Posing Everyday People and Different Body Types

Sue Bryce applies her posing rules of lengthening, shape and staying square to curvier women, with Mapu modelling. In a lying pose she slides the body back from the elbows, keeps elbows inside the body line, not out like Farmer Joe, lifts through the core and brings the chin round.

Lindsay Adler lights a fuller-figured subject with a diffused umbrella offset for sculpting shadow and fixes her flat-footed stance: turned to the side, weight on the back hip, knees together, lower back arched and chest leaning to camera. An apple box brings the face closer and the hips away.

Mango Street's Rachel Gulotta photographs her sister Megan with three ways to pose non-models: straight lines for brashness and masculinity or S-curves for softness and femininity; directing rather than posing by giving the subject a role or emotion; and adding motion, like shaking out hair or repeating a stride.

Lindsay Adler tells Adobe's Make It host Josh about choosing photography at fifteen, booking the school studio to recreate fashion lighting and testing it on senior portraits. She describes her clean, bold, graphic style, often in red, and her fifth posing book, arguing that understanding posing flatters every body type.

Gia Goodrich and curve model Crosby Pitner discuss working with plus-size models, starting with a stylist's offensive remark. Goodrich's lighting is a diffused beauty dish key, six-foot umbrella fill and two strip banks on the background, while Pitner argues baggy wardrobe undermines curve models and body-con clothing shows confidence.

Bonnie RzM gives five tips plus two bonuses for plus-size subjects: angle hips to the side, relax the arms and leave space between them and the body, raise the camera slightly to balance a larger bust, step back from the lens, wear heels if comfortable, and put confidence first.

Gia Goodrich poses from the bottom up for a lean, tall look: weight on the back hip, bent front knee, hands in pockets, pulling up through the spine then dropping shoulders, soft elbows to avoid toy-soldier arms and a diagonal angle. For tighter frames she connects chin to shoulder.

Manny Ortiz demonstrates with Kayla five fallback poses for when ideas run dry: the L shape, one arm across the belly, the other raised nearest the background; one hand up, one down; looking over the shoulder on tiptoe; running hands through the hair; and dragging the feet into frame.

Laura Reid demonstrates posing tricks for looking good in a bikini on the beach, aimed at people who feel awkward being photographed and want Instagram-ready travel photos without modelling experience. The poses are presented as suitable for every body type, with emphasis on stance and angles rather than camera technique.

Bonnie RzM shares poses for plus-size women: the belly shield, touching nails over the stomach; long legs, extending one leg past the other; the bootylicious, knotting a shirt at the waist and popping a knee; the catfish trap, rolling shoulders forward in selfies; and hip-bump fixes for tight dresses.