Posing, framing and producing content that converts and retains.
 

Was asked recently by one of the top sites to review their site. So did so in terms of the content. Also by a couple of the up and coming sites. The reviews I did and still doing were sent to the owners so they could improve their content.

So here's some basic tips for shooters to improve the appeal of their content.

Posing for stills. There are 26 basic solo poses. Shoot them while the model is dressed, undressing and naked will give easily double the number of shots to 52. Making her turn 45 degrees to the left or right for each of them will double it again 104. Shooting her looking at the camera and away will add another 20 shots. Shooting some with half body will add a few more. Shooting close ups a few more. The shooter moving from side to side of his key lights will change the back ground and add a few more. In fact shooting a set of 200 different poses/images is easy if you know how.

So shooting a set with the same pose over and over again is unforgivable and amateur in the terms of the shooter not having a clue.

The same goes for girl/girl and boy/girl. The poses are different, the need for variation is paramount.

To solve this is easy. What ever niche you're shooting make up a posing book. Two folders of clear plastic pages in which can be inserted 2 pictures back to back. Arranged in progression from start to finish. These folders can bought at any good stationary store. Or you could store the images on a lap top and display them with ACDSee.

A thread about poses with no examples?

Portrait and landscape framing. Far far too many images I saw were in portrait framing. With surfers having wide screens it's wrong. Learn to pose models and shoot landscape. Poses with the girls standing over and over again are BAD. It means the image is auto shrunk to 1/2 or even 1/4 of the original size or having it so large the viewer needs to scroll up and down, which is terrible.

Again study the poses available. There are far more poses than just standing up. Kneeling, squatting, sitting on her heels, sitting on one leg with the other foot on the floor and the knee up, sitting open leg. And then all the laying poses and on all fours. Again no excuse for bad posing. Compile that posing book. :thumbsup

Focusing, exposure and depth of field. With so many images going larger and larger the clarity of the large image is essential. Focusing, exposure and depth of field need to be spot on. It's nice and artistic to get images in low light with candles or lights or a fire showing in the back ground. But it takes real skill to get it right on an image 1500x3000 pixels. Most of what I saw were out of focus at that size. If you're aiming at a soft diffused image use a diffuser lens or filter.

You want to see 80's girls posing?

Coming soon. The problem is there are so many to show. Will need to do a story board. :winkwink:

Here's a few of my thumbnail pages.

I rarely shot all the images available, though you can see the variation I aim for.

http://www.paulmarkham.com/details.php?id=923

http://www.paulmarkham.com/details.php?id=1212

http://www.paulmarkham.com/details.php?id=1240

I was also shooting for magazines which are A4 format and more suited to portrait framing. And were picking 20 images max out of a set of 120+. Still more landscape and variation than many shooters I would wager. :)

I learnt by listening to editors and other shooters about how to improve my techniques and sales. We don't get a lot of feed back on the Net.

Jarmusch little has changed with posing since the 80s. And these examples were all shot in this decade and all made far far more for me as a shooter than any custom set ever made. Posing isn't styles or niches. But even in amateur there's no excuse for bad limited posing.

http://www.bargainbasementcontent.co....php?id=500144

Fewer pics but still lots of poses. Stop the hate and start to think.

Videos If you don't shoot images landscape with the girl standing. So why do so many shoot a wide screen video with her standing? It ends up being a nice view of the location and the girl in 25% of the available screen. Not good.

After the initial intro she has to be sitting, laying, squatting or doggy to get her to fill the frame. Some close ups of her standing are great, but limiting mostly. Takes some real skills to pull that of for 5 minutes of a 10 minute video.

There are lots of variations on a position a girl can be in with her filling the frame. Talk it over with her first and make sure she understands your hand signals or just tell her and edit it out. I use to have a hand signal for just about everything. From standing to fucking herself with a vibrator or fingers.

Standing was me raising my hand, sitting lowering it, laying sweeping it from left to right. The person with the camera directs the girl. Not tries to keep up with her movements. That way ends up with her going out of shot. Fucking herself with a vibrator, use your imagination. :1orglaugh

Some shooters stop between video shots, direct the model to what she should do next and carry on. Can be done by those who know how to shoot content that can be edited. Nightmare to edit it if shot wrong and get the scene to flow. When a video sequence stops then start again, you can tell how the shooter is working. If you want to work like that, change the angle and framing by zooming in then opening back up between sequences.

