Live Photo Posing: Covergirl Shot

this would be one of my really most popular shots that i use in the studio it's called covergirl and the reason i call it covergirl that's the front and back is for me most women want an image that looks like they've been in a magazine that for me the bottom line would be how i describe my work magazine style portrait they want to look like they're on the cover of a magazine and the cover of a magazine has one composition really and that composition is from here to here doesn't it okay so it has like a half body composition so really there's only two compositions there's just above the eyebrows and to the breast line which is about there that's that real tight covergirl crop and then there's the top of the head to the waistline so you can start to see where the waist starts going out again which gives you a nice taper and then there's the top of the head up a little higher to mid thigh those are my three tight those are my three compositions one two three so the idea with covergirl is that it is this shot here and you can see with these four i don't have a lot of room to move here this is not a multiple shot pose but it is a guaranteed buyer which means once you nail it you've sold it if they have long hair then obviously we blow the hair if we can [Laughter] now something that you're not going to see because i can't tip the camera or can i is just how do i put this down can you remind us to see what lens you're using this is the 24 105. thank you because it has thing typing did you just do that up real tight ah no that was mark can you come and fix it just you just squeeze it okay i don't shoot on a tripod and this is why quick question for you then yeah from wonderfully i can't say use a tripod that's not the question when composing in camera what crop ratio are you typically thinking about for print i crop in camera constantly i only crop in camera i'm really guilty of that that is not a necessarily a good thing i crop in camera because i don't know maybe it's a habit but the problem is it's actually a negative if i need more space i will often bring my camera crop in right into that tightest crop just above the eyebrows and if my client's partner says you've cut a hit off i'm screwed that's it there is no option to go back there i've learned as i got older to come back a bit because in the early days i would just bounce straight in and crop everything as tight as i could and it does work against you but at the same time i never crop any of my images i've done i do it all in camera because i think the angle changes quite significantly all right so let's look at sorry just don't keep asking uh specifically for print then are you printing then the same ratio that you're shooting yes 8x12 generally great thank you always okay so the covergirl pose obviously you can see that simone is slim and when she's got her hands down both sides it does nothing for her body the first thing i do with covergirl is i either put the feet apart like this the feet apart are a really good solid base because they can move their hips left and right quite significantly when their feet are apart and not feel like they're falling over a lot of girls you'll say push your hip out and they'll push their hip out to here and then i go okay now push it out and they do this okay so that it's they teapot down to the sides or even better push your hip out to the side and then they come forward okay the idea with with my style of photography you'll notice is the the body is always quite square to the camera because that's fashion okay turning halfway you only turn halfway on the dip and then the face is turned back to the camera so i'm very square to the camera so when you move your body you just move sideways okay you'll move this way or this way but never forward and back unless i ask you to you never bring your bottom carriage forward anyway and you never take your back carriage back unless you're laughing because there's really no reason that you'd stand like this so it stands and also if your booty's kicking out it stands to reason that you're putting it out there for a reason not that you tip forward this way because that's kind of not a pose either is it so the idea then is that you take the middle half of the body and that you can move it like this and kick it out to define shape in your body and this pose is the perfect way of doing that so if she puts her feet apart and then kicks out to the left or the right and then she takes this hand here and then drops the elbow around and then takes this one out then straight away she's defining her waist now if she brings her chin forward and down and engaging her eyes and face into the camera then already she's locked in and all i have to do is get that little twinkle in her eye that little magic and she's won everybody over so by the way at the break ty just announced that with that twinkle in her eye she's going to take over nigeria she's going to twinkle at everybody she's going to twinkle at the cab drivers she's going to twinkle you'll drink okay so that's all about there so if i go hands onto my hips here and then i go a little bit higher and then i go in okay and then i kick the booty out so either way straight away i quickly define where my waistline is and the covergirl shot for me not only tapers the waist but the beautiful aspect of covergirl is if you have curves and you put your