The Head | Three Basic Head Movements | Movable Parts of the Face | Facial Expression | Four Basic Emotions | Building the Pose: Director | Building the Pose: Model

 

 

 

 

 

THE HEAD

must be considered photographically from two completely different aspects: i. its general form and 2. its specific expression.

First, let us consider the physical form of the head in the completed picture. It is a result, not only of the actual form of the head, but its particular view from the camera.

The least movement of the head produces marked changes in its countless planes. For this reason, complete and mutual understanding must be established between director and model as to the exact position meant by the commonly used terms, full-face, profile and three-quarter head.

Full-face in model posing techniques - means a full-faced view of the head. Other terms used are: front-view, full-face angle and full front-view.

Three-quarter head - is called a 3/4 turn, 3/4 view, '3/4 angle, :3/4 face, 3/4 face position; or sometimes a forty-five degree head. These terms are generally applied to all intermediate positions between full-face and profile. However, those who like to split hairs designate the positions between 3/4 head and profile as 1/4 profile, 1/2 profile, split profile and 7/8 turn. Those who make this distinction, usually call the position to the front of the 3/4 head a 5/8 turn.

Model profile - or full side view of the face is also called side position, side view, full profile, full turn, 90 turn, 1/2, view or 1/2 face view.

A change from one basic view to another may be accomplished by moving the camera station, but most frequently it is the model who is required to move into position. Since the terms are established in relation to the model's movement, let us look at the movements that make these positions and subsequent views possible.

MODEL POSING TECHNIQUES FULL FACE (FRONT VIEW)
3 4 HEAD (3/ 4 FACE VIEW)
PROFILE (FULL SI DE-VIEW)

THREE BASIC HEAD MOVEMENTS IN MODEL POSING TECHNIQUES

bring the model posing head into almost any desired position. When the camera is stationary, the model can move to a slight or great degree in three directions. These movements are familiar to all of us. By establishing key terms for these movements, we set the stage for understanding and team work between director and model. The terms are horizontal turn, vertical lift (or drop) and diagonal tilt. These movements may be used singly or in a combination of two, and, perhaps, all three.

The horizontal turn

When the model using model posing techniques posing body faces the camera, the head can turn from one shoulder to the other presenting many views: right profile; 3/4right view, full face, 3/4 left view and left profile.

As one shoulder moves away from the camera, some views drop off, while others become possible - such as 3/4 back and back-view. These back views are used to display hairstyles, back detail or to draw the viewer's attention to something other than the face.

A horizontal turn of the head may be asked for in two ways by the director. He may say, 'Turn your head to the right', or 'I want your left profile', both of which requests would bring the left side of the model's face to the camera's view.

VERTICAL LIFT DIAGONAL TILT
VERTICAL DROP

Vertical lift or drop... is the upward or downward movement of the tip of the nose on an imaginary line perpendicular to the shoulder track. Diagonal tilt... is the slant of the head that puts the chin on one side of this perpendicular line and the top of the head on the other. Notice how the shape of our mask is altered by the vertical lift, by the vertical drop and, to a lesser degree, by the horizontal turn. Also note the appearance of ease and interest added to the face by the tilt. Head placement can be the basis for exaggerating or normalizing head structure and facial characteristics. A round face looks oval to the camera in a 3/4 view. A long face can look round in full-face view when the chin is lifted. An unconventional feature, such as a prominent chin or forehead can be minimized by tilting it away from the camera. A receding chin appears normal when it is extended toward the camera. The slightest movement makes a difference!

The comparative length and width of a face become unimportant in profile which accentuates only the features that appear in its side silhouette. Although the profile is good for hiding faults of model posing techniques structure, it loses impact when it comes to expression. It can project mood, esthetic qualities or serve as a means of directing the viewer's eye.

The full face view offers the best position for establishing direct personal contact, but requires symmetry of features that are hard to find. The 3/4 head can be used most effectively to both physical and dramatic advantage of the model.

