Photography - Individual & Family Posing - Live Sessions (Udemy.com)
Dramatically improve your portraits with these easy relaxed posing techniques. Flatter your subjects & they'll love you!
Created by: Bernie Raffe AMPA
Last updated October 2015
What you will learn
- Improve your portraits using these great live photo session posing tips
- Easily create your own poses, once you understand the basic principles
- Confidently pose individuals, couples and families, real people, not models
- Learn to pose individuals, male and female
- Learn to pose couples and young and older siblings
- Learn to pose mum, dad and children
- Learn to pose 'fuller figure' subjects
- Learn to pose large family groups
How it compares
Against the other 275 rated Udemy courses in Photography on CourseDuck:
- Rating4.5 out of 5higher than 44% of them
- Reviews459#102 of 276 by number of reviews
- Length3 hoursshorter than 50% of them
- Last updatedOctober 2015earlier than 93% of them
Course Description
** Voted by students as one of Udemy's outstanding instructors of 2014 **
Follow me on live photo sessions with individuals, couples, 'fuller figure' subjects, young and older siblings and large and extended families and watch how I pose them to overcome their natural tendencies to sit or stand like statues and to get some great portraits.
- Real life indoor and outdoor photo sessions
- Warts and all posing i.e. some of them don't quite work, and I say why!
- Mostly non-model real live people, like you and me,
- Create beautiful family photos by getting your lovely subjects into more natural, relaxed and flattering positions..
- Practice the easy steps in this course and it will pay huge dividends in your portraits
- PDF crib sheets are available for most of lectures, keep them with you
Models aside, the majority of us are not aware of our natural and unconscious body positions and so we don't usually present ourselves as well as we might. For example, most of us tend not to be concerned with where or how we place our hands and arms, tilt our heads, or position our feet. This course shows how I handle that problem, and how I position and pose people to get great results.
Posing is a powerful skill that will transform your portraits, not only can you copy the ones demonstrated in the videos, but understanding the general basic dynamics of a good pose, will help you to create your own.
Each video has a short introduction and summary of the photo session that just took place, it's then followed by the live photo session.
Downloads are ENABLED for this course!
This is a brand new course so no reviews yet
Modesty almost forbids me publishing some comments about my teaching style, taken from reviews of my other two courses, but I overcame that, so here they are:-
Bernie is really easy to listen to, and his videos were really entertaining and kept you listening. (I also like his accent!)
Many online courses suffer from over prepared, monotonic boring voice overs but Bernie's style is a bit like having your mate round to show you how to do something. This even goes to leaving some bloopers in which makes it human and fun.
Bernie is a hoot! He knows his material, presents it well, and is witty to boot. It's a great combination in a teacher.
I love Bernie's approach. Such a great instructor,
Bernie is an excellent teacher and his enthusiasm for photography is contagious.
Bernie is a fantastic tutor,
Love it, love it, love it!!
Instructor Details
- 4.5 Rating
459 Reviews
Bernie Raffe AMPA
** Voted by students as one of Udemy's outstanding instructors of 2014 **
Bernie is a professional photographer based in the UK, and has been passionate about photography ever since his parents bought him his first camera when he was just 11 years old (a Kodak Brownie 127)!
He's qualified as a photographer to 'Associate' level with both the MPA (Master Photographers Association), and the SWPP (Society of Wedding and Portrait Photographers) in the UK.
Bernie loves sharing his passion for photography, and students really enjoy his fun teaching style which has earned him over 100 five star reviews. These entertaining and informative films will demonstrate, without blinding you with science, how you can be a better photographer, taking more creative and dramatic photos that will wow your friends and family.
He is in demand as a speaker to other professionals and to beginner and keen amateurs at camera clubs... he's also an occasional guest speaker on cruise ships.
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Reviews
By Corie Smith on 6/28/2025
I really like the posing tips; however, I wish the camera settings were also mentioned while doing the shoot. It would have been very helpful
By Karen Horner on 5/22/2020
I am taking this course primarily to take phot shoots of my grandchildren and their familes. I also work with children who have autism and many families are not happy with pictures taken of their child as it is more challenging. I do have a plan in mind but would like to take pictures of the child and their families.
By Cheryl Smith on 4/22/2020
I loved all the poses! I loved the fact that he was recording while doing the photo shoots, and explaining why he did what he did, and what does not work and why, and what does work and why. This was a great class. If you are looking for a class to teach you how to pose couples, kids, families, and big groups, then this is the course for you! :)
By Ishmael Evans on 8/21/2019
As a photography student, one of my struggles was my ability to direct and communicate with my models what I want them to do. I feel that my communication issues when it comes to portrait photography was because I needed to study more on posing my models. This course was super helpful because it sparked so many ideas on what I can do for my school assignments as well as when I'm hired to take portrait shots of family or friends.
By Robert Keck on 6/6/2019
Very creative use of posing and working with people. I like the individual posing with male and female subjects. One suggestion: spend a minute or two on gear/flash and settings. I really liked the comments of a truly professional model talking us through why she posed the way she did.
By Mary Anne Harris on 12/19/2018
I LOVE BERNIE! His classes are fun to watch, easy to implement. This particular session is broken up into various segments and before I go on a shoot I re-watch the specific segment because he demonstrates poses and what to look for (look out for), light, etc. Another keeper for sure.
By Isabelle Belanger on 2/10/2018
Very useful information. I learned a few tricks during this course, it will definitely improve the pictures I shoot. Thanks! Totally worth my time and money. I specifically liked the jawline trick and the focus where you want to shoot not where the subjects start off. Funny instructor as well.
By Renneu on 9/1/2017
I have taken all four courses offered by Udemy by Bernie Raffe and Rate all at 5 stars. Bernie is easy to listen to and follow as he uses a relaxed informal teaching aproache. I have been taking pictures for almost 70 years but knew very little about photography. Old dogs can learn new tricks. I still review the lectures quite often as somethings sink in slower than others but thanks to Bernis's courses I have come to enjoy the hobby & hope to for quite a while longer. Thanks Bernie!
By Mike on 11/19/2016
I like the family photos where there is a group of people and how to place them, I would of liked it if the camera settings were shown, although the cute blonde in the family photos was so distracting I had to watch it twice. I think you should use her more often, She has my vote!
By Kate Calisto on 11/25/2015
This is my 4th course with Bernie Raffe, as I thoroughly enjoy his "no nonsense" approach to photography. His explanations are very helpful and I find him fun and engaging to watch. I particularly like how he showed how to position people, then he showed the end results, and often times, his own critique of what he liked or what he would have done differently in the photo. For someone like me who is new to photography, he makes it less intimidating. Bernie is an outstanding photographer and teacher. I will continue to take all of his courses.
Quality Score
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Overall Score : 90 / 100