hands up into your waist it significantly changes where your waistline is so come and be my curves model sandra you want the jacket off sir no quite the quite the opposite actually the jacket works in your favor okay put your hands go back against the wall flat against the wall put your hands inside your jacket and put your hands out into your waist inside your jacket and out into your waist okay that is where we instantly put our hands in our waist movement so the oh fun moment okay so that's where we put our waste because that's how it works for everybody now what i want you to do is create a faux waste so you're going to lift your hands up into here higher higher and then inside into your waistline more more more more okay now straight away we change where the waist is and this is such a great one in my curves manual you see such a significant changes where do we see the waistline go because if i stand beside you so scooch over so i can fit into the frame if i stand beside you and my hip my arms out here and then i bring them into here and then i work my hips and waist this way and then my chin forward then straight away i'm changing i'm shifting the focus of where my waistline is and so i'm always trying to get people to create a foe way so higher than the normal waist in further and if you're wearing a jacket or a wrap like that it works in your favor because the further you bring it in the further you can create um a waist a waistline that tapers straight away okay so my covergirl shot back to covergirl semi thanks sandra back to my covergirl shot being a one hit wonder interestingly enough about this shot is i'm going to take this off again oh john how did you do that i got it i'm just going to show you how to do this i'm going to do this okay it's not footage i'm going to take a still but i want to shoot this uh slightly horizontal sorry horizontal slightly asymmetrical and the idea is see that okay what i'm trying to do here is i want to make it look like a magazine so i shoot it off to the side it looks fantastic [Laughter] all the cameras just realize that she did not just do that [Laughter] okay yes i did okay bloody hell mark come and put this on here let's throw it out i think the last time i had a tripod in the studio i might have duck turned it out the door okay so the idea is i want it to be the only symmetrical hand pose in my manual is shot asymmetrically why because it's fashion okay that is fashion fashion is slightly off center and i love asymmetry in images because symmetry and images does not look cool any time the only two times my hands are symmetrical is when they're both on the waist or both on the face and either of them are shot slightly off center really really really important okay from there those are my two faves the only variation i would put into simona here gee you muscle there okay do that again tighten it not too tight too tight okay yeah leave it there leave it there so the only direction we can really give here is this let's put our okay okay let's put our hands onto our waist like there that's the one long chin forward dropping those shoulders don't push your elbows back pushing that chin forward eyes down relax your mouth eyes up that to me is a cover girl shot that to me is when you just do that quintessential tight crop slightly off cover shot from there let's bring the feet together cross your knee over and now i just want you to come towards me with your shoulders so that whole pose the whole point of this pose here is that we're shaping the body from front on we can only do that if we're kicking our booty out one way and then working our shoulders in the other so the shoulder movement that you get that rolling shoulder you've got to be careful that people don't roll them both forward because people will do this in fact there's quite a an amazing fashion pose that you know it looks really intense like this you know that the and it's so wrong um don't ever do that okay so the idea is that we're trying to get some shape by moving our shoulders and our hips so if this one's going up and down hips are going sideways shoulders are working then it stands to reason that she can come off the wall just ever so slightly so that she can do more of a moving laugh so it's kind of like this it's the way you would naturally move if you were perhaps laughing and being more animated now a lot of people won't do that because what they'll do is this i love doing this by the way if this ends up on facebook i'm going to be so upset when people go this because when people crack up their tendency is to sit back into their neck not to push it forward and look or gorgeous and go like this and push their chin forward so the idea is you're kind of faking it what you're doing is you're pushing their chin forward and then you're getting them to look down because that's the direction of their laughter and then you can make them laugh there and it's already there it's that gorgeous you know and that's the whole point of that shot so those are really only the two hit wonders that i do with covergirl because covergirl leads on to freestyling freestyling is tomorrow okay so we'll freestyle tomorrow for now i want to move on from covergirl this is one of my biggest sellers in terms of a slimming b shooting a mother and daughter or a couple or sisters and what i've done here is i've taken this i might come and drop this down for me and