Skip to main content

Pose 10: Group

Lesson 13 from: How to Set Up 10 Essential Poses

Lindsay Adler

buy this class

$00

$00
Sale Ends Soon!

starting under

$13/month*

Unlock this classplus 2200+ more >

Lesson Info

13. Pose 10: Group

Lesson Info

Pose 10: Group

there's only one thing you have to remember is triangles triangles and avoid lining things up in weddings and huge groups for ease of getting things done yeah a lot of times you line people up but what happens is your ideas does this like straight across the photo there's no movement straight poses for groups are very structured and super boring and there's no where to look so what you're trying to dio is posed people in triangle so go ahead and search family shoot vanity fair group shoot vogue and you will see that everyone's heads are staggered in different triangles like you won't see three people with all their heads lined up and then another one down here it's always miscellaneous triangle because it gives your eye someplace to go throughout the photo so here's you're gonna you're gonna be featured here okay so here's the basic idea that we have their heads make a triangle and this is going to be for three people but I could absolutely start adding on four and five and that's what...

we did you know so I could go ahead and add somebody over here maybe I'd change the crop a little bit so now there's a triangle this way and then if I were adding a whole bunch of people I could put someone on a ladder up here and someone sitting down here in your building with triangles so this is a very easy starting shot but let's say justin show you the concept I had no idea now he was going to be posed like this like how might I build it so I could say let's say that now now no you're not dating now your brother and sister ok let's just switch this rule a little bit okay so I'm gonna have you kneel for me and put your your fine have you kneel and put your hand on his shoulder awesome um would you wanna be my other model can you be awesome and just have you sit in it maybe turn your shoes out good perfect and then bring your elbow in a little bit more and I'm gonna have you kneel behind perfect and let's see what you want to take your shoes off is that because it's probably really difficult to seven let's go I'm just watching her tryingto meal and it's like yeah painful okay so what I'm looking for here you can sit down on your feet good and I want you to have a little bit straighter and rotate your body towards me great now I'm gonna have you put your hand on this the right hand on his shoulder okay and then you guys just gonna all evening and all the cute okay all right cool so this is and I'm going to put your arm back good just like that's good and see put it in a little bit more trying lee I mean so for example I'm just like all right what can I do have more triangles maybe I'd raise her up a little bit but watch what happens if I have them can you guys also try to make your heads even with him and squish okay heads all lined up is not as visually interesting but you can you could work it to try to maybe just make it her a little taller and maybe you're even a little lower and you mean they get it's workable so let's just do that one shots that I had here three created so I'm gonna grab this chair gets him stepping up sorry I know I'm bad I'm not supposed to be that okay let's just do one up here I'm gonna have use it okay and can use it and put your arm back up on the chair okay so if you want to know if you don't put the keynote shot up so they can see what we're what we're doing I'm gonna have you rotate that with this time and then you cannot is it possible to do that kind of okay so I'm going to say all right so he's there I'm gonna have you come over here and just put your hand your front hand on his shoulder okay and a scoop behind him great and now you're gonna come up real close and you put your hand on your hip good all right so take a look at that perfect and I'm not speaking just a little weight got changed the light all right great something like this of course I could tweak it a little bit more but they've got triangles he looks comfortable that's nice to her form it's nice to her form I might have her kicker hip out a little bit I might move her over just a little bit so they're equal negative space the whole idea is triangles and leading lines so that last one was a little bit cheating because it wasn't exactly an essential pose but it was the idea of get them on varying levels don't have everybody sitting I don't have everybody kneeling try to get them to create different shapes alright so with that were basically out of time but if I could summarize what I would want you to take away is try to just remember one sitting pose for a guy one standing pose for a guy one sitting poster girl one standing if you remember just one of each and then all those tools you have to vary it camera angle hands the hips the where they're looking your lens choice your depth of field you literally with ten poses can have a thousand poses you just have to tweak a little bit to get different shots to try to keep that in mind you don't need to remember fifty or hundred poses start with these ten all right he's gonna come up and join you now he's ninety minute classes go by so quickly all right but we do have time for a few questions so if you have any in the audience please a grab a mic but we'll stop with start with our folks on line okay so lindsay do you think it's a beneficial to learn how to pose yourself by practicing in the mirror to get comfortable with asking with what you're asking your subjects to do and that was from tanya as well as your vote yes that and that's what I do I mean if you saw him like that I'm just gonna lay down here and do that on I understand some guys are like well listen I'm not going to do with boudoir pose but why not it's like disarms your subject it makes them feel comfortable all of the time I show them sometimes I think yesterday when jeff was posing the one guy that can you turn your head to the left and got really confused because he's like your left or my left but if I do can you put up your left arm on your hip like then it's mirroring it's just easier that way so I'm a big proponent of mirroring helping people figure out how to put that way contest question in the studio so with guys going backto opposing them if they have like a big beard or like a big moustache and it's like affecting the neckline how would you work around that in great question actually photographed a couple of the models I work with have big beards they grouped themselves they call them beard men like it's like a category their beard men um when I photograph them I just try to put them in a way that I see their jaw line and just have them stick their chin out a little bit so yeah even if I can't see their neck from straight on turn them just a little bit to the side so I have this I helped out a little so that's when you do wanna have men putting their head forward instead of back yeah and so that made the difference of that camera can get me so what I was trying to say and I just blabbed it quickly is for girls if you put they can tell their head towards camera there's not really an instance for a guy where they tilt their head towards camera it's usually it's neutral it's turned or it's away um but in that instance what I mean is they stick their chin out not back out like this like a turtleneck we should have another question from online about the john line and that was struggling with posing the head for a good job online with people with a short chain yes so when you see me pose most of time what you hear is something to the effect of the following words okay great cable it's top your head that's wonderful that kick your hips back great lean toward me now stick your chin out and down just a little bit hear that like a billion times so people with short chins and next and whatnot you can get something where they're leaning ford instructed it and then they stick it out but that last thing is down because otherwise what's closest to the camera is more like here and so it's not comfortable and also draws attention to underneath the neck if someone has a double chin so that last like an hour down the draws attention the eyes and it really defined jawline all right time for one last question and that is gonna be is it necessary to keep the eyes and the nose in the same direction while posing no it's okay so what they're saying is if I if you're the camera and you pose my nose like this and I look back at you sometimes it looks strange but for example yesterday russ was taking a picture of me and I was opposed to the side and I'm looking back at him it communicates something a little bit different I think that if somebody's angle is this way and you want them looking back towards you that's totally fine whereas following the eye line let's say this is their angle than their eyes are looking out you're kind of stuck so it's a matter of what you don't want you don't want them to be strained and you also don't want to see whites of the eyes like that's the big one is you don't want to see like if I look over this way are also camera cincy I look super duper creepy because all you can see is the white so at least follow the nose or come back towards cam

Ratings and Reviews

a Creativelive Student
 

I would just like to say wow, it is the simple things that make it the best! Thank you for having Lindsay do this class. She is easy to follow and makes perfect sense. It is all about working smarter and not harder. I will be buying more of her classes because she explains everything so well. This has been the best class that I have purchased thus far. Thank you Lindsay for sharing your tips and expertise! Even if you "think" you know about posing, you can always learn something new. BUY THIS CLASS!

Sarah
 

This is a short, concise class, that is filled with great, basic posing information. It's more for the beginner though and while I did take away some excellent points, I wish I'd put the money towards a more advanced Lindsay Adler class that I could have taken more from. She's one of the best teachers on Creative Live, so go for it if you need some solid advice on posing.

Student Work

RELATED ARTICLES

RELATED ARTICLES