FLEXING THE BROWS
WIDE SEPARATION
NORMAL SEPARATION
SLIGHT SEPARATION

SEPARATING THE EYELIDS

MOVABLE PARTS OF THE FACE

are called upon to express or project emotions that the camera can record.

Each feature works independently or collectively with a network of muscles capable of controlling its physical shape. A model must be able to effect natural and smooth co-ordination of the muscles that bring the various parts of the face into model posing techniques.

Model posing techniques: Eyebrows...

are controlled by a set of competent muscles at each end. The brows can move simultaneously or individually, guided by the message they must relay. The inner brows can be brought together and downward to express anger; together and upward for sorrow; upward and apart for fear; and upward in the middle to depict surprise.

Model posing techniques: eyelids...

also respond to control and can range from slightly-parted to normal or widely separated model posing positions. For normal effects each set of eyelids should be parted equally in slight or exaggerated variance.

Uncontrolled squinting is most often caused by bad smiling habits or glaring lights. The habit of squinting while smiling can be corrected by practice before the mirror. When bright lights cause the eyelids to misbehave, it is important to remember: keep eyes open. Get them used to glaring light! Focus them on the brightest spot they can comfortably endure. Eyelids will then remain unstrained and will respond, for the short duration of the exposure with an open eye model posing techniques expression.

The pupil... of the eye is capable of rotating in a complete circle. Without moving the head, the pupil can move upward or downward, from side to side or to any points in between. Care should be taken in model posing techniques. If views and profile positions that the pupil of the eye nearest the camera remains visible to the lens. Otherwise the resulting picture appears to have a blank eyeball!
The mouth... is as elastic as a rubber band and yields to a thousand and one shapes. It can open or close; its corners can be drawn together or stretched apart. The ends can be lifted or dropped. The mouth is capable of minute and extreme alteration. We find certain words and sounds very useful for shaping the mouth. They not only help in setting a predetermined position of the mouth for the camera but they add realism and spontaneity to its appearance.

Notice how the mouth must be parted wide to release the sound of Ah!

This model position can be attained by the use of any word or words ending in the Ah sound such as New car!, Hurrah!, etc.

The humming sound of Mmmmm closes the lips lightly, Oooo puckers the lips and a long Eeee spreads corners wide.

Lip make-up shapes the mouth. It is useful, not only for following fashionable style trends and for correcting irregularities in the original shape of the mouth, but in helping to increase specific model posing techniques expression. The corners of the mouth can be given an extra lift to depict happiness or can be discreetly painted downward to give the impression of hate, sorrow, petulance, etc.

MODEL POSING TECHNIQUES: FACIAL MODEL POSING EXPRESSION

is the movement of the features that tells us what is being felt by the model. With the right model posing expression, her thoughts and emotions are projected through the camera to the viewer.

Many times, however, a model may think she is feeling something - even think she is showing it - but her facial mask has not moved or changed.

An experiment to prove this point was carried out recently in a photography class. A student was put in a chair and photographed gazing into the camera. In a second picture he was asked to feel extreme weight throughout his body. 'You are completely exhausted' he was told ... and the model picture was snapped. When the two resulting prints were compared, no one could tell the difference between the feeling and non-feeling picture!

The answer, therefore, is, not only to feel an emotion, but to move the muscles of the face that will best express and project that feeling. A pout must bring the bottom lip forward. A sneer must curl the corners of the mouth downward or flare the nostrils outward. Hate must tense the jaw muscles, drop the corners of the mouth or perhaps close the eyelids to mere slits that contemplate revenge.

Using model posing techniques for the model motivation must be felt to the degree necessary by the model and portrayed in a manner that can be understood by the viewer. The muscles of the face are used in proportion to the intensity of the feeling, but never exaggerated (unless for comic or grotesque impressions) to the point of over-acting.

A model posing techniques that use in picture tells a story, and the face, by its expression, becomes part of that story.

It may be of prime importance and tell the whole story; of secondary importance and add validity to the story or of minor importance and lend atmosphere to the story.

