12/22/06

Actually, in order to achieve well centered models, who have ballanced chi, I find it helpful to involve the model with yoga or tai-chi. A few minutes spent in yoga poses gets my V3, or S3 model into the proper frame for a good composition. They haven't complained so far.

LMK

That's what this thread needs, some crooked contortionist nudes in gonzo yoga poses - blatantly male would be a plus, this thread is pretty unbalanced.  I think there is way too much Yin and no Yang.  What this thread needs is a big fat Yang.

...  :biggrin:

@pjz surprise, surprise! ;) Hamlet: ... There are more things in heaven or earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. ... pls check your mailbox. A ps: about that 'big fat Yang'...please don't! i beg you! :tt2:

Well, as have some others on this forum, I used to work in commercial photography, too. Mostly advertising. Frequently using models. I can't recall ever thinking, while looking at what I was shooting on the ground glass, "rule of thirds". I was aware that it existed. It never crossed my mind when I was working, though. I was thinking of what elements needed to be in the scene, and how best to compose them. I was usually working fast. Models are expensive. The only rules I paid any attention to when using human models was:
Never have the hips, shoulders, or cheekbones parallel to the film plane. Makes them look way too wide. 
Otherwise, I shot from the hip on compostition. If I liked it, I went with it. And judged my success after processing all the "chromes".
I don't think that there are any hard and fast rules of compostion, other than to keep it interesting!

Commercial photography is different, I have noticed in magazines and billboards etc, the figures are usually centred and that is fine for the medium but in art you don`t have space restrictions to think of and can afford more subtle compositions.

well, i'm glad that pjz took care of buisness.

center is boring and doesn't tickle the eye/brain thing (technical term there).
you'll also want to be aware of perspective lines and/or objects outlines, having the lines point your eye towards the goal; not in a "hit you over the head" kind of way...but subtlety. it could just be one object at an angle that leads you.

actually when you look at good artwork and take away the pleasure side to it (damn, those boobs look like they're going to burst!) and technically break it down, i always find it surprising and informative how the artist has used color and framing to add to the total content that we are preceiving.

subtlety is the key here kids.

Ishtar and her plastic surgeon did all the work, I just took a picture. 

I seem to remember there being a parallel discussion of 'beauty' (another abstract, complete with dead pony..;) that stated symmetrical features were seen as the most attractive.

One thing I just started working with (this is for you newbies out there..;) is having the eyes 'point at' things, mainly the main camera. Then move the character around, and you can still get some interesting effects by having the eyes looking at something. Off-center character placement just emphasizes the effect. Just a thought.

True enough, but there are problems with "Look At/Point At" when you significantly change the shape of the eye, which I tend to do.  I pretty much always manually point eyes now, I am sick if getting told "looks good but she's kind of crosseyed?" in comments (not gallery comments here, for whatever reason everyone here lets that slide, I mean friends outside of Rendo)

good ta know..thanks..;)