All language subtitles for 3. The Foundation of Male Pose

Hey guys, this is Dylan.

This is Lisa's fiance, and arguably, by the

time you watch this video, they could be

married and have kids by now.

Who knows?

All I know is that, yes, you both

should procreate.

If nothing else, get plenty of cats and

dogs like us, and as you already have.

So all is good.

I see Lisa giggling there in the background

and stuff.

So Lisa's normally the model, and Lisa's just

doing some Instagram stories right now, so it's

all fun.

All right, guys, so here's what we're gonna

have.

Now, we've got a very handsome groom, but

usually, and I haven't even told Dylan to

do this, he is pretty much acting like

most grooms in front of the camera.

In terms of the body language, do you

see how his hands are above his crotch?

What we're doing right now is we feel

a little bit uncomfortable, so we're hiding the

most sensitive part of our body.

That's what we're doing.

So even though that you didn't do it

actively, it is something that we get approached

with all the time.

So whereas when I'm actually photographing a bride,

my voice might be a little bit softer,

it might be a little bit sweeter, there

might be a different energy.

If you overpose a guy, he's gonna feel

a little bit awkward, and you'll find that

the way I even greet the groom will

be a little bit different than the bride.

So I might look at the bride and

say, oh my God, you look gorgeous.

I love your hair, your shoes.

It'll be a believable compliment with the bride,

and certainly, it'll be the same with the

groom.

So if I was to walk up to

Dylan and say, hey, man, you look really

sharp.

Give him a bit of a masculine slap

on the shoulder and stuff like that.

It sort of disarms him a little bit.

Look, see, guys wanna look and feel cool.

Girls traditionally wanna look and feel beautiful.

So now, it's important that we actually tell

the bride and the groom independently of why

we're doing what we're doing.

As in, hey, man, just to let you

know, I'm gonna get you to mirror me

today.

So if I bring my chin up, you

do the same.

Perfect, nice and easy.

Perfect, okay.

So now he knows the mirroring thing.

That's gonna be an easy one.

And always tell them what you're doing and

why you're doing it.

So if I say to you, again, you

got a great bod.

Let's just face it.

He works out, all right?

So all is good.

But anyone, any guy, see, guys usually have

three issues with their bodies.

Usually, it's a gut.

Usually, it's double chin, bald head.

He's totally fine, but it doesn't mean that

he wants to look bigger than he actually

is.

Maybe his arms and muscles and shoulders, but

we gotta be careful.

See, if curves define the female form, what

I believe defines the male form are the

chest and the shoulders.

It's the strength.

In other words, you build a palace for

a queen, it's gonna be beautiful and soft

and round and things like that.

You build a palace for a king, it's

gonna be strong and straight.

So it's a different sensibility.

I'm not saying there's no exceptions to the

rule.

Of course, there is.

There's gonna be different genders that have sort

of non-traditional energies that are not associated

with that gender.

Fine, we understand that, but we're trying to

look at the common denominators that will suit

most people.

And that's what we're doing right now.

So when it comes to a guy, we

need to know that.

All right, so now that you know the

mirroring thing, I'll actually say to you, I'll

often get you to lean your body forward.

And when that happens is, your chest and

shoulders look bigger, your waist looks smaller.

Would you like that?

Sure.

Of course.

He's not gonna basically say none of that.

Also, I'm always gonna get you to basically

bend, put your feet together, and then just

put all your weight on your back leg.

Right?

So, and that's the opposite, which is great,

which you're mirroring me right now.

Why we do that, guys, is if we

do it overtly, it's gonna look feminine.

We don't want that.

So for example, if we're looking at this

camera, I'm not gonna do the female pose

with a guy.

It's not gonna happen.

But what I do is, if I'm facing

the camera, so let's face the camera together.

So if we're facing the camera, now, I

want you to mirror what I'm doing.

So we're gonna turn this way.

Now, all I want you to do, so

if you're looking at me here now, you

see my feet.

So we never want the feet to be

pigeon-toed for a girl or a guy.

That's gonna look weird.

Usually, most people will stand a bit of

a sort of a fan, almost like a

bit of a triangle with their feet.

So what I want you to do now

is just, yep, so relax a bit.

So just shake the legs out, shake the

legs out.

And then you're just putting all your weight

in your back leg.

Yep, perfect, good.

Now, why do I do that?

And now, I'll tell you in a second,

I want you to just lean your shoulders

forward.

For the sake of the argument, your hands

in your trouser pockets all the way.

So right in.

So you're gonna lean a bit forward and

then turn your upper body this way.

So let me go to the back of

the camera now.

Let's have a look here.

Perfect, okay.

