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Her Style Podcast | Shopping, Color Palettes, Fashion, Wardrobe, Outfits, Clothing
254 | Posing Expert, Christine Buzan, Shares Her Secrets to Taking Confident Pictures Even If You Hate Being In Front of the Camera
00:28:21
Oh friend, I have the BIGGEST treat for you today! In this episode of HER Style Podcast, I’m sitting down with the legendary Christine Buzan! If you’re not familiar with her work already, Christine is a posing expert and a phenomenal coach who...
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- [00:00]
Heather Riggs
Oh, friend, I have the biggest treat for you today.
- [00:03]
Christine Buzanne
In this episode of Her Style podcast, I'm sitting down with the legendary Christine Buzanne.
- [00:08]
Heather Riggs
If you're not familiar with her work.
- [00:10]
Christine Buzanne
Already, Christine is a posing expert and.
- [00:12]
Heather Riggs
A phenomenal coach who helps women show.
- [00:15]
Christine Buzanne
Up in pictures as the best version of themselves.
- [00:18]
Heather Riggs
She believes that posing is a skill that can be learned and not something people are naturally born with.
- [00:23]
Christine Buzanne
Just like styling yourself, you can learn to look your best in photos too. Keep listening to discover why Christine is.
- [00:30]
Heather Riggs
So passionate about helping women get comfortable in front of the camera.
- [00:34]
Christine Buzanne
The first step to feeling more empowered in your photos.
- [00:37]
Heather Riggs
An eye opening fact about why your cell phone camera might be sabotaging your.
- [00:41]
Christine Buzanne
Pictures and how to fix it.
- [00:43]
Heather Riggs
An unexpected posing tip people are always surprised to hear, and so much more. Plus, Christine and I are revealing an.
- [00:50]
Christine Buzanne
Exciting collaboration that you are going to love.
- [00:53]
Heather Riggs
I'm crazy excited about this. I promise, friend, this is one conversation.
- [00:57]
Christine Buzanne
You do not want to miss. So let's dive into all of the posing genius Christine has to share with us so you can stop hiding out and start capturing the very best of yourself in your photos. Welcome to Her Style podcast where we're all about empowering you to show up and get dressed every day with confidence. I'm your host, Heather Riggs, a 15 year and counting certified image consultant and color specialist, ready to build a wardrobe and a personal style you love. Let's get started.
- [01:37]
Heather Riggs
Well, Christine, first, thank you so much for joining me. Lovely. I'm so happy to have you here. You are a complete expert in terms of posing, tips, photography, the whole nine yards. You have an incredible following and just I'm very excited that you would take some time out of your busy day and schedule to be here with us to share all of your expertise. Thank you first and foremost for coming onto the show and I would love to really start at the beginning and to have you tell us a little bit more about yourself and how you ended up on this journey and becoming so passionate about helping women to feel more comfortable in front of the camera.