When the face is of prime importance, (usually true when the head fills a large part of the picture) the expression must depict character or situation. If the model picture is a portrait, the expression must embody the key facet of the personality of the individual. If dramatic depth is to be recorded, the emotion must carry the model posing picture.

When the model posing face is of secondary importance, expression must add to the story. It must coincide with the emotion suggested by the action of the body. The fashion model executes many of these secondary expressions because the garment she wears is of first importance. Model posing techniques expression calls attention to the dress by showing how happy, proud or self-possessed she is in wearing it.

When expression is of minor importance and is expected to do little more than lend atmosphere, it must be just as explicit as though it were the prime factor. It must not distract the viewer's eye away from the main point of interest. The emotion must balance delicately between expression and subordination. It must support the main point of model posing interest in feeling and mood, yet possess no obvious characteristics that would call attention to itself.

In order to grasp elusive emotions, let us classify them into four model posing techniques basic groups:

HAPPINESS, ANGER, SORROW and FEAR.

Each has a means of communicating its feeling through facial movement. The immediate impression of each of these emotions is established by the eyebrows. Upon closer inspection the eyes tell the deeper story.

FOUR BASIC EMOTIONS

Happiness... leaves the brows in their natural position. It is the eyes that project the emotion. They must sparkle, brimming over with the inner reason for the outward expression. The glow of happiness extends from a feeling of comfortable pleasure to ecstatic joy.

Anger... draws the brows together and downward. The model eyes "flare with rebellion against the action or situation that has caused this violent emotion. The degree of anger ranges from a feeling of slight irritation to one of rage and fury.

Sorrow... draws the brows together and upward. Model eyes fill with sympathy and longing to be relieved of the burden of this emotion. There is a pressing and twisting from within. The intensity of sorrow can vary from disappointment to utter tragedy.

Fear... lifts and separates the brows. Model eyes reflect disbelief in what they  see. There is a cold gripping sensation in the pit of the stomach. Fear has many degrees and its emotion graduates all the way from worry to horror.

MODEL POSING TECHNIQUES: BUILDING THE POSE-DIRECTOR

No director need be given a list of reasons why a head is invaluable in a model picture. Some directors do, however, welcome ideas on how to bring the model's best face forward - whether it is one of beauty, character and/or expression.

Before we come to our views of the subject, however, we would like to acknowledge the presence of the controversy existing over the candid versus the controlled pose.

Some directors contend they never direct their subject. 'To place a head or a mouth in a pre-determined position,' they say, 'would destroy all of the spontaneity and naturalness of the picture.'

Others, just as vehemently, contend that 'In a business that calls for consistent results, lucky mood and coincidence are not enough. They are not reliable and cannot be depended upon.'

We feel that when both director and model have a working knowledge of model posing technique, each individual job will determine whether the pose requires controlled, candid or controlled-candid treatment.

Experienced directors practice many ways of getting a model to act and react realistically before the camera. Each has developed ways of controlling a model without having literally to push her into position. Adroit use of words, exemplary action, strategic suggestion and psychological motivation all bring forth
expression that is dependable as well as spontaneous. At the same time most directors have found in actual model posing techniques, that with intelligent direction from behind the camera,  any capable model can accept model posing techniques correction and rearrange parts naturally without showing strain and losing spontaneity!

In photography we lean heavily upon the model's capabilities, yes, and in many instances even upon her ability to inspire us by doing something her way from which we can select or perfect a pose.

So, part of a director's success lies in his ability to keep a model suggesting model posing techniques within the scope of the camera's ability to record them.

Many models feel they have exhausted the possibilities for different head positions in their model posing techniques when they have turned their head slowly from the left of the camera to the right of the camera! This can be most exasperating to a director (especially if you believe that you get the fullest creative contribution from a model by allowing her to move freely instead of placing her). Try a suggestion that will take her into several other positions from which you might select a pose. You might ask her to repeat the horizontal turn - this time with her chin up a little higher. This gives you at least six additional positions to choose from. Then ask her to lower her chin and repeat the horizontal turn - six more model posing techniques and positions! By repeating each of these eighteen model posing techniques with her head tilted right and then with her head tilted left, you've added another thirty-six possibilities without yet putting her in any exact position.