So what do we have now with the

groom?

Well, what we've got now is we've got

a bit of a V.

So we often talk about brides and curves.

We've talked about the S-curve, right?

The beautiful S-curve with the more curves

we see, the more beautiful and more curvaceous

a girl would look.

With a guy, I often refer to the

letter, if you want a bit of a

metaphor for the way we wanna pose him,

it's either a V or a C.

We'll talk about the V for the moment.

So if you look at his body, he's

putting one leg in front of the other.

I think that's important.

Me, personally, what I personally like, I'm not

saying this is a rule or you can't

break it, what I personally like is I

love the fact that his shoulders are turned

towards me, one knee's over the other, and

basically his chest, because it's turned a bit

more towards me, not completely front on, we're

actually creating a wider shoulder and then it

cuts in a little bit.

Therefore, because you need peaks and valleys, because

his shoulders are quite wide and his legs

go in, it's basically emphasized because you've got

something to compare it to.

No different than photographing, let's say, a landscape,

and you find a little human being right

near the landscape of the mountain, then you

see scale.

Now, scale, his shoulders look wider because his

legs narrow in.

Now, let's go back to standing completely front

on with your hands in your pockets.

So hands in your pockets, do you sort

of see how that is not the way

you pose a guy?

He's just basically, it almost looks like he's

ready to be shot in the firing squad,

perhaps a bit casually there with his hands

in his pockets.

It just doesn't work.

Personally, I very rarely like to shoot a

guy with a gap between his legs.

I always want one foot in front of

the other.

Now, the only time that I actually think

that's okay is in photographing a gap between

the legs is actually doing this.

See how there's a little bit of a

gap there, but it's crossed over.

That actually works really well.

So I think for me, shooting front on

and crossing those legs, now I still get

the V because I start wider with his

shoulders and it comes basically in, and now

I've got something to compare it to.

So this is probably one of the only

exceptions where I'm happy to shoot front on,

or if the bride is actually right posing

with him, she breaks the monotony of just

that straight groom and then the legs parted,

it just doesn't feel right.

So for me, that's what I would do,

but let's just unravel the legs a little

bit.

So what we'll do now again, so hands

in the pockets just again, for the sake

of the argument, we'll come to hands in

a moment.

We're gonna just turn your, like pretend like

you're on a turntable and you're turning this

way.

Good, stop there.

Now guys, there's another really important point.

I did this sort of under my breath

with Lisa, but whether I'm photographing a guy

or a girl or a couple, I always

tell them, pretend you're on a turntable and

turn this way.

I could say, turn to your right, turn

to your left, and sometimes I do that,

but who's right and who's left?

And sometimes you're just not focusing and sometimes

I do it deliberately.

So if I tell a bride turn left

and she does this, your other left, and

she's like, oh my gosh, and then all

of a sudden she giggles and you got

the shot.

So either way, left or right will work

and your backup plan is, no, your other

left or right and you're fine, but pretending

your couple or your subject is on a

turntable and twisting them this way, there's no

way they're gonna turn their body that way.

They will turn this way, or I'll pick

something in the environment and I'll say, let's

say if there was a bridge over there,

hey, turn your body towards the bridge.

There's no mistaking it because there's not a

bridge on this side.

So, all right.

So now you've turned your body, okay?

You're on a bit of an angle.

Bring your feet a touch closer together.

Now what I want you to do, put

all the weight on your back leg and

just bend that front knee.

Good.

So now, hang your body forward.

Good.

And then turn your shoulders a bit more

towards me and then hang your body more

forward.

Good.

Now guys, that for me, now turn your

left toe a touch towards me.

That's it.

And then bring it in a little bit.

Good, good, perfect.

So for me, that is the foundation of

the male pose.

Now you might say, well, wait a second,

Gerry, this isn't right.

He's slouching.

Well, yeah, he is slouching.

I think a good foundation for a groom's

pose is a glorified slouch.

Because if we point the toe towards the

camera, slide the heel back in, bend the

knee, shift the hip back, shoulders back, lean

forward, that doesn't work for a guy.

That just looks feminine.

But I want a bit of an angle,

you know, potentially.

So what I do is I'm gonna do

this on a bit of an angle.

I'm gonna bring his chest and shoulders, like

his shoulders a bit back because we want

to emphasize those shoulders.

We want to bring the waist back.

Otherwise, we stand up too straight, we get

this, we get this, that's gonna be an

issue.

So remember, guys, that even though it's a

glorified slouch, this is going to work.

Now, how far do you go with this?

It really depends on the guy.