- [02:14]
Christine Buzanne
Yeah. Thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited to be here and to kind of, you know, share my own story as well as some helpful tips to help everyone feel their most confident in front of the camera. It's really funny because you know how they say that everything you do in life will all kind of have a purpose eventually, even though it may seem like you're pursuing like a random task or picking up a random hobby and things like that. And I really feel like that's the case for what I do. Everything that I've learned has kind of led me to the point where I'm at. And, you know, my love of photography really started around the time I was 7 years old. My parents bought me a teal green, one of those, like, city bright point and shoots, and I would take it everywhere with me. If you look at most of the photos of me as a child, like, under the age of 12, I had that green camera case with the green camera inside of it everywhere. But even though I love taking photos, I knew from a really young age I felt uncomfortable in front of the camera. I remember all the photos of me. I'm kind of standing straight up and down like a stick pulling away from the camera, kind of awkward smile, eyes squinting. And I just felt really uncomfortable. And that kind of carried through my high school years until about my college years, which was the early 2000s, when everybody started doing the hand on hip pose. And, you know, that kind of helped a little bit because it gave me some guidance of what to do. But I still couldn't quite figure out why I look so different in real life and in the mirror than I did in front of the camera. But fast forward. After college, my senior year of college, I moved to New York City. I interned for Marie Claire magazine. And one of the cool things that we got to do as interns was assist on photo shoots. I remember the first time that I assisted on a photo shoot. It was an experience that really just changed my life. I knew it would be life changing in some way, but I didn't know how. So I got to the shoot. I was bringing over a bag of headbands, actually, that the stylist had requested. And, you know, I saw the model was in the chair getting her, you know, hair and makeup kind of touched up a little bit. And she just seems so quiet and reserved and kind of, you know, to herself. And then I saw her step in front of the camera, and it was almost as if she transformed into this entirely different person. And I remember being like, wow. Because, you know, you saw on tv, like, America's Next Top Model, and you'd see, you know, Naomi Campbell or Gisele Bundchen, like, walking the red carpet on TV and things like that, or walking down the Runway, and they just seem to have this, like, fierce Persona all the time tied to them. When you saw supermodels on TV in the 90s and early 2000s, and I guess what we didn't see was that it was Something that they turned on. Like, this model wasn't always like that all the time. She was just a normal, probably like 20 year old girl, you know, getting her hair and makeup done. And then she stepped in front of the camera and became somebody totally. And so I had the fortune of, you know, assisting on photo shoots both when I was interning as well as afterwards with my different jobs as fashion assistants. And around that time, I also started a blog, because that's what like every single girl in their early 20s and 2010 in New York City was doing. It was like, oh, we all have blogs. You had to have a blog if you wanted to work in the fashion industry. So I would kind of ask the models, like, okay, how do you do this? How do you do that? And like, observe what they were doing. And then I'd go home and I'd practice it for my my blog. And it was really cool because around that point, you know, it was like 2011 to 2013, I felt photogenic. Like for the first time ever, I was just using these different tips that I learned through observation, trying it out. And it was really cool because my blog started to take off. You know, I was doing Fashion Week, I was working with brands, I was getting invited to fashion events in New York City. And it was really great. But then I have ocd. And so I changed my medicine and within a matter of a year and a half, I gained 70 pounds. So I had gone, you know, from being like a size 46 to being a size like 12, 14, and then like a true 14, basically within the matter of like a year and a half. And it was such a big change because, you know, like, my hobby really was blogging. And as I know, like a lot of you who are listening who have gone through some kind of different physical shift in your life where, you know, you've either aged or you've gained weight or your body has changed postpartum. It's really challenging when you have a body that feels different than how you feel on the inside and you don't really know what to do with it. And so when I gained the weight, you know, I didn't know how to dress myself, let alone dress myself and be in front of a camera and take photos. But I knew that blogging was my passion. So if I wanted to continue doing what I loved, I'd have to find basically a different way to do it. So at this point, you know, it was 2015 and there weren't any YouTubers, like, teaching you how to pose for photos. You know, I had to basically go back and be like, okay, I want to learn how to pose for photos. So I'd have to go to photographer resources and like watch that and kind of learn, you know, like the art of posing and everything like that. So I really, kind of, long story long, I really fell into this, like trap of research and everything. And then it became very clear to me, you know, around 2016, 2017, that with the rise of LinkedIn and dating apps, and it became clear to me that this was a skill that wasn't going anywhere. It was a skill that more and more people, besides those of us who just wanted to be bloggers, would have to learn. So it began with friends asking me for help, and then, you know, I was in New York City, so other bloggers, and then kind of I get referred different places. And then during the pandemic, I started doing short form video. And that's kind of how everything spread. It went from just me working locally to me like having my program and my ebooks and working with other people. So.
- [08:11]
Heather Riggs
And what a cool thing too, that this was just an interest that you had and a skill that you wanted to grow and develop for yourself. And now you're able to empower women all over the world to do the same thing. And so a lot of what you said just resonated with me so, so much. I remember those college days of Facebook just starting out and Instagram had like the one filter that everybody used and.
- [08:32]
Christine Buzanne
You know, either Valencia or Expo. Yeah, exactly.
