The Art Of Posing

I have found my poses stagnant and quite boring as I look through my Phicen Album.  I envy the collector's who's poses are imaginative and unique.  I'm on a mission to improve my posing techniques, looking at the photos of people who's work impresses me and researching poses on Pinterest.  I wonder if anyone has advice they could lend, what inspires you and sparks your imagination.  I'm weary of my figures just standing around in blah poses looking pretty in expensive clothing.  I know there is more to it than how much cost is incurred in attaining 'things' to try to make a great photo.  I'm afraid I am missing the passion needed to aspire to what I want my photos to be.  I'm tired of draining my bank account on items intended to make interesting photos. I also find myself dreading the photo sessions and hurrying through them to get it over with...

I think the most natural, dynamic and creative posings are achieved by our dear lawlaw91, lucky for us there are tutorial threads. I'd start with working through them:

https://onesixthfigures.forumotion.com/t1411-phicen-tb-league-posing-compilation-messing-with-seamless-family

https://onesixthfigures.forumotion.com/t1418-action-figure-posing-compilation-messing-with-plastic-pvc-clay-families

All the humble advice I could give is mostly covered in lawlaws threads. Natural looking weight distribution does a lot and the placements of hands.

And I observed when I have a photo session, the photos get better after some warming up shots in the beginning, the poses get better once you have the 'regular standing' poses out of your neck and cover the more interesting ones.

yep, i was thinking of sharing lawlaw91's post. Great work there for learners, including myself.

Do take note not to pose a figure with bent arms too long, especially seamless bodies. I have seamless bodies posing too long with bent arms, and resulted in the deteriorations of the tpe at the albow areas...Looking forward to see your poses!

Melancholia wrote:I have found my poses stagnant and quite boring as I look through my Phicen Album.  ...  I'm weary of my figures just standing around in blah poses looking pretty in expensive clothing.  I know there is more to it than how much cost is incurred in attaining 'things' to try to make a great photo.  ...  I also find myself dreading the photo sessions and hurrying through them to get it over with...

I find posing seamless figures realistically to be extremely challenging, to the point of being frustrating! I have yet to be completely happy with any seamless figure photos I have taken.

However, I feel like I have a pretty good idea of what I'm not doing right!

I was not aware of the posing tutorials linked to above. I have looked through them now. There's a lot there. A lot! Like, an overwhelming lot!

However, Stryker2011 was insightful enough to offer a succinct reply in the topic highlighting what I have come to believe is the most important combination of elements in artistic and realistic seamless figure posing -- shoulder, neck, and hip tilt.

Here's Stryker2011's comment:  https://onesixthfigures.forumotion.com/t1411-phicen-tb-league-posing-compilation-messing-with-seamless-family#19085

TBLeague (Phicen) figures have an impressive range of flexibility in their shoulders. The shoulders can be tilted, pushed forward or back, pushed up (hunched), or pushed down (sloped). Similarly, necks can be moved side to side, back and forth, and any combination. Hips are similarly adjustable, and the swiveling midsection allows hips to move opposite the shoulders, a "paradigm shift" in doll articulation compared to playline dolls or even high-end fashion dolls.

Working with the elements Stryker2011 highlights using lawlaw91's images is, I believe, the key in "leveling up" seamless action figure posing.

One additional element that I find important is head placement on the neck. It is far too easy to end up with a head sitting too low on a neck post, giving the figure a scrunched-up look. It is similarly easy to allow the head to sit too high, resulting in the all-too-common "giraffe neck" look. Head height is important. Beyond that, head tilt contributes to the expressiveness of the figure. In addition to the neck itself being flexible, the head can be raised, lowered, rotated,  or tilted back and forth or side to side on the neck. There are an infinite number of options in posing the head and neck alone on most seamless figures.

As I type this response, I am fully intending to "practice" some of these techniques tomorrow myself, to see if I can coax some more expressive poses out of my figures. Like you, I find the poses in my own photos stagnant and boring. The figures are just standing, and most of my effort has gone in to getting them to simply stand up without falling over rather than into making the most of their capabilities to be expressive through body language.

