Posing Tips

Often times new models ask about posing.  How experienced models know how to pose, where they get their poses from, and other similar questions.

For me, it’s a combination of practice, and prior experience in dance, cheerleading and gymnastics.  I’ll get to the practice in a minute.  Dance, cheer and gymnastics all helped me be aware of my body, what I was doing, and got me in the habit of doing certain things (like pointing my toes).   All three of those have helped posing almost come naturally to me.

Now, practice.  Practice has helped me immensely.  I typically practice before or after the shower, either nude or in my bra and panties.  I use either the bathroom mirror (which in my place is counter top to pretty far above my head), or the floor length mirror I have in the apartment.  That way, I can see how my body moves, twists, folds.  I can see how little pressure with my fingers I need to put to create a dimple here or there.  You get the idea.

Ok, so I practice.  But where do I actually get the ideas for the poses I practice?  Some of them are dance/cheer/gymnastics moves.  Others are poses I’ve seen online, in magazines, or in real life.  I’ve found it extremely helpful to spend a few hours going thru online modeling sites (MM even has a list feature), stock photo sites (like iStock and Corbis), magazines and catalogs.  I then save or tear out any images that have poses I like in them.

When I started modeling, I would print everything from online out and study it all. I picked a few poses that I thought I could easily ‘master’, and then would spend some time in front of the mirror working on emulating that pose. While moving, I’d study my body, looking for creases in my skin, watching how certain limb placements changed my posture, etc. When I thought I’d gotten the pose, I’d hold it and make note of where my hands, feet, arms, etc. are.  Often times, I’d spend a couple hours practicing stuff in front of the mirror.

Now that I’m a bit more experienced, I don’t print stuff out as much, and I don’t spend hours in front of the mirror as I used to.  Er, at least not consecutive hours LOL!  I do often make a new list of poses for shoots I have coming up, and bring them with, so that I can do them at the shoot.  Sometimes, if I see something I’m particularly interested in I will pop it up on my laptop screen and go practice it until I think I have it done.  This often happens if a photographer sends me an idea they’d like to shoot.

I do continue practicing every chance I get.  And I’ve learned to laugh off the fiance catching me and making fun of me 😉