- [08:35]
Heather Riggs
Yes, yes. And I love that your approach is not just about the technical details, but also the mindset piece of it, because that is a huge barrier for women. I see that in the work that I do. Right. You can put on the cutest outfit, but if you're not feeling great about yourself on the inside, it does show. And I love that you really focus on the whole picture and not just stand this way, smile like that. You go so much deeper in your work, which really resonates with me in a big way. And I love to kind of start there. For the woman who is struggling right now, maybe it's body changes, as you said, maybe it's some other hang up about how she sees herself in photos and really not liking to step in front of the camera. Where does she start? This feels like a really big topic, a big thing. But what's the first step to helping her feel more empowered, to really show up and put herself out there?
- [09:29]
Christine Buzanne
Yeah, I think the first step is really. I know it may seem like an obvious thing to say, but it's really understanding that photos aren't reality. And something I always show my students is the moon. So the real moon is up in the sky somewhere. But if you look at a photo of an iPhone version of the moon, it's going to look very different than the version of the moon photo that NASA has taken. You know, you'll see a lot more detail and it will be a lot look a lot more colorful in the picture that NASA takes, versus if you look at an iPhone photo of the moon, that's just going to look like a big kind of yellowish white, fuzzy blob up there. And it's like, okay, you look at these two photos, they're very different, but they're both a photo of the moon. And you know, the thing is, the moon can't pose, the moon can't move, and show her best angles and kind of show that off. If you imagine how different a photo of the moon can look just by which camera you're using and where you're taking the photo from, you know, the moon can't move. So imagine how if you're up in the sky and you're a moving, living, breathing human being, you know, that's going to be even more drastic and even more different than just the moon would be, which the moon is stuck in the sky. And so it's like understanding that although a photo is like a reflection of you in one moment, it's not actually you. So many different factors go into creating a photo. You know, we're these living, breathing, 3D moving humans, and we're flattening ourselves in these 2D completely still objects. So things are naturally going to look a little bit different. But the good thing is, though, that even though so dramatic, you're able to figure out how to put the best version of your yourself forward in a way that works within that 2D playing field. So it's really just about kind of de centering the notion of yourself and being able to look at your photos as information that will let you know what you like, what you don't like. Then from there, you can really assess your preferences and look at it objectively and understand that the only you is the living, breathing you, and the rest is just photos. And, you know, we live in a time now where you're able to take as many photos as you need or as you want, and then you're able to get the one that you want. So I think, like, really, it's like three things that I'd recommend To a woman who feels like she's not quite sure of herself in front of the camera. And the first thing is, you know, understanding the only you is the real you. The second is learning how to use your photos as information. And the third is that it's really just a numbers game of taking as many photos as you want, trying new things, seeing what works, and then replicating it. You know, using that information to guide what you like and doing it again.
- [12:22]
Heather Riggs
That is so good. I say that a lot about looking at yourself in the mirror with an outfit. It's not a tool to be used to judge or criticize yourself. It's just there to give you information. So I think it's awesome that you take the same approach to how you see yourself in photos. It's one glimpse of you in a moment of time. It's not all of you and it's not how you look all the time. So feeling empowered by that of what little adjustments do you want to make so that you can feel better in the next one? And I will say I love the live feature on the iPhone, so it's a longer picture and then you could go through and choose the right key photo, the one that makes everybody look their best. So there is a lot to be said about technology now and how forgiving it is and that we do have options for sure. So let's get into some of the specifics. Because you have an amazing framework and you call it your four step photogenic process. Are you open to sharing? Just kind of a quick rundown of how that works? I devoured your workshop, so you have so much that goes into all of these steps, but if you could just give us an overview and explain why each step is so critical to the whole process.