If your model has trouble with the tilt, which is the most difficult direction to understand, you might try this. Hold a pencil vertically in front of your model's face.

Let the tip of her nose touch the pencil and divide it equally lengthwise. Ask her to put her chin on one side of the pencil and her forehead on the other as you repeat the word tilt. With encouragement, let her try a few combined movements such as, 'Turn your head slightly to the right... that's good ... now tilt the top of your head right (or tilt your chin left).' If she loses her conception of tilt, hold the pencil before her again and she will usually remember it for the remainder of the sitting.

The model head and its capability for arrangement of form and its ability to produce such model posing technique like expression, is one means of getting your pictures to talk. If you can give direction, you hold the master key to it all.

As you become more adept at posing the head you will mentally fit certain types of faces into the positions that normalize or dramatize them. When you can anticipate changes that will take place with each movement, you can mentally arrange the pose before you ask your subject to try it. Thus, you can steer her into movements that result in suggestions (from model posing techniques) you can use.

Study the features of each face to see whether the corrective model posing techniques and positions we mention on page 81 are necessary. Many craftsmen welcome opportunity to dramatize disproportionate features. They find the results more gratifying than compliance with conventional ideas.

By persistent concentration on the varying shapes of the face and the impressions relayed to the viewer by each change of position, you soon begin to grasp qualities that otherwise escape your attention. The curious fact is, that once you begin detecting these subtleties you find yourself injecting a certain amount of atmosphere into a picture even before you call upon your subject for facial expression. When you find these additional means at your command for infusing a picture with meaning (over and above the use of expression) you can emphasize any given emotion dramatically and make any picture remarkably effective in its transmission of feeling.

Completely undirected movement by a model seldom transmits exactly the feeling desired, especially as far as a head is concerned. So most directors prefer to keep inherent model posing techniques control.

Built-in guide marks on the model's face tell you quickly just what position her head is in from the camera's viewpoint, and give you a clue as to the probable impression forthcoming.

When she faces the camera, the tip of her nose in direct line with the bottom of each ear, you know the position is centered. When model mouth or chin appear in the line of her ear lobes, her head is lifted, the mouth is emphasized and the mood of the picture will probably intimate sensuousness in some degree.
If the eyes or the bridge of the nose line up with the lobes of the ears, the head is tilted downward, the emphasis will be on the eyes and forehead and an model posing techniques impression of intellect will be stressed or implied.

Sometimes obtaining the exact expression may depend to a great extent on how well you can produce it instead of how well you can explain the mental process that goes into producing it. The most direct approach to obtaining expression when your model cannot understand motivation is to let her imitate it.

When that becomes necessary, you are probably the one she will imitate. Therefore it is not stepping outside your realm to practice the expressions that communicate ideas you might want to put across. Thus you can sometimes set the mood and features of your model for camera at model posing techniques in presentation.

In order to familiarize yourself with the physical movements of the parts of the face shown on pages 82 and 83, get a model to sit for you and see if you can direct her into the variations of each part shown (or suggested). Try them yourself. Notice how much easier it is to shape the mouth by using positions necessary to make certain sounds and words with emotional content.

One reason for this is that the mind has begun to coordinate each of the different movable parts of the face when you use words and sounds with meaning. Experiment ; see if you can get a better model posing technique expression by asking your model to use the word Hurrah! than you can by asking her to say the word thaw. Can you go a little further with this idea and give your model a thought upon which to build an expression encompassing each of these model pictures?

For years it has been a half-joke for photographers to ask for the words cheese and prunes in order to get a smile; this was the only way they knew to relax grim jaws and lips. Now we know that they were partially right and that sounds can relax the mouth position. We have also discovered that the right sound can give us accurate control of the actual position of the mouth, and that the right word can also provide meaning that ties the mind in with the model posing technique expression.

