Posing, modeling, directing, acting
I always prefer to direct, not pose, the people I photograph.
This change in mindset and approach is much easier on my clients (which generally have little or no experience in front of a camera) and helps them get much better photos.
I want to talk a bit about how this works in practice so you’ll know what to expect when you book your session with me!
And if you’re a photographer reading this, it’s something you might want to try incorporating into your own work.
What’s the difference?
It’s helpful to think about the difference between the way most photographers work with subjects vs the way most film directors work with actors.
Photographers
A photographer generally poses a person, usually verbally, into a specific body position, which is usually flattering.
Example: Cross your feet, point your toes, shift your weight to the side, turn your head this way, lift your chin, keep your hands soft, shoulders back, etc.
The photographer has a specific vision for both the pose and final image, with their own subjective idea of how to improve their subject’s posture or positioning to achieve a certain effect.
Models, especially professional ones, have a greater understanding of how to position themselves into flattering poses for photos. Through a combination of practice and experience, they often don’t require the input of photographers at all.
The end result is a static frame.
Directors
Film directors work differently — they work in moving pictures, with their subjects in movement, in action, so coaching someone into a very intentional static pose is less common (though definitely not unheard of — there are plenty of gorgeous shots in film where the subject is statically posed to fantastic effect).
Generally though, their subject is actively doing something.
And not something random — the actor is acting in a way that’s consistent with the character they’re playing. They’re doing things that the character would do; they’re doing these things the way the people they’re portraying would do them, and these things they’re doing fit the context of the movie they’re doing them in.
Example: In the film Matilda (1996), Pam Ferris gives a truly incredible performance as Ms. Trunchbull. Everything Ferris does in this film is in keeping with the character she’s portraying — the way she moves, the way she speaks, the way she dresses, the way she wears her hair, the posture she takes on, her facial expressions, her body language… I love this movie and could go on and on.
One of the reasons why this performance is so good is because it’s interesting, as the audience, to see what this character does and slowly learn what makes this character who she is. Just like Matilda, we quickly begin to piece together what she’s all about — what she’s like, what she does, how she does things. Together, all of this builds a believable character that happens to be an awful person.
At best, seeing the Trunchbull do something completely “out of character” — like cracking a joke out of the blue, or affecting a non-ironic sultry walk — would stand out to us. We would be confused, as this calls into question what we think we know about her. At worst, it could ruin the consistent character she had built or sour us on the entire film.
If we were to grab a still frame from a scene with Miss Trunchbull in it — literally any frame from any scene — we would see a snapshot of a character. From this still alone we could put together some things about her that would be true of her character, fit the scene the still was pulled from, and fit the film the scene was pulled from.
This is consistency. And this is what we’re after! It doesn’t necessarily mean realistic, but from this consistency comes believability.
Next we’re gonna look at another example that does not involve my favorite movie of all time, Matilda (1996). It involves acting during a boudoir session.
To act, not model
During your boudoir session, I want both of us to be thinking in terms of movie scenes, not still photographs.
I don’t want to throw you into a static position that might not be in keeping with who you are, or the part of yourself that you’re trying to portray (express) — I want to direct you in an action that resonates with you, with an emotion you can genuinely channel, with a motivation that makes sense — and capture still frames from the results.
Example: Imagine you find a photo you dig of a woman in the middle of undressing and decide that you’d love to have a photo of yourself like that. You pin it to your mood board.
How can we actually go about recreating this photo during your session?
- You could study the photo before your session, and practice putting your body into the same position as the woman in the photo. Her hands are here; her feet are like this; she’s looking here; her jeans are this low, etc. After some practice, you get it down, and day-of, you jump right into position; I click the shutter, and the photo is recreated.
- You could skip the practice and wing it during your session — you glance at the photo with your photographer and they help you get into position. They tell you to move your elbow, to move your shoulder, to stand this way — this is probably the first time you’re doing this in front of a camera remember, and you can’t see yourself while you’re doing it. With the photographer’s help, they get you more or less into position and click the shutter and the photo is more or less recreated.
- You adopt the directing approach. We use the photo as a starting point of inspiration and build a simple scene around it that you (as actor) will act in.
That still frame of a woman undressing means that you’re going to actively undress, at least partially, and I’ll click the shutter throughout the scene, ending up with one or more still frames that are awesome from it.
The end results show the way you undress, in the positioning that makes sense to you. Instead of worrying about if you hands are in the right place, or if your feet are crossed the correct way, you can focus on channeling a feeling as you perform an action that you would (and probably) do.
Just like in movies, actors rarely get their best performance on the first take (their first try), so we can repeat the scene a few times, usually with some variations or modifications to try.
Maybe you glance this way this time, or think about this while you’re doing it, or do it slower, faster, or move your hair to this side, or I back up/get closer to adjust the framing, or you try for a more relaxed expression, etc.
In this way, you’re essentially playing a character in a movie scene — this character is a version of you, and literally no one can play them as well as you can — even if it involves a side of you that the world doesn’t usually see. It’s still you.
The resulting still photo fits who you are, the part of you you’re expressing, the concept of the shoot. It’s all consistent. It’s believable.
Dare to give a genuine performance of yourself
If there’s one thing that posing has over acting, it’s the layer of separation between you and the final result.
When you’re strictly mimicking someone in a still frame, there’s not much of you in the resulting image. Yes you could be the subject of the photo, but it’s not coming from you. You’re mimicking the way they did it, not necessarily how you would do it.
For sure, it takes courage to actually do the sexy thing that leads to the sexy photo, the way you would actually do it. There’s vulnerability in authenticity, in letting you come through in the end result. To portray some part of yourself, to express yourself, to really put it out there, to show the audience or the world this true side of yourself.
Much easier to slip into a mold than to create something genuine.
But doesn’t that sound like something fun to aim for during your session?