In my experience it's off putting for all but the best models. It disturbs their flow and they get frustrated by it. Sometimes I use to tell the models to keep going while I moved to a new position, gave them instructions on their next position and the whole thing flowed more.

Even hairy munters will illustrate what he is trying to explain.

Hairy pussy sells. Then shave it and earn even more. LOL

If pictures illustrated what I'm trying to explain why do so many get it wrong?

Thanks Paul. I ALWAYS appreciate your wisdom and you have helped me become better at taking dirty pictures. I can't understand the bs people post in your threads, but not everybody feels that way.

On a side note, I have sold all my work so far except a few really bad movies. When I get about 20 decent I will hit you up and we can talk about the store.

Again, Thanks for spreading your wisdom... some of us are listening and learning:thumbsup:thumbsup

Yeah, I do. I was in my late teens early 20's in the 80's. Chicks shaved raw with chicken bumps on her cooch dont do it for me.

Look at the signature of the haters and judge for yourself.

Good content (what ever the niche) makes the viewer sit up and take notice, makes his dick hard, makes him want more, makes him follow a link, makes him consider buying, makes more traffic and a lot more conversions. Plus retention and selling him onto more. :thumbsup

Bad content makes him move on fast. :Oh crap

Even on Tubes when it's given away, bad content sucks. Do all those views = happy punters or people who moved on fast?

Without pictures everybody will interpret your words differently.

Moving around when shooting. It's not only the models who can move around, the shooter can as well. With stills the lighting needs to be adjusted, with video unless it's high quality production it's possible to move around the model and get different angles, views on the same action. An assistant with a light on the end of a boom is helpful. Adjusting the exposure also works.

Remember never ever shoot into the light. Especially the sun. Unless you really know what you're doing.

When I was shooting video for mail order, I have to be honest and say I shot a lot from the front and rarely moved. I was selling in a market with 5 companies and times have changed. Even the smallest of micro niches today have up to 10 times that many site in. Major niches it runs into 100s of times more.

Think a scene through, make up a story board and know in your head exactly how it will progress. Set the lights accordingly, shoot a test scene using a dummy, friend or assistant. Review it and see how it works. Only the best work off the cuff and on the fly. Even in amateur. The niche refers to the model not the shooter. LOL

Yes, YES, YES, YES YES YES AND YES.

NOW YOU'RE STARTING TO GET IT. :1orglaugh :1orglaugh

That's exactly what they should do, in fact I just spent 20 minutes making up a small selection of shots and now thinking you're right and letting people interpret as they see it. Should I post pictures or not?

They need to know the basic techniques and reasons why/how, but after that it's down to them to interpret it to their style. I could name a magazine shooter from the style of his work, even though a lot of the basics were the same. We all brought our own interpretation to them. Same goes for video shooters.

You're putting effort into text that a lot of people won't bother to read all the way through unless you break it up with relevant pictures.

Right back in the first post you wrote
Then gave no illustration of them.

A large percentage of people will have stopped reading.

bookmarking this thread. Always up to learning more and seeing diffwerent techniques

Thanx!

Here are some examples of how the same pose can be done/shot differently. Yes all shot in the style that made me a lot of money. :1orglaugh I did shoot amateur, it just doesn't pay us as much.

Standing, kneeling, sitting and squatting. If pushed each one of these can be done 10 times or more and all different. Different enough to make the set alive and varied. By adding a few close ups, shooting in portrait and landscape on some, and turning the model 45 to 90 degrees there are twice as many. Shooting from stripped, undressing to naked you double them again. 4 poses - 52 different shots.

http://www.paulmarkham.com/temp/poses1.jpg

Maybe those who stop reading don't want to think it through for themselves. Maybe as I said it's better for them to think for themselves.

Basic man management 101. Always give someone the answer you teach people only to ask and wait for the answer. Teach them to think for themselves and you teach them to grow.

I feel so foolish now.

When I used to teach reading I should have just put an empty page in front of someone and hoped they could imagine the words.

rofl @ old man markham's teachings of internet pornography :disgust

Not discrediting you as a brilliant 80s porn shooter.. :uhoh

But whenever you post those same 80s pictures as examples it cracks me up

Thanks Paul,

I really enjoy these types of educational threads I wish GFY had more of them instead of all the drama.