Thoughts can be introduced either by you or the model to augment physical expression and help coordinate the parts of the face with an appropriate photogenic model expression. However, you must have a model with a flexible face. Her ability to express herself is limited by her ability to operate and control interrelationship of parts.

Broaden your own ability to direct by teaching yourself to observe and remember expressions you see every day so that you can use them.

Write down at least five situations you have seen in the last twenty-four hours that brought forth one of the four basic emotions. (Watch children for uninhibited and true expression.) Can you visualize the position of the mouth? What did the eyes say? Can you imagine a thought that would help you get that particular expression from a model?

Choose, from magazines of model posing techniques, twenty different expressions that you like and might sometime want to use.

Divide all the pictures of model you have cut out into groups of the four basic emotions in model posing techniques, happiness, anger, sorrow and fear. Under each model picture write a sentence that would help motivate such an expression in model posing techniques. For instance : some of your pictures might say, 'Won't he be surprised when he gets this gift!', 'Mmmmm, that smells so good!',

Direct a model in each of the expressions you have cut out.

Be ready to evaluate and correct ineffectual expressions as they appear.

Here is an exercise that will require more time to do than is apparent at first glance, but your efforts will be rewarded with something that can be of great use to you later:

Terminate at least five of the sentences you wrote under the facial model expressions with a single word or simple phrase that: 1) sets the position of the mouth correctly and 2) holds, for the model, some meaning related to the sentence or expression at model posing techniques.

When you have found these words, save them to try on at least three different models.

MODEL POSING TECHNIQUES: BUILDING THE POSE- MODEL

Gone are the days when a beautiful face was the only requisite for still and moving pictures. Pretty features do not always make a good picture nor do irregular features necessarily produce a bad one.

Today, a face is deemed photogenic if it is flawlessly beautiful, or if it is interesting, or if it is expressive. The model with perfect features has increasing competition from the model who may not have as much to start with, but can use what she has.

Intelligent movement of the model head can often hide or transform undesirable features. But all movement, due to the intricacies of lighting and camera technicalities, should be adjusted from the camera's viewpoint. You must have confidence that your director will see and modify anything that might detract from the kind of picture he wants.

It is necessary for you to know and understand the movements of the head so that you can suggest positions when called upon to do so, or comply with any changes he may ask for.

The flexibility of the head must be great, but your control of that flexibility must be positive. For the slightest movement of the head changes camerawise every aspect of its features at model posing techniques. You must not only know how to move your head in any direction, but know how to move it to the exact degree needed.

A limber neck determines how much you can move your head without disturbing other parts of your body such as your shoulders or arms. Practice this neck-limbering exercise before your mirror...Some model model posing techniques exercises:

1. Roll your head slowly in a complete circle first to the front. Drop your chin as far as you can.
   
   
2. Relax and shake your head. Drop it lower.
   
   
3. Then roll it, still relaxed, to your left shoulder, then to the back (with your chin stretched high).
   
   
4. Lower the chin again as the head comes over your right shoulder and to the front again.
   
   
5. Do this very slowly... three times to the right and then three times to the left. Every time you can see yourself in the mirror, check to be sure that you do not raise your shoulders especially while the head is passing over them.

Be sure that your shoulders remain stationary. In the words of a famous director, 'Get your neck out of your shoulders and your head out of your neck!'

The above exercise frees the head for two major movements: the horizontal turn and the vertical lift (or drop). Do you think you can combine these two movements at command?

Turn your head to the right and then lift it.' Turn your head slightly to the left and drop your chin.' 'Lift your head and turn it to the left.'

Try them!

Then you might try this simple model posing techniques exercise which will limber the muscles used to tilt the head - muscles which are seldom limber enough for creative posing.

1. Tilt your head to the right; your right ear toward your right shoulder.
   
   
2. Strain three times, relaxing between each try, to get more space between your left ear and your left shoulder.
   
   
3. Do only a few of these the first day but continue doing a few on each side every day.

The tilt of the head is something all of us do many times a day unconsciously, but few of us can execute it consciously upon command. Try tilting the top of your head to the right (your right ear toward your right shoulder). Now tilt the top of your head to the left. With shoulders remaining stationary wag your head like a pendulum -the top of your head making a greater arc than your chin.

