Plus Sized Posing

Juga · Oct 11, 2013

Hello all. So I shot a wedding last month and even after doing research I wasn't pleased with my posing of the couple. I found it really difficult to find a lot of useful information of plus sized posing. Soooooo I am coming to you good people if there is anything that someone can offer up for advise when it comes to posing larger people. Any sites, literature, etc would be greatly appreciated. I have another wedding with a plus sized bride and would love to improve on that aspect. Thank you!

tirediron · Oct 12, 2013

A challenging area to say the least! The best technique IMO is to hide the person or obscure some of their bulk. Assuming that the groom is not also heavy, then you can pose them so that the he's in front, and the bride's standing partly behind him, or place him almost square to the camera (to maximize his physique) and then have the bride in tight facing and holding him, so that she's almost 90 degrees to the camera. If you have bushes, shrubs, trees, you can have her "hide" behind them, etc.

raventepes · Oct 12, 2013

Something I've done in the past is to put them out in a field or fairly large garden, sat down. Bring a small ladder with you and shoot from a little bit of a bird's eye view, using a fairly wide angle, say starting at 35mm. if you get the angle right, it'll appear to slim the bride down, some, especially if she's looking into the lens. If you decide to go this route, I'd reccomend doing a practice run with someone other than the bride so you can get a better idea of the angles. Here's an example from a glamour shoot I did recently to give you a general idea. Now do bear in mind that this is an out of camera JPEG (I shoot RAW/NEF and JPEG as standard practice) that has had no editing other than a resize to be uploaded here. I'm still in the process of working on the project, which is a calendar for the model's boyfriend. I have a fair bit of work to do on this particular image...

Juga · Oct 12, 2013

John, yes the groom coming up is a medium build and the bride is plus size. The one I just shot both were plus sized. I will send some along in an email shortly.

Thanks Raventepes. I usually have a step ladder that I bring but I think I left it at a shoot one day at the beach...bummer.

cgipson1 · Oct 12, 2013

raventepes said:
Something I've done in the past is to put them out in a field or fairly large garden, sat down. Bring a small ladder with you and shoot from a little bit of a bird's eye view, using a fairly wide angle, say starting at 35mm. if you get the angle right, it'll appear to slim the bride down, some, especially if she's looking into the lens. If you decide to go this route, I'd reccomend doing a practice run with someone other than the bride so you can get a better idea of the angles. Here's an example from a glamour shoot I did recently to give you a general idea. Now do bear in mind that this is an out of camera JPEG (I shoot RAW/NEF and JPEG as standard practice) that has had no editing other than a resize to be uploaded here. I'm still in the process of working on the project, which is a calendar for the model's boyfriend. I have a fair bit of work to do on this particular image...

View attachment 57846

I'm sorry.. but I do not think that is a good pose for someone built like that... the wide angle thing makes her head look huge, and (IMO) is not attractive.... her shoulders look way too WIDE too...

curtyoungblood · Oct 12, 2013

A couple of tips I've picked up over the years:
-angle your subjects shoulders so that they're about 45 degrees to the camera
- bring a step ladder and try to get slightly above the subject
- have your subject lean forward slightly (use a posing table or have them put all their weight on a front foot)
- shoot and pose tight so there's not as much to see. By pose tight, I mean have the couple really close to each other (as in nearly touching and also on a similar verticle plane. A decent rule of thumb is for her eyes to make a line with his mouth.

i also second the notion that a wide angle isn't a great idea.