i've taken the shot here and i've sat my client here with her feet away from the camera and her body away from the couch so there's some space here and the elbow goes onto there so that there's a little bit of a recline okay and then this hand goes on to the thigh and then slides back so straight away i'm creating a beautiful shape in the body i'm connecting the front shoulder to the front where i am i'm slimming the arm by pulling it away from the body and i'm creating space here so that the knees can stay together and the hourglass can just rock into here so if i put the minor in this position okay that's exactly right now the hand goes onto the thigh and then slides back straight away i can shoot this in about eight different ways come on mark oh no not that far down okay let me hand hold it pull it out and press the button and i'll show you where i'm going to put it and then you can adjust it while i'm shooting okay so what i'm going to do now is i'm just going to see where this is okay so here we are in this pose here the idea of this pose tuck your feet into me the idea of course of this pose is that she can work her shoulder forward so that you've got that beautiful sexy line right there okay bring your chin around to the shoulder now to slim it down you shoot it above the eye line to make it more fashion you shoot it here okay can you see the difference nice and square though right okay so straight away did you have a look at the card that that's on um that card is it yeah so what i did with this is might be coming sit here i want you right here try something nice and still right there and see it there yeah about there okay what i then do is i put the other person in the shoot so sit forward and they come forward with the leg part and then the elbow then goes into here okay so the recline has gone from the couch so this is a great mother and daughter shot and then what i do is i get them to follow the hand line down and connect their hands here because the mother and daughter can hold hands and then they can connect this way into the shot so that's exactly what the card is doing they're doing the same recline but they're sitting behind them now at this time he yeah engagement session would you put the man on top or the bottom okay so let's say simone's my fiance and anyway the kind of cooler thing is is you really should put the person that needs the most slimming on the floor because the idea is that i'm going to be the one that's in the most recline and she's leaning forward towards me now if she's my partner we can connect here and the idea is the face comes down towards each other right so gender doesn't matter you're more of wanting to slam well yeah i'd say the girl should really be on the inside but you can swap that around the idea is that if it's a couple they can connect through expression kissing and all that there but the other thing that she can do is the girl can turn around for the girls can turn around and then connect there and the guys are already sitting and he can pull her right through into the waist nice and tight and she can put her arms up on his body and either way they connect but just using the chair 45 degrees still using the same slimming poses so if it's a mother and daughter and i'm the mum and i need more slimming than my daughter i'll put her behind me and she's also covering my arms you know and she's around me and i can sit up i need to be a bit higher or semi needs to drop down and so that you can see where that shot is and so that's what that card is and then you can connect hands here because a mother and daughter can connect that way and if they don't want to you can let hands just go but remember where hands are because it's very important the body language of hands when you're on your own but the body language of hands when you're with someone like a family member a loved one is very very important okay stay there right which leads me to what i call a simple boxing pose let's take that out and take this stool in the idea with a simple box pose i'm actually going to use that stool if it's okay is for me i want anything that i can get people to move around on okay so there are only so many things angles and shapes the human body can make but one of the coolest ones come over here my boo and stand up a little and just hold it low one of the coolest things is on a simple box like this is that you can create these shapes so i'll do it with you because you're in jeans but the one that's in there she's got her hands on this thing and she's just working her shoulders so i'll take any pose that i can work my arms okay so if i can sit on a simple box like this and use the legs if it's a guy i would bring him forward into this position so he's got his arms open if it's a girl i would have her working her shoulders and rocking her shoulders this way but basically if it's a young girl i would get her to put her knee up so come and sit here sami okay from there slide your bum to the back of the chair oh first we'll do that the first pose so your hands are locked in and you're using your shoulder so if i'm going to shoot that here i'll shoot that down the wall line i'll go straight down there bringing your chin around to that shoulder here i go into here i like anything so you get it i'm using the tear i'm using my arms i'm using my feet i'm always up on my toes i'm working my legs always constantly working the legs