Four Secrets
Posing Hack
People who make sculptures: when you can make a rock look lifelike, you’ve got some skill.
Posing Principles
Shift weight on one leg
Nose towards the light
Body in a different direction
Exercise: stand in front of a mirror, set up lighting, make minor adjustments and practice looking at the light. See how a master poses someone.
Composition Trick
Background behind the subject needs to be simple.
Just look for shapes in the frame. Find a large, clean shape to put your subject’s head in.
Magic Light
Expose for the background and only then bring in the subject (because you can’t control the background)
Fill in your subject with a flash, 80cm see-through umbrella at 1 meter distance.
The Only Edit
Remember you are telling a story with your photo, and use that to make your subject pop off. Main subject should be brightest and sharpest, make all the rest darker and less sharp.
We want our viewer to look at the photo in a specific order.
Do the squint test.
You have to master all four of those.