Teaching reading and teaching shooting porn are two different things. Maybe thinking for yourself is beyond you, connecting reading and shooting doesn't show well. When they were teaching you to teach did they teach you to think for yourself or learn parrot fashion?

Still trying to work out why you're in this thread except trolling. Are you a shooter, content buyer or anything connected to the creation of content?

Anyway keep bumping. :thumbsup

During the 80s I was a crap shooter. During the 2000s I was earning $3,000 from a set on a regular basis, without Internet sales. That added another $1,000 on average to a set. Plus the video. So someone was buying and people were enjoying them.

Again what's your link to content?

So far a few trolls flaming and content people reading and thinking.

Good stuff, Paul, thanks for sharing

Again another 4 positions.

http://www.paulmarkham.com/temp/poses2.jpg

Sitting with the knees together and up, can be shot in about 10 different variations. Knees together, apart, feet together, apart full frontal, side on, face on the knees, leaning back, pulling the panties aside, pulling the pussy open. Shooter on the floor, shooter standing. That's over 10. :winkwink:

Sitting on ass or leg and other leg on floor/bed. Again can be varied in so many ways the combinations are only limited by your imagination.

Sitting with legs up. Open, closed, sitting laying, clothed, nude, etc, etc.

Standing back to camera touching toes. Or like this one. Again can be permeated over and over again. Great for leg and glamor.

In fact all these poses can be adjusted to suit many niches. And many can be shot in landscape and portrait with a little thought. If you can't get another 50 different shots from these positions give up shooting. :1orglaugh

And for the trolls I included some shots from the 80s. :1orglaugh :1orglaugh

GFY would be boring without the trolls flaming me. :1orglaugh

So far most of these poses can be adapted to fit different solo girl niches and styles. The shooter has to do that for himself and blend the set to fit his style.

Change the clothing to expensive lingerie, dress, high heels, etc. The location to something more stylish. Make up to more night time, night clubbing, lighting to high light the girl. And you have an up market set.

Bring it down to grotty and it's an amateur set.
Shoot it all with the toes pointing at the camera and Barefootsies will love you. LOL

Night time bump before I go to bed

Morning bump for the morning crew. More pics to come.

Here is the posing list I used. Some of them were must have, some maybe and some a few times. Adapt it to fit your style, niche, needs. A lot of them can be shot in portrait or landscape. They can be shot with the model facing the camera, side on and back on in some cases. Plus there are as many variations as the shooter can image. He doesn't have to shoot them all, but as you can see there's no excuse for sets with the same pose shot over and over again with little variation.

Use your imagination before you tell me it can't be done. :winkwink:

Standing
Touching toes
Kneeling
Sitting on heels
Sitting on one knee other foot on floor/bed open leg
Sitting legs open
Sitting sideways on her hip
Sitting knees down together
Sitting knees up together
Sitting cross leg
Sitting on edge of bed/chair
Climbing onto bed/chair
Squatting
Laying on back
Laying on back On elbows
Laying on back Legs in air
Laying on back legs behind her head
Laying on side
Laying on side leg in the air half or full
Laying on side, rear to camera
On all fours doggy style.
On all fours standing on one leg
Laying on front
Laying on front with a leg tucked under body
On head with bottom in the air
Crawling towards camera

A lot of these positions can be used for shooting solo video. The need for movement with video is less important than still. But still a girl needs to move around a bit.

Will start on a 2 girl posing list soon.

Good stuff. I've been vaguely aware of some of these rules but it's good to see it all laid out.

Thank you. Took me years to learn some of this stuff. I started shooting photographs to sell mail order. So a roll of film with 36 frames was the set. Often including ID shots. And I struggled to get 30 different positions. :Oh crap

:2 cents:

There are many great single shot photographers, no names, but looking at a set it's clear their skills for shooting 120 different images that keep the viewer hooked are lacking. I download sets and then view them in a slide show. And very soon a set gets boring, the same pose over and over again, too many portrait pictures squeezing the image down to 1/3 of my screen and too many shots missing the mark.

Learning to frame a picture, produce a set that flows and keeps members hooked is essential training when it comes to producing videos that keep the member retained and even converting off a tour.

So on to videos.