i'm working the shoulder in constantly chin shoulder hands hourglass is not really relevant for this one here if it's a guy feet apart drop down elbows out okay they don't need to bring their chin to the shoulder because that's too girly they can just sit up you can shoot that around different angles drop it nice and low if it's a young girl you can sit her back and bring a foot up okay so try and just yeah probably yeah so if you were 13 [Laughter] and hug the knee so straight across on the knee remember shutting down the body language so the idea is that she's not showing off her decolletage she's sitting like a young girl would just arms up and over hugging her knee smiling whatever and also she can be cutesy she can bring her arms up over her knee like that she can bring her chin forward she can rest her chin and do anything she wants here and all of these poses work okay any questions all right we're going good i think we're going good okay nobody wants to stop and ask me anything i just keep talking we probably have questions give us a second yeah actually uh ken hill is wondering when tucking the feet behind in the sitting leaning pose actually it was the last one when you were showing the mother daughter are you concerned with the appearance of the lower legs slash feet being amputated yes don't do amputees and they do look wrong when they're tucked in you're not going to see it on that camera angle but basically the feet are either together and out further or tucked away together and i'm cropping at the knee but usually i can always see the feet i can always see the feet because i hate it when somebody creates that um that you know when they cut off the arm like that and you just see an elbow going into nowhere or knee going into nowhere definitely it's not a rule i'd ever break even it's not even fashion it's just not cool yeah so yeah i do try and always get the feet in um the beauty we still have 45 minutes before going to break so okay cool uh so question from janelle g the model seems to take her shoes off often do you prefer no shoes no shoes for anybody if i could photograph anybody without shoes on i'd get it boudoir and wedding are all about shoes but mine is not i have no reason to photograph your feet unless they are up into the shot when they're kicked back in that lying down position and that's generally for teenage girls i love bare feet i shoot in bare feet the first thing i do when i start shooting is put my hair in a ponytail and take my shoes off so i think everybody i tell my clients when you come in for a shoot don't bother bringing shoes you will not see them and every now and then people bring in these beautiful shoes and i never see them so yeah i'm always shoes off easy easy yeah you see she's like the pink glittery high heels i was like oh yes i'm getting a photograph and you're like no no you're good yeah like right how cool they're cute and i have a shoe fetish i should be photographing people's shoes but no there's no need to any other questions before i move on if you could possibly demonstrate a little bit more about how to advise clients on how to pose their mouth and lips oh yes when you say just relax maybe okay so let's all have a go at that so what i'll do is i'll get through this posing sequence and then i'll show you how every different person here has a different relaxed mouth and how each one of them has a normal one because they're all very very different um and i'll tell you why that they're all different because um you'll notice something particularly because a simona and i work together a lot and b um i taught her how to shoot so we both have a very similar thing so without looking at each other look straight ahead do a completely chin forward eyes up relaxed mouth okay okay go lips together tiny smirk smile on your eyes is it similar okay go bigger smack more smile in the eyes okay okay easy medium smile with lots of tinkle in the eyes okay are we doing the same thing okay so um okay right shoulder forward big smile eyes down to the right big crack up go so okay so other than being trained to do it um most people can't do that so that's what we are constantly trying to teach people the difference is is everybody has a different relaxed mouth so some people look really really nobody by the way in the world looks good like this nobody nobody somebody's told kara knightley she looks good like that and she doesn't [Laughter] it's it's not cool okay nobody looks good like this either even though a lot of people try and do that that's not a cool look a relaxed mouth is where your mouth naturally sits now some people have bigger teeth some people you can see their front teeth when their mouth is in a relaxed position some people you can see their bottom teeth the difference is is working out where your relaxed mouth is and who has it so i'll go through everyone can sit here and i'll show you all of their relaxed mouth and i'll talk you through how i got them all to do that little wee smile and that little wee relaxed mouth yeah because it's a very big difference and how the photograph is taken by how tense that mouth is

Channel: CreativeLive

Views: 3,792

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Keywords: CreativeLive, creative live, online education, online classes, sue bryce, posing, photography, lighting

Id: J6-yI5acDpc

Length: 26min 6sec (1566 seconds)

Published: Tue Jul 27 2021