FAQs and Info

Using the photos

Copyright and Use of the Photos How can you use the photos? Are they royalty free? Our policy is:
The photos may be used as a reference for creating traditional art. The resulting art is yours, it may be sold or used in any way you choose. For example, a drawing, painting, or sculpture is permissible under these guidelines whereas a work which uses the actual photos, such as a collage, would be prohibited. The photos may be used for games, videos, and digital art if first manipulated in a substantive way, for example, as the basis for a wireframe mesh, skin, or texture. However, the photos may NOT, in whole or in part, be resold, repackaged and sold, nor given away.
Please Contact Us if you have additional questions about how you can use the photos.

How do I view the photos in rotation? A simple way to view a pose in rotation is by opening one of the files in your preferred viewer and using the forward and back buttons. Some programs have a slideshow feature, sometimes with options like looping and variable delay between photos.

Using the website

Something on the website is not updating. If Pose Credits are not updating or an item is not being added to your cart, try logging out, logging in, and going back to the Pose Tool or other page. This happens most often with Apple devices running Safari.

How do I retrieve my username or password? Before using the recovery tool, please add posespace.com to your approved senders list (aka Whitelist). You can have your username and password emailed to you from the Recover Info page. Please make sure you can receive email from posespace.com. If it is blocked, you will not receive your password or username. If you do not see an email within a few minutes, please check your junk email folder.

What is included in a Pose? Each pose consists of multiple high resolution photos showing the pose either every 15 degrees around the model (for 24 different angles forming a full rotation) or showing select angles and variations. You can find out exactly what images are included by using the Pose Tool and clicking the Show All Angles link after selecting the pose you want to see.
The photos are in JPEG format for maximum compatibility and are saved in a high quality mode. This provides for a great deal of detail in the photos without the files being excessively large.
The poses are delivered by download from your Library in individual .zip files (some operating systems support .zip files, but you may wish to download an unzip utility like WinZip® (pay) or 7-Zip (open source) ). Because all major operating systems support JPG files, you do not need to install any special software to view the poses.

How do Pose Credits Work? Why would I want them? The way the credit system works is pretty simple. You purchase a number of credits which are added to your account. You then use those credits to add poses to your personal library.
To use credits, simply click the ! above the pose you want in the PoseTool then follow the prompts. The pose will be available instantly in your Library.
(Pose Credits available)
Benefits
» They cost less. The base rate for poses is $6.99 or 5 credits. The base package of credits is 10 for $12. A savings of almost $2.

» Pose Credits are much easier to use compared with paying for poses individually. The checkout process is lengthy and takes some time to complete and verify. With Pose Credits, you go through the checkout process just once when you first buy the Pose Credits. After that, you just click a button to get any pose you choose nearly instantly.
Drawbacks
» Pose Credits are non-refundable. If you buy credits, you will want to use them!

How do I download a pose from my Library?

If you have trouble with a download, please disable any download managers you have.

Login and go to the Library Page.
Click the pose you want.
A box should open asking if you want to open or save this file. Choose Save and save the file in a location on your computer that will be easy to remember. For example, you could save it to your desktop or your My Documents folder or to C:\. Sometimes you will not be prompted, instead the file will be downloaded to the default location for the browser you are using.
Once the file has finished downloading, unzip the contents of the file, again to a location you will remember (My Documents, C:\, somewhere else). When you unzip the file, keep the original directory structure. If you use WinZip, for example, make sure the 'Use folder names' option is checked.
At this point you should have a new folder with the same name as the pose. Inside that folder are all the full size images that makeup the pose. There is also a ReadMe file outside the folder with some brief instructions.
Open the pose folder then double click any of the photos to view it. You can also use any standard photo viewing software you prefer.

But, it tells me I'm not logged in. Sometimes the system will log you out automatically but, unless you refresh the page, it looks like you are still logged in. If that happens, you can try this: Refresh the page (usually the F5 key or View->Refresh), then log in and try again.

Large Downloads: How do I Download Items Other than a Pose in my Library? Downloads other than poses are available from a separate page and are valid for a limited time (this helps reduce the load on the server and the chance of fraud). Many of these downloads are very large, therefore, a high speed internet connection is strongly recommended. It's also helpful to read the instructions on the download page to avoid problems. Like poses, large downloads are delivered as .zip files which need to opened either by your operating system or by a tool like 7-Zip.
To access your download, you need the confirmation number from the email that was sent to you. It was sent to the address associated with the account you used at checkout. This may be different than the email you use at this website. For example, if you logged in to PayPal with a different email address, the confirmation number may have been sent there. Please check your junkmail or spam folder. If you did not receive a confirmation number, you can try the Invoice ID from your receipt. It is a 32 character random number so please copy and paste to avoid typing errors.