Now do you think you could combine any two of the three movements, turn, lift and tilt upon command? Try it:

Turn your head to the right and tilt the top of your head to the left.'

'Lift your head and tilt the top of it to the left.' 'Drop your head and tilt the top of it to the right (chin to the left).'

Now combine all three movements with this command:

'Turn your head to the left, drop it slightly and then tilt left.'

Can you mix these commands further and still not become confused? Learn to listen to the exact command given by your director and think in two terms: direction and degree.

A mobile face is your next goal, it is an absolute necessity for the projection of model e-motions. It is your means of communicating feeling to the viewer, for only by reading the signs of emotion upon your face can he get your message.

On the other hand, facial expression without feeling is as empty as feeling without facial expression ... one can go nowhere without the other.

Whether the action of the face is pronounced or subdued, control of all muscles must be maintained. A model, like an actress, must know what her face looks like at all times. She should be so familiar with it that she can visualize every change in expression accurately without having to look in the mirror.

Before practicing expression, see if you can move your face - feature by feature.

Eyebrows may be moved together and downward. Together and upward. When you find that you have no apparent control, use a fingertip to move them into place until the muscle can take on its duties a-lone. Move them up and down. Try to lift one while dropping the other. If one doesn't work ... try the other. (Raising one brow is excellent for a quizzical or tongue-in-cheek expression.)

Eyelids prove quite interesting when you experiment with them. Think of them as shades that can be pulled up or down over the eyes. Close them and try to open them very slowly, stopping with each infinitesimal movement. Close them the same way.

Can you raise your upper lid so that it no longer touches the top of the pupil of the eye? Try it by parting the lids as wide as possible in surprise or by raising your chin slightly while looking down and at the same time lifting the upper lids as high as possible.

Can you lower your upper lid until it covers the iris in your pupil without moving the lower lid? (This provocative movement should not be confused with the squint which raises the lower lid to get the same spacing - but not the same effect.)

Pupils of the eyes should not be confined to any one position. Are yours? Practice looking at the rim of a huge clock very close to your face. With your face to the front (do not move your head) stop your eyes momentarily at each of the twelve numbers. Focus your eyes on the distance and see if you can get the same degree of movement.

Turn your face to a 'I view in your mirror and practice rotating the pupils of your eyes to the numbers on the same clock. Now try the exercise in profile. Note how you can use only about half of the numbers if you keep the pupil in view of the camera.

Mouth flexibility, though easy, must be channeled in the right direction. Mumblers will find these model posing techniques exercises more difficult than the enunciators for they have become lip-lazy. A good exercise to get those muscles working (and this will improve your speech too) is to:

Hold a cork the size of a quarter, between your teeth and enunciate these vowels out loud: A-E-I-O-U-and repeat them 3 times distinctly. Next, open your mouth to accommodate three of your fingers (one over the other) between your teeth and enunciate the vowels Ah-Aw, Ah-A\\\ Ah-Aw, Ah-Aw. With one finger: ee-oo, ee-oo, ee-oo.

Can you make the corners of your mouth go down in a sneer or a pout? Can you make them go up in happiness?

Before you start assembling the movements of these separate parts into actual facial expressions take a few minutes to arrange two mirrors in a special model posing techniques book-fashion. If you will open it about 750 at the hinge and put your head up close, you will learn much about the model posing techniques action of your face ... especially in J and profile views which you would otherwise never have an opportunity to see.

When you bring the various parts of your face to bear upon a single expression you must first consider your feelings and emotions. Consider the four basic emotions fear, sorrow, anger and happiness. Think of the thoughts and situations that go into creating those emotions.

What produces such reactions within you personally?

Start a scrapbook of expressions. Gather pictures that express the four basic emotions from magazines. Paste them in a book under their appropriate headings with others of like emotion for comparison. Keep adding to your collection at every possible opportunity. Then go before your double mirror and think of the thought the model in the picture must be expressing ... the word her lips must be forming ... say it aloud as you imitate the illustration. Lose your self-consciousness before the mirror and you are on the road to losing your self-consciousness before the camera.