- [13:21]
Christine Buzanne
You know, I've been doing this for a while now, so, you know, since 2017, and I've worked one on one with hundreds of women as we'd begin working together. They were focusing on the wrong things. They were focusing on things that were kind of trivial. Being like, well, my husband doesn't take good photos of me, or, you know, I've gained this weight and I don't like the way my arms look and things like that. So I really developed this because I found that there's four key things that go into making you photogenic, and the first one is your perception. So understanding your relationship with the camera. And the main thing is really understanding that being photogenic is a skill, shifting your perception from, you know, I'm just not photogenic or I'll never be. I'll never look good in photos because I'm not beautiful or whatever, you know, kind of negative belief you may have about yourself and really kind of wiping that away way and starting from scratch and being like, okay, this is something that I can learn. This is something I can improve upon. This is something I can practice, I can get feedback on and I can become better at. You know, I don't think any of us are. Like, for instance, I always use skiing as an example because I've tried skiing twice. I don't like it. I don't enjoy it. I'm not good at it. But the thing is, I know if I wanted to become better at it, I'd have to practice it and learn how to do it. It's just something I personally don't want to do. But I'm not blaming myself and saying I'm a terrible person and I'm an ugly person because I'm not good at skiing. And it's like, that would be silly. You know, that just sounds crazy. And the same goes for posing for photos. You know, maybe you're not good at posing for photos yet, but that doesn't make you a bad person. You know, you don't know what you don't know. So it's just something that you need to learn. And so really, the first step of the photogenic process is just addressing that perception and kind of clearing out those limiting beliefs and really understanding that you have the power to learn this new thing and, you know, grow into it and change things. Like, you're the one who holds the power. So first step is really shifting your perception. So the second step of the photogenic process is understanding your camera's perspective. They're all P's, because I love a good alliteration. So perspective is the second pillar, and that's really understanding how lighting the phone you use, the lens you use on your phone, and camera angles all come together. It's really learning how to see things through the perspective of your phone so you can make it work to your advantage. Because, you know, there's so often you'll feel really good about your outfit and your hair, and you'll have your pose kind of memorized and figured out. But then it's like, okay, you hand someone the camera, something doesn't look quite right. Maybe you feel like you look bigger than you actually look in real life, or maybe you feel like you look shorter or taller or something's a little longer. And it's just knowing how to use your camera and Set up your shot. That way you're able to get consistent results and be like, okay, this is because of lens distortion. Or this is. I need to change the lighting and just kind of going from there. And I do that. I do that as a second pillar because I find that, you know, just knowing how to work with lighting and work with your camera's lens, like, just will really give you a lot of tools. It's just, it's more of a foundational thing, I think, really, than posing. You know, you have to understand how the camera sees you before you're able to start interacting with it back. So the third pillar is positioning. And I feel like this is something that a lot of people don't really discuss. You know, you see a lot of people will teach how to use the camera. They'll teach perspective, or they'll teach the fourth P, which is posing, which is just like moving your body. But positioning is really about finding your best angles and how you shift your weight. You know, like we were talking about, you can get kind of caught off guard with one movement and things just don't quite look right. And a lot of that has to do with positioning. It's the angle at which you turn your body, it's how you move your hips side to side, it's which leg you place your weight on. Just little nuances like that that are really key in kind of giving, you know, the effect that you desire within your photos. And then the fourth P is posing. And so posing is really forming that connection with the viewer. It's really what brings your photos to life. It's how you show your personality and it's how you interact with your surroundings. And telephoto. And telephoto tell a story basically within your photo.
- [17:50]
Heather Riggs
So good. So good. And like I said, you have an amazing free webinar, which we'll talk about because you have another one coming up. But you give away so many simple and easy posing and photography hacks in that. And you shared something that was really eye opening to me about how our cell phone cameras can be sabotaging our photos. So can you talk a little bit more about that specifically and just give us a few pointers? Because I feel like most of us are just taking those iPhone selfies or pictures. And it's significant what you shared in your webinar.
