Pose ideas book – P365 Dec04

Last week, I posted a photo of my camera bag and what I pack in it. On the flickr photo with the labels, I marked my pose ideas book, and flickr user stiksandstones1 asked me for more information about it. Thus today’s post.

Orion Visuals is my business name, and I’ve blured out my phone number on the front of the book.

I attend the anime convention Manifest every year, and I take lots of photos of people dressed in anime costumes. Some people are natural models, and are confident in front of the camera. However, often I’ll find someone who wants to have their photo taken, but they have no idea how they should pose. The pose ideas book was an idea I had to help out these folks.

Being an anime convention, I used various anime characters as examples for poses. The style of poses these characters take can be very outgoing, expressive and even corny, but when photographing costumers at an anime convention, that’s exactly the kind of pose that’s appropriate.

If whoever I’m shooting is having a hard time thinking how to pose, or even is just feeling a little tense or self-conscious, I get out this little spiral bound A6 laminated book, and suggest they might be able to find a pose within. This almost always does the trick, and takes a lot of pressure off the subject, who can then relax and enjoy the shoot.

I may make another pose book in the future with human models, and with more conventional poses. I’d also like to add a wider variety of poses, such as sitting and lying as well. If I do so, I’ll be sure to share it online.

Don’t wait for me however! If you think this is something that would help you, go ahead and make one yourself! If you do, please post here in the comments. Also, if you know of any good posing reference resources that readers might be interested in, please comment here also!