Cover the lower half of your face with a sheet of paper (so it cannot assist with the expression) and project the emotions of model posing offear, sorrow and anger. Do your eyebrows show the marked difference in each? Practice in model posing techniques, and after you feel they are flexible see if someone else can correctly read the emotion you are expressing with your eyes and brows.

Imagination is essential to the creation of model posing techniques expression. Exercise your imagination along with your face. Give yourself vivid pictures that make you feel the emotion you must express.

The ability to suspend or hold an expression is an invaluable asset to any model posing techniques and it, too, can be yours with a little well-aimed practice.

Repeat all the basic model posing expressions again and this time see how long you can hold it or suspend the expression without letting it sag or fade away.

Seriously practice projecting emotion physically (to the right degree) and you will be rewarded with sparkling spontaneity in all of your pictures!

THE TIME HAS COME

to weigh anchor! By now you have perused or used the basic elements set forth in section one of this book.

You know how the body mechanically performs, model posing techniques and the camera transforms ... how, together, they create a tangible image, visually  and psychologically impressive.

Inspiration is always at your fingertips -if you but reach for it. You will find some points of departure for creative ideas in the advanced section of this model posing techniques book.

As you hold to your course and increase your sensitivity, other ideas will reinforce your ability and speed you in new directions

When you go beyond the boundaries of this book, revitalize your creative thinking from time to time, by observing significant movement in the human beings near you.

You are now ready to set sail into a sea of creativity, impelled by your enthusiasm, directed by your goals and sped by your knowledge.

All aboard ... the best is yet to come!

ADVANCED MODEL POSING TECHNIQUE

The mind loves to smoulder in familiar patterns. A single creative spark may set it aflame with ideas.

You, the advanced worker have developed discernment. You know that there is nothing new, nothing unusual, except in its presentation - a different twist or an unusual flair. That why-didni't-I-think-of-it change that makes some work outstanding. Therefore, whether you personally prefer to discover or devise poses and model posing techniques... whether you like to determine them experimentally, diagramatically or mathematically; whether you are trying to project a feeling of symbolic elegance, charm and dignity, or present a static, chiseled, stylized, inscrutable or enigmatic distortion, you know that a source of inspiration is invaluable to you.

You are always looking for new points of departure.

This advanced section of the model posing techniques book is concerned with the photographic potential of the human body. It seeks to develop insight into the interplay of shapes and lines through arrangement of the photographic figure. Our aim is to examine this figure and its parts in an organized manner, to present possibilities for variation of each, and to inspire exploration along these, or your own ideas. What follows then, is not a discussion of individual poses, but a significant cross-section of possibilities.

The model posing techniques illustrations and their accompanying notes will not say to you, Do this! or Do that! They will merely serve as mental contacts for associating fresh principles of creation with work or situations you have already experienced.

We hope to thread your individual preferences for model posing techniques in orderly progression so that one tug at your memory will bring forth a string of consecutive ideas faster than the shutter can click!

At this point, the astute observer will wonder if this book is going to remain oblivious to poses in space - poses that occupy depth. He will also wonder if all model posing techniques, throughout the book, is to be represented in the light of a two-dimensional shadow. Yes, actually it is ... and for several very good reasons.

In art, principles of foreshortening 'may be enlarged upon, modified, or discarded as the artst desires' as Burne Hogarth states in his Dynamic Anatomy.

In model posing techniques, principles of foreshortening may also be enlarged upon or modified, but they cannot be discarded. The camera optically determines every proportion of the transposed model image. For this reason, a director ordinarily limits his model to the area of minimum perspective (unless utilizing lenses of abnormal long focal length that permit the camera to work at the extensive distances required to present realistic proportions regardless of the depth of the pose).