Everyone has their own tastes of what they want to jerk off to. But in the time of Tubes a paysites content has to be special to tempt people to pay for a membership. Here's some tips, you might like or not.

Theme. To jerk off to a video it has to be more than just a pretty girl, it has to be a scenario the viewer could believe will happen to him or happened to him as well. Without that, today it's tough to justify $30 a month retaining for just the action. Unless that action is exceptional. Be it a girl picked up and fucked in a van or a naughty student seducing her teacher or anyone else of the themes, it helps the viewer get hooked.

Then these themes have to vary a lot. Because after watching 5-6 they start to get repetitive. Yes BangBus made a lot out of one theme. They kicked off well over 10 years ago and it was a different market then. Now there are how many sites selling girls getting fucked in vans to compete?

For instance, use a Van, Truck, Camper Van, Coach, Mini Bus, Bus or SUV. Pick up girls in LA, Miami, NY, UK, Czech, Hungary, South America. Pick her up in a bar, street, shop and take her to the vehicle. Pick up 1, 2, 3 girls. Change the reason the girl jumps into a vehicle full of guys and start to fuck them. Could even be voyeur where she doesn't know she's being filmed. How about a couple of girls picking up a hitchhiking guy and fucking him in a van. The girls (cougars) are on the prowl for some cock and talking about it as they drive along. Or shoot the scene from the aspect of the girl standing by the side of the road and getting picked up. The permutations are only limited by the imagination of the producer.

Anything the producer can imagine, so long as it's horny, to keep the member thinking "What will they come up with next?". Rather than "Seen that and ain't spending another $30 to see it again.

The same goes for all themed sites. Because so long as the variation works it keeps members spending and helps convert off a tour. How many times do we see a tour that's the same scene over and over again.

I thought I would show some lighting set ups I've used to give me some flexibility in where I could shoot from during a set. Lighting is tough to teach as a lot of it depends on locations. A small room is tough to light properly, white walls with give a different light effect from dark walls, the style of the scene is also going to change the lighting set up.

Lighting techniques are many and most shooters use different set ups.

These set ups can be used for video, just change the lights to Tungsten or Fluorescent Lights. Which are good in the summer with people having sex. But not that strong and hard to control.

Here's a few suggestions.

http://www.paulmarkham.com/temp/lighting1.jpg

A. Is my key light and I set it at least 5 foot high, to eliminate reflected light bouncing back into my lens and so I could stand underneath it. It can have a shoot through umbrella, bounce umbrella, soft box or a dish. I liked the dish best.

B. Is a pussy light with a small soft box low on the ground and aimed at the pussy. :)

C. Is a side light, into an umbrella and high aimed down at the model. Slightly behind to give some light to the rear.

D. If you have the space and can wet it up is a rear light high, aimed down at the model and with barn doors and a snoot.

E. If you have the room and location is a light behind the sofa/bed and used to separate the model from the background.

A and C are essential IMO. B is good. D and E are optional.

The red lines are where the shooter can stand.

If you have the width this is a good set up.

http://www.paulmarkham.com/temp/lighting2.jpg

Gives the shooter more space to move around.

As I said all lighting set ups can vary to the style, niche, location, content, etc. The only way to learn is to do it over and over again or get a job assisting a good shooter. Getting good lighting for what you're trying to do is important. Eliminate shadows, depth of field, sharper image, etc. Also the model knows you know what you're doing if she sees you have lighting her mastered.

Lastly. GET A LIGHT METER AND USE IT. Using the screen on your camera, laptop, computer is never going to teach anyone anything about lighting.

:thumbsup:thumbsup:thumbsup

I printed this and put it in my camera bag! Thanks

Now find 2-4 pictures of each pose you will use and put them into a display folder. Easier to show a girl than explain it. Even when they speak English as a native language a picture is best. For you and her.

POV video is limiting and will post something later to help on that.

Thought I would make a post again here after reading DVTimes post about 3D porn and some of the replies.

I hope my insight into some of the aspects of porn is giving some food for thought. Shooting porns no easier today because of the technology. In fact two advantages of cameras today are things that are easy to learn. Focusing and exposure are child's play. Color balance was a bit harder. If you can't get those right the rest is way tougher. In fact shooting good porn today that sells is far tougher.

