NZPhotographer Issue 59, September 2022

Island Goddess
Nikon D810 @ F2.8, 1/500s, ISO200, 70mm
Your model works hard for you, and generally, to get
shape and form through the body, a pose will feel
unnatural and uncomfortable for them. A phrase I
often use is,’ if it’s straight – break it!’ If the model’s
spine is straight, get them to ‘break’ it at the hips, push
the shoulders down and roll them forward slightly to
accentuate the collar bones. If the wrist is straight
when placing hands near the face, get them to break
the lines of the fingers and at the wrist. By doing so we
start to create beautiful soft curved lines. When the
little finger is facing the camera, this is ‘feminine’, if the
thumb is facing the camera, it becomes masculine.
These are just some of the small nuances to be aware
of when posing a model–they can make or break an
image.
By doing the prep work prior to a shoot and having
my original concept mapped out, once I’ve captured
my pre-planned idea, I can then let my mind wander
and try different ideas and scenarios that come up on
the day.
POST-SHOOT
When doing beauty portraits, or any close-up
portraiture where the skin is a strong focal point and
you want a refined finish, you’ll come up against skin
issues as, in the real world, no one’s skin is flawless.
And, from the model’s point of view, when she sees
the finished image, she doesn’t want to see all her
spots and flaws, so I highly recommend learning the
art of skin retouching. There are numerous tutorials
available on YouTube, Creativelive.com etc, that are
invaluable when it comes to the different techniques
used to retouch the skin in-post. (Charlotte E. Johnson
gave tips on retouching in issue 49 which you
might want to check out.) These are all quite timeconsuming
when editing your images and you will
make a few mistakes in the beginning and possibly
push the process too far. But, like anything, practice
makes perfect and is well worth the hours put in to get
a flawless finish on the skin.
I highly suggest always giving your models digital
copies of your finished images. And, if you do post
their images on social media, be sure to tag them.
One of the more special moments on a workshop is
when the model sees the finished images, and they
realise how truly beautiful they are and see the magic
you have created together–again reinforcing the
bond between you. This alone makes photography so
intensely gratifying for me personally.
NZPhotographer
September 2022
53