Hands on model photoshoot

Of course in this case "hands on" means applying theory I am discovering in practice. Models, unless you are in close relationship, highly dislike physical contact at a photoshoot.
So, to try my theories and get some new tips I invited a model for a nude studio shoot. I had a list of poses to try and a mindset of getting them to look as good as possible. And it worked perfectly.
Enter Geminine

She is a nice person and a professional model. She does not have a "fashion model" figure and it makes her a perfect candidate for my project as I'm aiming for "girl next door" type of models.

This is what she looks like without clothes

Our model looks great and has some features we have to notice before we start any posing. First, she is not very tall and her legs are not too long. Second, she has fairly wide hips. Third, her breast is asymmetrical - the right one is slightly lower than left. This has to be taken into account for all our poses.

As you can see, a square full frontal pose does not look very attractive (from photographic point of view). I immediately try to correct it with our "knees together" technique.

It looks a lot better and a hand on her hip makes her figure look lighter. However right arm close to the body still makes it look pretty bulky. Therefore, another tip - unless you want to make your model look bigger, leave some space between arms and torso.

Bam! This looks much better! Right arm on model's hip now allowed a beautiful leg-hip-waist curve to be discovered. Left arm on her head lifted her right breast - now they look symmetrical. This is another important technique to remember - bring model's arms up to lift her breast. And bring arms up asymmetrically to correct natural asymmetry. Now you know where all those "hands on the back of her head" poses come from.

Lifting both arms up even while showing amazing curves brings back the breast asymmetry. Therefore in our case this cannot be considered a successful pose.

Now, let's approach our model from the back.

I have to say that she is very fit and this makes photographing her a lot easier. But from photographic point of view this image can be significantly improved. And here's how.

Yes, another amazing discovery in a female body. Wearing high heeled shoes does not only make a woman taller, it also improves the definition of calf muscles and lifts the buttocks. Let's take our improvement even further, of course, first with a "knees together".

For this photo I made her cross her ankles, not just touch knees. It does not make the pose asymmetrical, which is always good for composition, but makes the figure lighter on the bottom and thus more visually pleasing. Now we would like to do something with model's arms to bring out beautiful curves.

In this pose her arms are hidden revealing a "hourglass figure" which is the best looking way to show female body. Although this pose is still pretty boring. I decided to try something different for the back shot.

Unexpected effect - even though legs are not together this photo looks pretty good. It shows the hips and waist perfectly (left arm could have been moved out of the way). So putting one foot to the side makes the pose from the back mode dynamic but it may not work without high heels.

A bonus shot.

In fact, this is my the most favorite shot from the whole session. Putting one foot and knee in front of another makes whole figure look a lot slimmer. I have to try this with other models, this may be an ultimate solution.

Now let's get to the side look. I asked the model to lean against the wall.

It looks fine but mostly because of model's features. Let's try to make it more artistic.

Asking the model to bring her hips forward makes the pose look more "fashion"-y, lifts model's breast and reveals the curve of her back. Let's see if we can do any better.

I asked the model to take one step forward with her left leg. She put her hands behind her back naturally and this made a great pose. It shows abdominal muscles really well, makes a great diagonal line from model's foot up to her shoulder. I'm sure this pose can be improved but it is already pretty good as it is.

Now let's take a look at side shots without leaning against something. There is a general rule for full-body portraits and this is that hips and shoulders should not be in the same plane. So if shoulders are turned to the camera, hips have to be away. I tried to do the opposite - hips to the camera, shoulders away...

..and failed miserably. Model now looks shapeless with emphasized hips and small breast. Never repeat this pose unless you have a model with very wide shoulders, big breast and small hips (even in this case I have to test it first).

Standard look - shoulders towards the camera, hips away, looks great.

We see a beautiful curve on her back and breast looks very attractive. I asked the model to bring her arm up to get rid of asymmetry described earlier. This actually looks like a great pose to me.

One more bonus...

If you don't have high heels handy or they don't fit your concept, ask you model to stand on tiptoes. This gives the same effect as high heels but without changing any details of the photo. You can see the difference it makes with your own eyes.

Now, you may notice that these photos still don't look as polished and professional as some magazine shots. The explanation is simple - these photos are completely unretouched, except for the "bonus shot" in the middle of the post. I will talk about retouching a bit later and now I'd like to hear your comments and suggestions and hopefully see some submissions to the Flickr pool.