Impactful, Athletic Nude Poses: Motion Creates Emotion

Etude No. 1: Vikka in Studio

What is a picture other than a brief moment captured forever? When we capture motion, we hold on to an intensity that is often too fleeting in the actual pace of life. Here, the model’s beautiful body in motion awes us as she spins, twists, and dances in front of the camera.

The use of grey scale simplifies the pictures. This lets us focus our attention on the contours of her figure and the curves and lines created as she moves. These impactful, athletic poses instantly implant an idea into the viewer’s mind because our model is in action and this in turn makes them emotionally connective. Additionally, notice that, though the model is posing in physically demanding ways, she does not forget her facial expressions or the placement of her hands.

Having An Emotion In Mind

It is well understood that we as human beings learn things about one another through body language. We do this all the time by, for example, reading our friend’s worried facial expressions and react with emotions by feeling sympathy for them or, on the other hand, feeling warm tingling sensations when seeing a sexy model posing in an alluring fashion. Motions, expressions, postures – all of them invoke feelings. Now it is the job of a photographer to understand how your model’s posing is going to affect the mood of your photo shoot.

So, it is very important that you have a general idea of what emotion you want to project before your shoot. Just winging it can be done of course, but you will discover that you end up with a “quantity not quality” situation. Meaning, a lot of pictures you can’t use and very few useful ones. You avoid this by having a concept, directing your model, and letting the shoot move on from there.

Unsure What Mood You Want To Deliver?

Any easy way to create or boil down the overall, “vibe” of a shoot is to create a story. Even if you are not shooting with props or elaborate scenery, by inventing a back story or motivation for both you and your model, the poses will be filled with emotion and inventiveness. Before offering this story to your model, it is advisable to have some conceptualized postures at hand that you can recommend to her. For example, if you want a sultry, mysterious mood, provide tear sheets or suggested postures that reflect these emotions such as closed or secretive body language.

Depending on you and your models comfort level, you can create the back story or concepts more or less specific. The vaguer the idea, the more room there often times is for the model’s own personal interpretation of the mood. This is a good thing if she is feeling confident in what she is doing because the poses delivered will be charged will real, deep emotions.

Get Your Model Relaxed

If you want your model to break down her walls and really feel free to be spontaneously creative, you must provide a comfortable environment to work in. This doesn’t just mean offering her a bottle of water or turning the heater on…it means being in total control. Just as a movie director is aware of every little aspect on the set of a movie, you as photographer must be prepared to handle any little thing that arises on set.

Poses & Flow: Learn All Aspects, Get Insights And Feel The Inspiration

“Fashion Like Nude & Freeflow Poses” is my newest posing guide (Vol. 2) and shares with you more important insights, philosophy and other strategies to creatively explore your nude and glamour photography.