I also find myself rushing through photo sessions. As I mentioned, most of my effort is invested in getting the figures to stand or sit without falling over. Then I fuss about with the props and settings rather than focusing on the figures. By the time I'm ready to snap the photos, I'm already tired and frustrated. I tend to overlook obvious issues like random stray hairs, and I definitely fail when it comes to making the subtle adjustments to the shoulders, hips, neck, and head that bring a figure to life.

While useful and full of information, the entire topics linked above are somewhat overwhelming. I recommend looking at the "highlight" post I have linked here.

I'll be hoping to see some "practice photos" from you in the near-term future! Good luck!

And... thanks for asking the question!

Great, I should have done a search before posting. I will go have a look see and thanks for the info!

I'm with those people who find posing tbleague figures to be extremely difficult and challenging. My main problem is that I only use tbleague bodies for my custom figures, and usually these have involved a lot of work on the clothing, accessories, hair, etc., and I feel a strong temptation to just leave them in a boring standing pose lest I mess up the custom work by attempting more complicated poses. My concern is that, once you start posing the tbleague bodies, it seems impossible to get them back into a truly 'neutral' pose. I think that would be the most helpful thing for me to figure out....aka, how to get tbleague bodies BACK into a neutral pose *after* a posing session.

Until I become more comfortable with that, it feels like such a conundrum since my whole purpose in setting out to make these custom figures was to be able to use them for photoshoots and to tell my own little stories with them. But it's hard to get over that fear of ruining the figure that I put so much work into. I have yet to fully overcome that anxiety ... :/

ETA: like davidd, I probably need to practice more, but I would rather do that with some basic figures that aren't that important to me, and I haven't had much chance to put something like that together since all my energy and focus has been on getting my custom figures completed asap.  

I wish I had more fearlessness, sponteneity, and experimental mentality towards these figures, but unfortunately the fact that my finances have become so limited has made me have a much more cautious and tentative approach to the hobby than I'd like...

Good thread, I need to learn posing too. Some helpful links here which i appreciate! Gonna get into reading mode now

watching people and looking at photos of real people is a huge help. If you copy people positions from photos for practice it certainly helps. Even the smallest of movements can make a great picture into a terrific pic! It's all about practice I've found. I still feel I'm learning all the time so I hope it helps

BAMComix wrote:watching people and looking at photos of real people is a huge help. If you copy people positions from photos for practice it certainly helps. Even the smallest of movements can make a great picture into a terrific pic! It's all about practice I've found. I still feel I'm learning all the time so I hope it helps

I also have a model posing advice book from 1:1 photography at home. This can help as well. I just need to take my time when placing the figures haha

This is one of the main reasons why I’ve stayed away from seamless figures, when posed well they look incredible but if they’re just a little off you get a very unfortunate trip to the uncanny valley. I know a lot of folk dislike visible joints, but I personally can see past them and take in the figure and pose as a whole.

skywalkersaga wrote:I'm with those people who find posing tbleague figures to be extremely difficult and challenging. My main problem is that I only use tbleague bodies for my custom figures, and usually these have involved a lot of work on the clothing, accessories, hair, etc., and I feel a strong temptation to just leave them in a boring standing pose lest I mess up the custom work by attempting more complicated poses. My concern is that, once you start posing the tbleague bodies, it seems impossible to get them back into a truly 'neutral' pose. I think that would be the most helpful thing for me to figure out....aka, how to get tbleague bodies BACK into a neutral pose *after* a posing session.

It's easier said than done, but basically it comes down to undo the steps you've taken to get into the pose, but in reverse, so last move first.

Especially with doing multiple poses it's easy to forget exactly what you've done. Unfortunately, sometimes when you undo them in another order than you've gotten them into, something can get twisted. I've had it with Allison  (my s34) once, that after some posing I set her back to normal position. The I noticed that one of her arms could be raised anymore as usual. I'm not sure anymore  what exactly happened, but it was something like raising her arm, then turning her hand, then her elbow. And later bringing her arm just back down, which then blocked the shoulder joint. Took some thinking and comparing with another figure to figure out what exactly had gone wrong.

I can relate, trying to get their arms back into the correct position after dressing them is a bit scary, they turn so the elbows are backwards and I am afraid of using too much torque and breaking something. I have problems with the shoulders, whether the particular pose requires raising them or lowering them. Luckily I only take glamor shots usually, which doesn't require any action poses or multiple figures like y'all's do. I quite frankly don't have the patience...