Modeling and posing - Bend those joints

So what’s the opposite of “stiff”?  Limp, except that I don’t care much for that word.  It’s just not a manly word, I guess.  How about bent? 

Good models just naturally understand how to pose. Bent joints = shape. Shape = interesteresting. Interesting = good photo

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If you don’t want to look stiff, you have to be bent, at least parts of you have to be bent.  Namely, your joints, including elbows, wrists, knuckles, knees, ankles, and yes, even your toes…  Ok, you can keep your toes as stiff as you want.  But usually the more joints you can bend, the more natural you’ll look.  Yes, if you take this to the extreme, you’ll look kinda weird.  But usually, the more bends you have, the more natural you look.  The exception is, you will normally want to have one knee locked, pretty much most of the time. (either knee) If you don’t, you tend to look a little bow-legged or you just plane fall over.  Either way, it’s not good.

Shape is created in photographs by the basic outline of the dominate subject or element in the photo.   In a shot like this, a model standing with even weight on each foot, straight knees, strait arms, and a straight neck, would have been very uninteresting to look at.

This girl is not a professional model, but she looks at ease and comfortable posing the way she is.  Notice how her left arm AND her left wrist are both bent.   Thos details really make a difference when you’re posing or being posed.  If the photo looks stiff in the test shots, try bending something.  Of course, only bend those things that God meant to have bent.  For example, don’t try to bend the model’s femur.  :+)