Unposed vs. Posed Portraits

When was the last time you had your portrait taken?

Why has it been so long? Are you scared? Do you hide from the camera at family events because you don’t want to see yourself in a picture? Well to be honest, I do too. After all friends and family don’t really care if they make you look your best. The same can be said for trying to find the cheapest photographer around. Do you think that photographer is going to have your best interests in mind?

Professional photographers are trained in guiding and directing you into poses that make you look your absolute best and most flattering for your body type. Isn’t that what we all want? I know I do!

I have never had someone ask me to make them look 10-20lbs heavier, but I have had people ask me for candid’s, but is that what they really mean? What they really mean is that they don’t want to look to stiff and uncomfortable and they want a nice expression. Even the really good candid’s that you may have seen, most likely are still posed ins some manner, by giving them movement cues. By using good posing techniques and the correct camera angles we can make you look 10-20lbs slimmer.

The first image above represents an unposed position. I used myself for this demonstration and these were just done on my phone for purpose of this demonstration. I just sat down on a stool just like what would happen if you asked a client to sit on a stool without giving them any other directions. I look uncomfortable in this image, I don’t look happy because i feel uncomfortable, and I also look wider because my arms are straight down the sides of my body adding to the width of my body at a glance.

In the posed image I look more confident and poised. I moved to just the edge of the stool and added angles to improve the pose, I added interest and negative space. This pose isn’t completely perfect here, because I couldn’t see myself when photographing this, but if this was on a client then I would have asked them to pull the outer sweater in closer to my body to reveal the negative space in between my body and my arms making me look slimmer then in the previous unposed picture.

So if getting your portrait taken scares you, then maybe it’s time to look into going to a Professional Photographer who will take the time to make you look your best. Do it for you, do it for your children, do it for your family for one day they will go looking for pictures of you. What will they find?