Posing tips for models and photographers in Commercial Photography situations

How to simulate walking for photography

Ok, this is going to sound really stupid, but as a commercial photographer, you’re going to need to do this more times than you think. Same thing for you, if you’re a model.

This is something new to me that Marlee taught me during our shooting session for this web site. All these years, I’ve been struggling to make models look natural and here this seventeen year-old comes along and tells me how it’s done. Da…

First, you put one foot in front of the other… (told you this was going to sound stupid!) …and then you simply step over that planted lead foot as the photographer shoots mid-step. Wow!

Before my “eureka!” moment, There were basically two techniques I used for simulating walking. One was actually walking and the other was trying to pose the subject in mid step. Neither technique worked very well.

I uses to try to pose the model half way in between steps making sure that they’re heel was up on the rear foot and the toes were up on the lead foot. Trying to do this while balancing so as not to fall over is too much for some people. Many of the subjects would concentrate so much on not falling over that they totally forgot about the expressions we were working on.

This new technique is some much better. The tough part for the photographer is timing the moment that the feet are where he wants them. Like most other aspects of photography, all you’ll need to master this is lots of practice and experimenting. Like they used to say in the old days of the industry, “film is cheap”, referring to the relative cost of setting up everything all over a gain. And now in the age of digital photography, film is REALLY cheap. In fact, there ain’t none!

Hey, how would you like to get kicked by those shoes?

This technique beats out “actually walking” in a couple of ways. You know about where the model will be at her mid-step, so focusing is much less of an issue than it was when we used to try to follow the model. Another important factor, is knowing what will be behind the model at the instant the shutter is released. Composition is important in photography, so positioning the model where you want her, in relation to the rest of the shot is extremely important.

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