well.

Now let's talk about a problem area, a

problem child, and that is the hands.

Many of us don't know what to do

with hands, so here are a few common

denominators that I will love to share with

you right now.

So let's just face this particular camera right

now.

So with a hand, with a girl's hand,

pretty much with her whole body, you do

not want to see the thickest part of

any body part really, very rarely that will

work.

Beautiful ring by the way, so Dylan didn't

really willow.

Now this part of the hand and the

wrist, you really don't want to see, it's

just not as elegant, it's not as pretty,

it's just something doesn't feel right.

What we want to do is we want

to amplify curves in every capacity.

Also we don't want to see this part,

this is just, it's almost like you're giving

a back hand, you know what I mean,

you don't want that.

So ultimately what we want to see is

we want to see the thinnest part of

the wrist either this way or this way,

and also this can never be straight, we

can never have this perfectly straight, this needs

to be bent up like that or like

that, so that or that.

Now do you see how easy that is?

I'm not going to show you the bird

finger, but my middle finger and the thumb,

that can easily direct her in any way

that I want to go, and you will

basically tell the bride what you're doing and

why you're doing it and we'll discuss that

very shortly.

So what I'm getting at is, and an

easy way of actually remember how to pose

hands is this, so actually Lisa I'll get

you over here and I'm going to get

you to mirror me, okay, so start with

your hands like this and now just roll

your wrist into you, perfect.

Now turn around, let's face that camera there

and do the same thing, so start with

your hands flat, we're going to put them

on the biceps and now we're going to

just roll them around like that.

You see how easy that is?

Now you might say well Gerry that's just

one pose, crossing arms, well what else do

I do with this hand?

How else do I pose it?

Well let me explain, stand in the middle

there again or a little bit to the

right of the middle.

So let's do it again, now this hand

can stay there and watch what happens, this

hand is basically how you hold the hand

or the forearm of a groom.

Let's go back again, let's keep it there

and this is how you hold the bicep

of a groom.

You see when a bride holds a groom

like this, there's just no emotion, it doesn't

feel right at all, so what I want

to do is we want to grab and

then roll around, grab, roll around, I don't

love you, I love you, I don't love

you, I love you.

Hand like this straight, I don't love you,

I'm slapping you, I love you.

So remember, do it again and then I

can hold a drink like that.

Do you see how the hands are just

very, very soft and delicate?

So remember, whatever you're doing, whether you're holding

flowers, just remember do this, do this and

you're holding flowers, do this, you're actually holding

a champagne, do this and you're actually holding

a veil, it could be whatever you want.

So a common problem that a lot of

photographers do is on a wedding day, is

when the bride is actually getting her earrings

done.

So let's pretend, actually don't even, don't pose,

don't give you, don't give me what you

think I want, just put your hands up

to your face and let's just see what

that looks like.

Okay, stop there.

I'm going to stand back a little bit.

Okay, okay, good, you did it incorrectly.

So from this particular camera angle, I'm actually

showing the thickest part of her wrist.

Her right, her right wrist, camera left, is

actually looking quite thin and beautiful, but then

her left one, she's facing the camera and

she's putting her actually bicep right onto her

bust, which is making her arm look a

little bit flatter.

We don't want that.

So here's a good way of remembering this.

Took me years to work this out.

So I want you to relax.

Now what I want you to do is

just bring your wrist together.

Yep, and now bring them up to your

ring, to earring.

Beautiful.

And then again, depending on the angle, perfect.

So that's a really, really easy way of

remembering to when she does earrings, do that,

bang, you know the thinnest part of the

wrist.

And the cool thing is that's going to

bend and that's going to bend.

Beautiful.

Now remember too, this is an important lesson,

a pose can look good from one perspective,

but it can actually look terrible in the

other perspective.

Does that make sense?

So let's do that again.

Let's do, so wrist together and then do

the earrings.

Now, if I turn her this way, then

that arm is going to look squishy.

This is going to look a bit of

a problem, but this is the actual angle

that we want.

So therefore, arguably you want to have light

coming from this side and this will sort

of dwindle away and give us some beautiful

texture on the ring.

And we're seeing the thinnest part of the

wrist, which I think is actually going to

be really, really cool.

Okay.

So remember that?

Totally relaxed.

Now with your hand now, Lisa, I want

you to sort of bring it up like

this.

And now I want you to totally relax

it.

Do you see how both of us, and

let's just come to the side here a

little bit too.

Do you see how both of us, it's

not flat, it doesn't fall flat.

It relaxes.

Now let's come back this way.

Let's bring your elbow up a little bit.

Do you see how our hands, again, male

and female hands will naturally just relax.

And you see how the little pinkies up

a little bit, the two ones a little

bit down, the index finger is like this.

Does that remind you of anything?

The Michelangelo's creation of Adam, remember this?

So this is how you pose a hand.

You don't pose a hand.

You just relax it.

So relax.

This could be the way.

Now just bring it up.

Let it naturally fall and do this.

Perfect.

Now let's flop it over.

Now guide that palm and then underneath like

this.

Yeah, perfect.

Bending the wrist, beautiful.

Everything just needs to be relaxed.

Just totally relax those hands.

Remember, hands on the arms.

Let's do that again.

Roll the wrists around.

Let's put them like this again.

Perfect.

It ends up being such an easy way

to remember how to pose hands.

And certainly please watch our segments that we've

got like three segments totally dedicated to how

to pose hands because there are many, many,

many ways.

Really, I believe after the eyes, the hands

are the most expressive thing.

So remember guys, do not waste the bride's

hands by putting one arm always around the

groom, one arm always holding the flowers.

It's not emotional.

When the bride gets together with the groom,

I usually just take a few shots of

the flowers.

Done.

Traditional.

Fantastic.

Done.

Now let's express ourselves with our hands.