Do not pose your models - instead, pose yourself around them

Posing is such a broad term, abused, feared, and totally misunderstood. How do I pose models for portraits - this is the most common question I get during photography workshops. And my answer is - I don't. Imagine that your model is a prey and you are the hunter. What you are hunting are her emotions, moments she forgets she is being photographed, gestures evoked by memories, thoughts in her eyes, the way she moved her head to fix her hair, eyes running away briefly to yesterday's events, in short you are hunting for anything and everything, but nothing in particular. You are stalking her for a perfect synergy between light, background and foreground elements, and body language. That is where you press the shutter.

model: Viktoria

By posing a model the way you want you will ruin her natural way of positioning, moving, influence her face expressions possibly in a negative way which will make her look fake or uncertain. Instead let he do freely what she wants with her body, then sit back and observe. Once you learn their body language and get to know their personality, then you can start fixing slight issues that you see through the view finder before shooting. This is what I mean by saying that you should pose yourself instead of posing the model. You should find the spot that is perfect for shooting a particular mood in certain lighting conditions by simply moving around and searching. She is the Sun, you are the planets. Move.

model: Viktoria

This does not mean that I do not give instructions and ask my models to do certain things, move this or remove that, curve, bend, whatever I need her to do really to complete my composition. I search not for a perfect but natural and undisturbed energy flow throughout the image. That is what I pose. I do not pose the model, I pose myself so the lens shows me a fluid and beautifully lit image with relaxed body language.

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