Pose For Me, Please
Something difficult lately… I’ve been trying to pose my photography subject! Everything and anything in the name of composing a delightful scene.
There are sayings about how less is more and how it is easier to work with tight constraints than it is to work with loose ones. If I say, “Draw a picture,” you might ask, “What should I draw?” You might set a pencil to paper, then hesitate, not sure what to draw. In instead I say, “Draw a picture of a cat stuck in a free, and a firefighter climbing a ladder to rescue him,” drawing becomes easy.
Photography is the same. When the subject does not, can not move, becomes (relatively!) simple to photograph. Make sure the lighting is right. Move to the right angle. Zoom if necessary for whatever reason. Shoot. Move to another angle. Shoot again. Reframe the scene differently. Shoot again.
No matter how many times I take a photograph of a toy, such as the Pinky Street figures seen above, I never have to worry about their pose. I simply ensure they are standing in the right place, facing the right way, and then I look for the right distance and angle.
Enter “Jun Planning”, and its Pullip, TaeYang, and Dal dolls. These dolls (as well as others from the company) come with bodies that can be posed in a limited number of ways. Suddenly I have a subject that can be standing up or sitting down. The knees can bend, and the arms can be here or there or somewhere else. To add to this, other companies make compatible bodies, including the much-praised Obitsu line of bodies from Obitsu Plastic Manufacturing, known to Pullip owners for their increased posing ability over the stock Pullip bodies. Imagine being able to pose a character with such (relative) precision! (Let’s not even get started on changing outfits to bring new looks to already-used poses now.)
Look at how casual Daniel is as he relaxes! Who hasn’t sat back with their hands behind their head like that before? Who hasn’t sat on the a bed with one leg straight along the bed, and the other hanging off the side? This photograph has something special because the photographer (me!) put that extra effort into getting the pose to be right.
Posing is about more than the bend of the knee and the twist of the arm. Does the pose look real? If it doesn’t look realistic, then it can be jarring to the viewer.
Look carefully at Daniel here as he prepares to help someone up. With one hand, he takes her hand in his. The other hand is on his knee. One knee is on the ground to keep steady when he helps her up to her feet. His other knee is up, as that leg will allow him to “push” himself up, helping pull her up to her feet as well. His free hand is on his knee in case he needs to push on his knee a little to stand up as well.
The viewer doesn’t need to think about all these placements. If Daniel’s right arm was at his side, the pose would look off somehow, and that might cause the viewer to wonder what doesn’t seem right about the photograph. They shouldn’t have to wonder why something doesn’t seem “real” about it. The photographer must put in the work to ensure the viewer doesn’t have to.
Again, there’s more to it than the arms and legs. Once those are in a real-looking position, what about the hair? The clothes? Consider the next image.
Is anything wrong here? What could be wrong? Melanie’s pose here looks very realistic. I can see myself standing like that (and I from time to time do!), so why would something be wrong?
Look at Melanie’s clothes. Look at the shoulder straps on her overalls. They’re…they’re floating! Oops! The material for this outfit is a bit stiff, and the fit is a bit tight around the skirt portion, so when Melanie has one leg stretched out forward a little, the outfit pushes upward. If her legs were both straight, the outfit could be pulled down a little, and it would rest carefully on her shoulders. If I paid attention, I would have noticed this problem with the shoulder straps, and I could have tried some ways to compensate for it.
Even after the pose and the clothing are right, there’s still the hair to compensate for. Aaah! Maybe this is enough for me to think about for today.