So sometimes I might get a plus-size

guy, and I'm telling you, I've got him

like literally like leaning like this, and I

will probably crop out the awkwardness or get

him to lean on a pillar or a

chair or something like that that will soften

his weight.

And of course, you would have seen, and

if you haven't seen my segment on corrective

posing, you'll see many examples on how to

photograph a plus-size groom, plus-size bride,

couple, and how to minimize and soften and

accentuate and bring out the best in people

and soften things as well.

So remember that.

Now, let's talk about a few other things.

Let's unravel a little bit again.

So what do you do with hands?

Okay, hands are an issue for a guy

too.

Now, yes, you can't over-pose a guy

with hands.

I mean, it's a little bit weird.

It can look a little bit awkward.

Now, if you just crossed your arms without

thinking, how would you do it?

Yeah, most guys will do this.

One hand will be out, one hand will

be in.

If you have a guy with small biceps

and you want to make those biceps look

bigger, you simply bring that hand underneath, make

a fist out of both hands, and then

you do that.

Now, for me, I do have small arms.

Now, you have bigger arms, but I'm six

foot two.

I can get muscles, you can't get taller.

That makes me feel better about it also.

But for me, because I've got very skinny

arms, I would bring my hands and then

I would do something like this, just makes

it look a little bit stronger.

And again, if I engage the camera more,

hang the body forward, I'm gonna make this

area look stronger again.

Remember too, even a plus-size girl has

less of a problem with a double chin

than a guy.

Guys, plus-size or even normal, like I

would consider myself a normal guy.

I'm not really plus-size, I'm not really

skinny.

I'm just like a normal guy.

I can get a problem over here.

So that's where I'd bring my chin forward.

The same with the guy.

Always get them to mirror you.

It'll always work.

So chin forward, that's it.

And I'll often do it and I'll keep

on doing it.

I'll never feel like, oh, maybe the groom

thinks I'm a fool because I'm just over

-accentuating or he'll know what I'm doing.

She will know what I'm doing by bringing

the chin forward.

And I'll often say, just like a turtle,

bring the chin out, bang.

And it actually helps.

Now, as far as the hands are concerned,

there's a few things.

Now, the easiest thing you can do is

put your hands in your pockets.

That's gonna be very disarming.

Guys just feel cool doing that.

Now, just for the sake of the argument,

we'll undo this.

I want you now to bring your hands

over your jacket and then put your hands

in your pockets.

Now guys, if we do this, do you

see how this just makes him look wider

because we're actually, we've got basically the belly

exposed.

So he hasn't got a belly, but all

I'm saying is that this has become wider.

You see how it goes in and out,

in and out?

This just makes like this area look wider,

which we don't want.

So traditionally with a guy, if he's got

a couple of buttons on a suit, just

a general fashion rule, if it's three buttons,

you will always do that top button, maybe

do the second and never the bottom.

Now you might say, why maybe?

Well, if the top button looks good on

its own, the bottom two are undone, fine.

Usually I'd say in 2020 at this stage,

the classic suit is usually one button or

two.

You would do the top one and that

will just leave a little bit of freedom

when he's sitting down or anything like that.

Now let's just expose the hands in the

pockets again.

Okay, so hands in the pockets can look

really good.

Great, they're disarming, it works well, guys feel

cool doing it.

Now here's what I believe the wrong way

to do it.

Just bring your thumbs out.

Okay, guys, thumbs out can look, I believe,

like a male appendage pointing to the real

thing.

And no one likes that.

Yes, body language suggests that me putting my

thumb out of my pocket, actually it's quite

a relaxed feeling.

It is a suggestion that I am relaxed.

This probably looks a little bit more tense

and not as relaxed.

It does look relaxed, but not as much

as the thumb out.

But I'm saying is I'd rather sacrifice the

idea of two little male appendages pointing to

the real thing.

We don't want that.

Now let's do the other way, thumbs in.

If you do that, well, that's framing the

real appendage.

We don't want that.

We're literally drawing attention.

Now, if he was wearing jeans and we're

photographing a casual look, let's say at an

engagement session or something like that, well, this

is where I'd keep the thumbs in and

do a relaxed fist on both sides.

Yep, but I'm telling you now, guys, that

hands in the pockets, in or out.

So put your hands back in, do the

button up.

Never, never leave it undone.

This is just gonna make guys look wider.

Some guys will often do that, or they'll

actually do this, which is terrible.

Oh, not that, well, that's terrible.

There we go.

They'll do the bottom one.

Like, that just looks wide now.

Like, you know, he's got a cool bod,

but it just doesn't look right at all.

So I was trying to think of a

great bod.

How do I say that?

It just sounds a bit weird.

Cool bod, I think, you know?

So that would be the way to go.