- [18:20]
Christine Buzanne
Yeah, so our phones are actually wide angle lenses. And the reason why they're wide angle lenses is because the lenses have to be really flat on the phone. They have to be really tiny, but they need to be able to gather as much information as possible to form a photo. If you've ever noticed, you know, you can take a photo from your camera and you're able to get a lot of things, a lot of scenery on the sides, especially like with the 0.5 lens as well as the 1x lens. So these wide angle lenses, though, they kind of almost have like a fish eye effect on your photo. So. So if you've ever noticed you're standing in a group photo and you're at the ends of the group photo, a lot of people are like, I look so big on the end. And that's because the camera is actually stretching out your body. So whatever is toward the edge of the camera with your phone, it's a little hard to do with an audio podcast, but that will get stretched out. So what I always recommend to do if you're taking photos with your phone is never get closer to the person that you're taking photos of, because that's when you kind of get that like bulging effect. The nose will look bigger, the eyes will look bigger, the head will look more narrow. So instead of getting really close to the person, back up a bit and then you can always crop in later. And similarly, if you're taking a group photo, you'll want to have whoever's taking the group photo step back a lot because that will kind of get rid of that distortion on the side. I always recommend, you know, if you're taking photos on your phone, position yourself in the middle of the photo. And then if you want to crop and do something artistic like use rule of thirds or something like that after, you can then do that later within your cropping. But you won't get that distortion and you won't look stretched out as much. You'll look more close to how you look in real life.
- [20:08]
Heather Riggs
It's so interesting. And this is where I'm a really mean wife because if my husband and I are taking a selfie somewhere, if we're on vacation, I make him hold the phone partly because he has longer arms so he can hold it farther away, but also so I can kind of get back a little bit. But I love that again, it's like that you can be empowered by, right? So just knowing these little things and the, the differences that you can make to take a better photo. And it's all about having that knowledge. And again, like you said, I believe practice makes progress. So the more you do it, the more you'll feel comfortable in front of the lens and all of Those things. And I would love if you could share maybe an unexpected posing tip that people are often surprised to hear, because you surprised me with the camera thing. But is there any posing tips that you feel are a little out there, maybe people haven't heard before that would serve them in some way?
- [20:57]
Christine Buzanne
Yeah, it's really interesting. I think the thing that always shocks people a lot is, you know, I get a lot of people who feel uncomfortable about their smile in some ways. A lot of it has to do with the fact that is muscle memory. The more you do something, the more it becomes muscle memory, the more normal it feels. So a lot of us were taught to say cheese growing up. And so the smile that we use when we pose for photos isn't actually the same smile that we, you know, like, I'm smiling at you right now. We're both on a webcast, talking to one another. You know, I'm happy to talk to you. So we have, like, a smile that goes up. But if I was to go, cheese like it, the smile goes out. So a lot of that is people are really surprised that they have to relearn kind of how to retrain their smile as they pose for photos, and what a big difference it will make. And so one of the things I always recommend that people try is three words. And those words are money, yoga, and hey. But you have to smile as you do them, and just notice where the shape of your mouth, the position of your tongue, and how much space there is in between your teeth as you say those in front of mirror. And then you kind of learn and you replicate those over and over. And there are other, like, tips, you know, for the smile, but those three words tend to be the ones that. That work best for a lot of different people.
- [22:22]
Heather Riggs
Yeah, I wish people could see you, because I could see a clear difference when you said those last words versus cheese. And that is the struggle of my life, having an audio podcast and trying to explain visual things.
- [22:34]
Christine Buzanne
Yeah, but I mean, if you're at home, you know, just try it out in front of the mirror, and you have to smile as you say it. You can't just be like, money and your mouth isn't gonna smile, same as if I said cheese. Like, I'm not smiling, you know, unless I say it in that tone. But it makes such a difference. And, you know, the smile that you have in photos, if it doesn't feel aligned to how you feel like your smile looks in real life, you know, that's something you can change, you know, And I think that that can be really surprising to a lot of people.
- [23:03]
Heather Riggs
Absolutely. And I really appreciate that you make this easy. You know, you're not teaching things that are so complex that people can't start incorporating right away. And it feels like a complicated topic. And it is when you think about lighting and camera angles and all of those things. But you have such a doable approach and I feel like it really is a little bit kind of foolproof and user friendly and you give so much support to with your clients and helping them navigate issues and all that kind of stuff. So you do have another webinar coming up, which I think everyone should go to because you can see all of the things that Christine has been explaining to us verbally. So tell us a little bit more about your webinar and where the best places for everyone to connect with you and learn more about working with you.