Is javascript required for this site? Yes. For many features on this site and to download purchased poses, your browser must support javascript and javascript must be enabled. Following are instructions for enabling javascript in some of the most popular browsers. These instructions may not be an exact match, as companies change the browser layout frequently.
Also, additional features will be supported by the Pose Tool when you have javascript enabled. For example, your scroll position in the pose table is remembered between clicks. Following are a few examples.
Internet Explorer
Tools -> Internet Options -> Security -> Custom Level -> Active Scripting (near bottom) -> Enable
Opera
Tools -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Content -> Enable JavaScript
Tools -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Content -> Enable plug-ins
Firefox
Tools -> Options -> Content -> Enable JavaScript
For more thorough and up-to-date information you might try this site.

About the photos

Why aren't there more portrait shots? In a way, every pose has portraits! We have always wanted to photograph with high resolution cameras with the idea that you could then zoom in for close-ups on any part of the body, effectively making every pose a portrait shot. Until recently, that ideal has been elusive. We now use high resolution cameras. The latest photos are taken at 50MP (mega pixels). If you crop to just the head and shoulders, that gives a roughly 4MP portrait image. Many of the normal full figure poses, therefore, can be used as portrait shots by zooming in to 100% or 200%. In addition, we have been adding dedicated head shots at the end of many of the latest shoots. Anastasia is a good example. If you go to the Pose Tool and choose Anastasia as the Model and sort by Pose Name Down, the portrait shots will be at the top—anastasis086 to anastasia092. Those were taken with a 21MP camera and you'll notice many of those are in the 10-megapixel range (the newer 50MP camera will produce portraits about twice that size). You can also check the Has a close-up box, which is more likely to find poses with close-up head shots.

What size or resolution are the photos? The majority of poses were photographed at 21MP (mega pixels), 36MP, or 50MP. The final resolution of each pose after cropping is displayed in the Pose Tool. The Pose Tool can also be used to sort by resolution.
The resolution of the photos varies depending on when the photos were taken. Early in the project, high resolution digital cameras were not available at reasonable (for us) prices. We started carefully and took a few pose sets at just 3 megapixels. As the project progressed and people started showing more interest, we switched to 8MP, then 12MP, and 10MP. Once people started buying poses and our books began to sell, we had a little more money to invest in cameras and we switched to 21MP and then 36MP and then 50MP (perhaps even higher after that—if we've gotten a new camera but haven't updated this text).

Why don't you do more light/dark/medium contrast photos? We try to provide variety in order to have something useful for artists in different mediums. Painters, for example, may prefer high-contrast single-source lighting while sculptors, animators, and digital modelers might prefer a more even light that allows them to see the details in every recess of the form.
The Pose Tool can be used with the Lighting option set to High, Medium, or Low to see only the lighting that you prefer. We usually use one style of lighting per photo shoot, though, so often a model will only be available in one light.

How about using a shorter or longer focal length? We use a variable length lens, stand about 15 — 20 feet from the model, and zoom to the level needed to keep the model in frame through a full rotation. That usually results in the focal length being between 45 and 65 mm. Since we use full frame cameras, 50mm is the "Normal" focal length. That being the focal length that most closely approximates what you would see if you were actually standing in that location in the studio. More precisely, from Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Focal_length) :

A lens with a focal length about equal to the diagonal size of the film or sensor format is known as a normal lens" its angle of view is similar to the angle subtended by a large-enough print viewed at a typical viewing distance of the print diagonal, which therefore yields a normal perspective when viewing the print;^[5] this angle of view is about 53 degrees diagonally. For full-frame 35mm-format cameras, the diagonal is 43mm and a typical "normal" lens has a 50mm focal length."

We could use a telephoto focal length to compress perspective. This is often expressed to us by customers as "less distortion". But the apparent effect is a flattening of distance. In addition, as focal length goes up Depth of Field goes down. We want everything to be in sharp focus regardless of how far or close to the camera it is. We're already using a narrow aperture (usually around f14), so keeping the focal length shorter helps increase depth of field. For these reasons, we prefer to stay closer to the normal length of 50mm.
We do occasionally use a 28mm focal length, but this is for the sole purpose of fitting the entire figure into the shot; most commonly when shooting from just a few feet away overhead looking down or ground level looking up.

Why do we use props when they hide the model in rotation? We use them to get models into positions they couldn't hold on their own. Also, to put people into more natural contexts like sitting at a table or relaxing watching TV (susan207). Another use is to show the interplay of flesh and solid objects—how the bum flattens when sitting on a chair, for example. Sometimes it's necessary to have a tangible weighty object to set the scene. In danm032 (https://posespace.com/?p=danm032) he's jousting. Having a really big horse-like prop helps people visualize that. Another consideration is that for some people, the prop is an interesting part of the pose. It can provide texture, color, and context.
In irinav319 (https://posespace.com/?p=irinav319) she's sitting on a chest. We have stools, which let you can see through the legs, but a stool would not have a big enough surface to accommodate the hand placement or the front foot placement and using 3 stools would just look weird. Also, the chest provides hard straight lines while the cloth has some interesting draping effects. In some cases we could suspend things from the ceiling, but then we couldn't rotate the pose because it is the platform on the floor that rotates.
The leaning prop, to take another example, is kind of big but it needs to be substantial so that models can put their entire weight against it without it moving or tipping. And the horse prop is intentionally big to convey the size of a horse's back.
Any thoughts for how we might address those challenges? Contact Us.