Make sense?

So what else can we do with the

guy's hands?

Well, there's many things.

So watch this.

Let's say we're just crossing our arms again.

So it can be, like I said, big

biceps, great.

If not, one out.

One out, it's usually like this.

It's usually most guys do, that's it.

That's more the natural way of doing it.

Now, what else can you do for a

guy?

Perhaps what we do is maybe we get

him to adjust his tie.

In fact, I'll do it from over here

so we can give everybody an idea of

what's going on.

So turn your body on a bit of

an angle.

Yep, perfect, a bit more.

Okay, just do your tie for me.

That's it.

Now, do you see the angle on which

we're photographing, especially the camera that I'm behind

right now?

I can't see his right hand.

If I switch hands, it'll actually work.

Let's do that.

Perfect, so now I see both hands.

Fantastic, that's the way I would do it.

Also, let's adjust your cuff link.

Let's assume you had a cuff link.

So just follow me here.

Let's put it back in like this.

There you go, perfect.

So perfect.

And then what you can do with his

face, like if you want shots to look

glamorous and natural, give him something to do.

If he was doing something natural with his

hands and then you got him looking in

the camera, it would look a little bit

weird because we're basically saying, well, he's doing

an action, but then he's looking at the

camera and he's posing.

But if I get him to lean forward

and then just look off to the left,

he looks cool.

Hey, there's James Bond just freaking getting ready

to, and why is James Bond always wearing

a suit?

That's not tactical at all, but anyway.

This could also be adjusting your collar.

Let's do that.

Perfect.

It could be just one hand in the

pocket.

That's it.

And then one hand on the collar as

well.

That's the thing is that we just gotta

give the guys something to do.

Otherwise they're gonna look weird.

If nothing else, the foundation pose, put the

hands in the pockets and you're laughing.

Really, really cool, guys.

So remember the foundation for the guy's pose.

Let's relax a little bit.

He's standing front on, me personally.

So just turn your feet a little bit

more this way.

Let's just reiterate all these things.

We do not want the guy flat footed.

So flat footed for the moment, Dylan.

Nice and flat and turn your shoulders right

there.

Move your feet as well.

That's it.

We don't want this, okay?

We wanna just relax a little bit.

If we shoot a guy front on, a

common denominator that I've been using for many,

many years, again, is just bring that foot

over.

That breaks the monotony of that particular pose.

And then again, it gives us a bit

of shape.

So we want the V.

We want powerful, very cool shoulders and stuff.

Or we unravel, we turn on a bit

of an angle.

Let's face this camera now.

Turn on a bit of an angle.

Great.

We're gonna put all our weight on our

back leg.

So now you've got it.

You're gonna lead that chest forward a little

bit and then chin forward, up.

Good.

Now remember, if we bring this chin to

the shoulder, keep it going.

And then eyes back at the camera.

Feminine.

Come back.

That's cool.

And now just tilt this way and then

turn this way.

Cool.

That works.

Shoulders nice and relaxed.

Once the guys get this, it actually makes

it easier for the rest of the day.

And I will actually do the same lesson

for Groomsman.

That's what it's all about.

So he knows why I'm doing this.

The chin forward and sometimes up is gonna

actually eliminate that skin.

Hanging the body is gonna make his chest

and shoulders look bigger.

The waist actually is gonna be further back.

Bending that leg is gonna create a V,

gonna make him look sort of strong.

And as far as his hands are concerned,

now we have all these combinations.

So let's come back again.

We're gonna, like I said, we can have

hands in the pockets, either in or out.

We can do the cuff link.

We can actually do the shirt.

We can actually put one hand in, one

hand out.

Of course, we can basically switch.

We can put hands in the pockets.

We can adjust the collar.

We can look away.

We can look down.

There are many, many things.

So just think about all this stuff and

don't be intimidated by it because the guy,

any guy for that matter, wants to be

posed well as well.

They wanna look good.

And my suggestion is you've gotta be a

little bit shorter, a little bit sharper with

your words.

Don't over-pose, don't over-embellish everything like

that and soften that voice.

And sometimes I might do it just to

make the groom laugh, but you gotta make

it a little bit quick and a little

bit sharper.

And if I sacrifice perfection to make him

comfortable, that's okay.

I usually find with the groom that I'll

pose him, he'll do well, I can get

some cool shots, but when he truly relaxes,

when he sees his beautiful bride walking down

the aisle, the ceremony's over and then now

we can have some fun and he's loosened

up and we've given him enough lessons at

the groom's coverage to have some fun.

So remember, it's not always about the bride.

Without the groom, the bride doesn't exist.

So make the guys look really, really cool.