- [23:47]
Christine Buzanne
Yeah. So the webinar is the Photogenic Secret, and it basically breaks down the four step photogenic process I was talking about earlier, but more in depth and with more tips. So if that's something that interests you, definitely check it out. I really enjoy teaching it. The next one is coming up on August 7th, so I'll give you the link. Essentially, it's kind of a long link to get there.
- [24:09]
Heather Riggs
Yeah, we'll put it in the show notes.
- [24:11]
Christine Buzanne
Yeah, we'll put in the show notes and then you guys can sign up and, you know, we can spend an hour together and I can teach you all kinds of fun things. So it'll be good. Yay.
- [24:19]
Heather Riggs
And I'm so excited to announce also that you're coming into Her Style Collective as our newest guest expert. So if you want even more from Christine, you can hang out with us in there. She's going to be putting together some exclusive resources for our members. And I'm really excited to have you in there with us. And yeah. So, friend, if you could leave all of our listeners today with just one, one key takeaway, what is it that you would want them to walk away with and maybe implement from here on out?
- [24:46]
Christine Buzanne
So we'll do a fun new one. So since, you know, we're talking about style and the Her Style collective, it's that different outfits require different poses. So when we pose for photos, we look at the photo as a whole. You know, a lot of people will fixate on their arms or how their tummy looks or maybe their legs or their hips, but really similar to styling yourself, it's about finding balance as a whole and kind of evening out the proportions and Creating angles, curves, and lines that are visually appealing, that guide the viewer's eye, where to look. So a lot of people will be like, you know, this is my pose. And for me, you know, it was bevel, one leg, hand on the hip. Okay, baby, here we go. But, you know, if you're wearing, like, a casual outfit, or even if you're wearing, like, a maxi skirt, like a full maxi skirt, that's not gonna work. And so it's about, you know, in the same way that you look to create different proportions with your style, you create different proportions with your poses. And so that's why, you know, like, when I teach this photogenic process, I teach posing last because it's really understanding how the positioning and, you know, all of that flow together. But I'd start as you get dressed, you know, during the day, if you know you're going to be taking photos, look at your outfit and just try experimenting with the placement of your legs first to see what suits your outfit best. And then you can really kind of create your arms from there. But it's like, look in the mirror. Pick out one to two different leg poses that work with your outfit, and then one to two different arm poses, and then you can kind of mix and match, like a paper doll, those poses together. And that's ultimately like my cheat code hack. But it's first you need to with the outfit, then you do the poses from there.
- [26:30]
Heather Riggs
Yeah, it really makes sense that it wouldn't necessarily be the same for everything that you're wearing, because like you said, if you can't see your legs or, you know, you're wearing a different silhouette on your lower half, that's really going to impact everything. And you were talking my love language, bringing up things like line direction and movement and all of the art and design principles that we love to talk about here. So hopefully that is just reinforcing a lot of things that people have already picked up in our community and seeing how they can apply it in another way in front of the camera.
- [26:58]
Christine Buzanne
It's amazing how many different things kind of all come together and tie into the same principles, which is so cool.
- [27:05]
Heather Riggs
Yes, exactly. Well, I feel like what we talk about goes so well together. I knew you were the perfect person to bring in to cover all of this. So thank you for sharing so much wisdom. You have lots of incredible free tips and advice over on your Instagram feed as well. So we'll link up everything in the show notes so people can continue the conversation with you.
- [27:23]
Christine Buzanne
And thank you again so much for your time, your expertise, and for sharing even more with us inside her style collective as well.
- [27:31]
Yeah, thank you for having me.
- [27:34]
Thank you for listening to today's episode. If you want to stop copying everyone else's style and start dialing in your own spoon worthy signature look, head over to take my free 5 minute personal style quiz which you can find at the link in the show Show Notes. If you've enjoyed our time together, please be sure to rate, review and subscribe to her Style podcast so you never miss an episode. Finally, I invite you to make this a two way conversation and send me a DM over on Instagram eatherrigstyle to let me know how I can best support you on your style journey. I'm always here for you in style and service. Until next time.