No photograph of a girl, is like the real thing. She just cannot be pinned down on paper as she is. However, once her image has been transferred to a two-dimensional surface, either by a silhouette or a photograph, you are free to consider it in terms of flat lines, angles and shapes. You can cope directly with its basic movement as well as arrange it sensibly and sensitively.

In this light it is possible to compare the silhouette with the photograph, and when necessary, it becomes relatively simple to substitute one for the other by adding or subtracting tone. (Although we recognize and respect the importance of textures, complex form, lighting and other technical considerations, many books have been written on those subjects. We wish to keep our sights focused on the figure, its simplicities and intricacies in model posing techniques.)

For analytical study or actual arrangement of the model body, the silhouette simplifies and eliminates all distracting trivia and brings you directly to the things that matter camera wise.

Impact, or immediate impression, which is so primary a requirement today, is gained through the figure's outline as it pushes through space and background.

Thus, primary action and feeling must be expressed in the basic silhouette. All other things fall into being as the camera automatically records the tone, texture and line (within the outline) necessary to amplify the reality of the subject.

All the subtle surface textures and planes (that define change within this outline) are of interest to you, but need not preoccupy you, as they do the artist.

This does not mean that you can go to the other extreme and ignore lighting (which, after all, is the essence of the photographic image) but at this point, keep yourself free to do more model posing techniques creative thinking about the outline of the body than about its complex surface form.

Nor does the fact that you are free to concentrate on the silhouette mean that the subject must be cut out like a gingerbread man. The rim of the subject (even though brought into a flat surface by the camera) can still twine through space ... advance and recede as its edges are lost and found against the background... if you want it to.

It does mean that a director ordinarily likes to exercise control over the depth of the pose and prefers to establish the illusion of depth on the two-dimensional surface by interrelated arrangement of...

color,
texture,
tone (lighting),
overlapping shapes,
and/or line.

No director can afford to release his model recklessly into the deforming third plane.

Thus, we too will continue, in our model posing techniques illustrations and references, to restrict the body (as much as possible) to an area bounded by two parallel panes of glass perpendicular to the camera's lens axis.

The artist's work, with charcoal, pen or brush, unlike that of the photo-director, is a one-man operation. With only tools and model posing techniques he can paint a picture of a model with or without a model. His results come directly from palette to page.

The director with a camera, on the other hand, cannot make a picture of a girl -without the girl. On the other hand, neither can the model produce an illustriously eminent photograph of herself without some photo-direction. Neither one can function effectively without the camera and the other.

Thus by necessity, we have a two-person team with the camera as the referee. A hit is made only when both recognize the camera's authority and the fact that it is going to do its duty in a certain methodical way, recording what it sees while the shutter remains open.

The model's job is to present the most perfect position and model posing techniques in expression possible. The director's job is to co-ordinate, recognize and record this decisive moment of perfection. Both work together with the camera and through the camera to attain the same end result - the right model posing techniques at picture.

Hence, from here on, all references to model posing will be made to both the model and the director, for at this stage you are a team and all information relates to you both.

As this book turns from basic mechanics for the beginner to creative variations for the advanced, it aims to stimulate model posing techniques and so to move you to creation. There are unlimited physical and psychological possibilities of each part of the body.

It's true that no masterpiece was ever created by concentrating on the arrangement of the separate parts of the subject without first considering the whole.

Thus, as you examine the movements of each part of the model body, you might reasonably wonder if you are becoming too involved with minute detail and losing sight of the whole. Do not concern yourself. Absorb detail after detail. Study each part as though it were a subject in itself. Explore it. Exhaust its last possibility and then forget about it.

When you eventually concentrate on assembling the whole, each part will naturally fall into correct and even creative model posing techniques. For when you probe curiously into each basal root of the potential pose you unearth ever-increasing aspects of variation with which to create whatever your need demands. A unity will result that combines static parts and blends them in a symphony of right movements and meanings - recorded at the right model posing techniques.

Use each deviation as a springboard or point of departure through which transformation of the whole comes about. All nuances made possible through assorted positions, through the physical balance and action of parts of - the model posing techniques figure.

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