Let’s start the new year off with three brand-new educational workshops:
Album Design
Portrait Lighting
Systems
Check out our workshop section, by clicking “Workshops”, above, or by clicking here.
See you there!
Bryan & Rob
The Fundamentals: Posing
October 6, 2009 – 9:18 am
The Fundamentals : Posing
The digital revolution has come and gone and now digital images are the norm and are obviously here to stay. As a pro photographer with 26 years in the business, I’ve seen trends come and go in our business and the thing that gives any photographer staying power is having a good understanding of the fundamentals of good photography. Unfortunately one of those fundamentals that I see as sadly lacking on so many websites these days is a good understanding of proper posing. Ugh … you say, I hate posed photos, too stiff, too traditional.
Well there’s nothing new in what you say, at all. Traditional posing can look stiff and boring and completely contrived if done poorly. But it can also look comfortable and relaxed instead, if done properly.
What I see today going on a lot in photography is such a complete lack of posing that in my opinion the pendulum has swung too far and many new photographers are just snapping away while people just do their thing in what’s commonly called “freestyle images”. Don’t get me wrong, if done well I really like candid images that capture the emotive moment. Unfortunately while some photographers are so busy focussing on a great expression, or the family laughing (or whatever), they are giving little attention to positioning, placement and composition. Since just about every family now owns their own digital camera and there are no longer film costs to consider when they are chronicling their own family history, they are also shooting freestyle. So when they hire a professional photographer to create a family portrait to go on their wall and they’re considering spending over $500 for a wall sized image I’m guessing they will want to to be confident that the portrait you create is not something they could have shot themselves.
I think getting a shot of a couple holding their kids where everyone is smiling or laughing is great, but keep in mind, with digital, just about anybody can get a great shot like that. So how can we stand apart in our craft? What makes us professional? I like to think it’s training; training and practise. I often hear comments behind me at weddings when I quickly set up group portraits and pose the group paying close attention to the placement of hands and feet and colours of clothing in relation to where I put them. The comments are usually about how fast I work while creating a pleasing composition with a group of people.
I use the rule of triangles when arranging a group so the there is always a flow from person to person. When putting a group together I always decide who will be the focal point and build the rest of the group around them. This might be the mother and father, bride and groom or just because of what they are wearing that will draw the most attention to them.
Posing individuals and couples to flatter them is an art that many won’t take the time to learn. I believe this knowledge is what will make your work stand out from the crowd. Today it takes nothing to create your own website and it seems just about everyone with a decent camera is deciding that they are a photographer, so as professionals we need to have images that reflect our level of expertise. Our imagery should reflect our knowledge of lighting, and posing in a way that most amateurs could not emulate.
Since I find that mothers are usually the ones who commission a portrait to be taken of the family I make sure that in a group portrait the mother will look amazing. It’s important to consider her placement and pose will be flattering and comfortable. People will not have a great expression if they are physically uncomfortable so I always go in and show them by example exactly how I want them to stand or sit. I build their confidence and improve their expression by praising their appearance when I return to my camera.
In the example above I have used comfortable spacing and different head levels to create a pleasing and comfortable looking family grouping. This would be considered a traditional style portrait but I ( and more importantly), the client believe they look both relaxed and casual. This kind of group arrangement is so much easier to sell in a large wall size because of the head sizes of the group. I‘ll point out in my sales presentation that you would never hang a wristwatch where a wall clock should be so it’s clearly better to have a portrait where the faces of everyone can be easily seen from everywhere in the room where it hangs.So do whatever it takes to learn classic posing in addition to getting the candids. I’m pretty confident it will raise your bottom line and set you apart from all the other “freestyle” photographers.
Robert Nowell
Updates – Workshops and Seminars
July 15, 2009 – 12:24 pm
We are just so excited about everything over here, at EnlightenMe!
You may have noticed that we gave the website a bit of a clean-up and we re-organized a few things. Most notably is our new “Workshops” section that you’ll find in our menu at the top of this page. This is where we’ll post all of our upcoming workshops and registration information.
Right now, we have got three workshops in the works that we are super excited about:
- Weddings in Wine Country: Our three-day immersion wedding workshop
- Off-Camera Flash Seminar
- Lightroom Seminar
Check out the “Workshops” page for more details and registration information.
See you soon!
Bryan & Rob
Bryan Caporicci talks “The Robin and the Glass”
July 13, 2009 – 6:23 am
The other morning, I was sitting in my sunroom, enjoying my bacon and eggs. It was shaping out to be a gorgeous day, and it felt so great to just take in all of the beauty around me. The sun was shining, the grass outside was cut to perfection, the water fountains spouting about, and the robins nearby were enjoying a water bath.
I noticed a robin that flew away from all his Robin friends, and he sat atop our fence-post, directly across from one of the windows in our sunroom. He sat there and stared at the plants that we had inside the sunroom.
As if he was working up the confidence to do it, he jumped up and tried to fly to the plants, which were, of course, on the other side of the sunroom window. With a loud “KLUNK”, he smashed into the window and fell to the ground. I felt like I was living in a Windex commercial!
The robin gets up off the ground, shakes it off a little bit, and flies back up to the fence-post. Again, he stared at the plants in our sunroom, jumped up and tried to fly to them. He hit the window again, and fell back to the ground. Once again, he flew back up to the fence-post.
Do you think he learned his lesson? Of course not! He jumped up and tried to fly to our plants, again. I am starting to really feel bad for this Robin, now. Doesn’t he realize that there is a window there?
He gets up, flies back to the top of the fence-post, and, well, I think that you can guess what happens next.
I thought – how many times in our lives are we like this Robin? How many times are we trying to get something, trying to reach something, trying to convince someone of something, and we are so stuck on that end goal that we are blinded and don’t realize what else may be in the way – like a pane of glass!
Insanity can be defined as the act of continually trying the same action time after time, expecting different results each time. Well – this Robin was definitely insane! He continually tried to fly to those plants, the exact same way, expecting that one of those times, he would make it.
But we do this all of the time! How many times are we trying to get our way in our relationships, and we insist and persist and push, and we shout “Why don’t you just see things my way”? It’s because you are continually trying the same thing, expecting the other person’s point of view to change. You can’t continually persist, and expect to get a different result out of it.
It’s the same way in our businesses – how many times have you had the “end goal” cloud your view of what was actually happening? I hear about it all of the time when other photographers say that they don’t do very well in sales presentations. They always say “no matter how much I try and upsell them, they won’t buy extra prints”. It’s because you’ve got your thinking all backwards! When you are focused too much on the end goal – upselling your clients to buy more prints, you are clouding up the process and your view of what is happening right in front of you. You probably come off as pushy, and somewhat like a “used car salesman”. Instead, change your focus – fly around the window, if you will. Focus more on getting your client what they want and need. Then, everything else will just fall in to place.
Think about that next time you are struggling to reach something – whether it be your goal, your point of view, or whatever it is. Sometimes we just need to take a different angle and try to “fly around the glass”.