Saturation of porn has led to models on auto pilot, models in so much demand they think they're in charge, models seeing bad porn and copying it, smaller budgets and bad shooters teaching models bad habits.

Keeping it real.

Porn scenes never were "real" in fact that's the last thing they were, they're fantasies. But a lot of todays porn is so fake it's a joke.

In most cases it's our job to make a fantasy look real enough to convince the devotee it COULD HAPPEN TO HIM. Be it a "Miss World" type getting fucked in a multi million dollar mansion or trailor trash handing out for a hot dog. Or any other scene. We have to make it real enough to convince it really could happen. Even if it's voyeur, it has to look like it's real.

Porn actors can't act. Learned that decades ago and though some scenes require some acting to set up the scene the sex has to be real. So don't let your porn actors fake the sex too much. They usually all end up doing the same old cloned moaning and groaning that all sounds the same. And ALWAYS sounds the same right the way through the scene. Then the fake sentences some actors seem to think are horny and a turn on and the whole thing looks fake. Something reality, Gonzo, POV, Amateur or any porn should be.

Yes I know some girls need to "ham" it up a bit. Some girls orgasm very quietly, some just drift off into their own inner world and both look bad when filmed. But over the top bad acting looks awful and needs to be avoided.

Couple the fake sex and fake set up then the whole thing start to look like just another cloned scene. Especially when in a site full of the same scene and the only thing changing is the face on the girl or guy on gay sites.

All this has to be sorted out during a casting. When a shooter can see if a girl has the personality to bring something to the camera that will make her or the scene sell. We see picture after picture of girls with the poster asking if she's hot. Who sells pictures today?

On the adult Internet we sell videos and the only way to tell if she's got anything to offer is a short video clip of her. Over the years I've shot many girls who were dynamite on stills and shit on video. Also many girls who could never sell on a picture, but really good on video. It's all down to her personality and character. Does she have the ability to bring something to the scene that will make the buyer sit up and get his CC out?

Getting this out of a girl is natural talent. Some girls have it and some don't. All girls react to a camera pointing at them in some way. The more the girl has done doesn't always make a difference either. Shot many top girls who turn on when the camera is pointing at them. And a few who who go into auto pilot when the camera is on. It's the producer's job to get the best out of them. Or send them home because bad scenes don't sell or retain. They piss off members.

I've met shooters who immediately would put a girl on guard and on edge. And I've met some who can disarm a girl and bring out her sexual side easily. It's a natural talent that gets honed over the years.

I just posted on Shap's thread about budgets and thought here I would elaborate to other levels and niches.

Costs are approx and not including agents, assistants, admin, correction, editing, and more costs. Plus the shooters wage is not too high.

To shoot Twistys type content costs a lot of money. Top shooters, models, make up, clothing, location extras like travel, equipment, refreshments. I've based it on LA costs. In Russia it would be cheaper, good luck finding the shooter. :1orglaugh

Model = $1,000
Make up = $500
Clothing = $200
Location = $1,000
Top shooter = $1,000
Extras = $300

Total $4,000 for a days shooting. = $1,333 a scene.

Try shooting more than 3 scenes a day and the whole thing is filler content full of basic mistakes. Because it's being rushed.

My level shooting in Eastern Europe.

Model = $500
Make up = $200
Clothing = $50
Location = $500 (Studio costs less but has to be paid every month)
Top shooter = $250 (You can get monkeys for less, Eva or I would cost more. :1orglaugh )
Extras = $100

Total $1,600 for a days shooting. = $533 a scene.

Again because even at my level more than 3 scenes a day is not practical, to produce good content.

Of course it can all be done on the cheap, pay the model less, does her own make up, provides her own clothing, shot in your living room, shoot it yourself, shoot 5 scenes, etc. But you still have to budget for;

Equipment. Good cameras $5,000 = $10,000, lights 4 strobes at $500 = $2,000, mikes, etc. Lights last for a long time. Cameras don't because of technology.

Plus add some of these. Admin, legal, accounting, computers and programs, electricity, heating, transport, phones, Internet connections, servers and maybe staff.

One of the problems of the Internet is it thinks the product is something that can be shot on the basis of 5 solo girl scenes a day for $1,500 - $2,000. GG or BG for $1,000 to $2,000 and then shocked the customers think it's crap and move on after a week.