how about showing us a picture of what you want to achieve?

The smaller ones shown aren't mine, but that's how they look in the containers, and mine are only about 1-2 feet tall.

The second picture is what I want to achieve. I'm just not sure what formative pruning measures to take in order to get them to fill out from top to bottom.

Thank you, Bryan

You get to trim,trim,trim until you're really tired of doing that, then you trim some more.

Isn't that what power hedgers are for, Jean? I'm not a fan of formally trimmed hedges, but do have the tool for a single plant that requires too much time to prune selectively (I follow up with hand pruning to uneven it out! lol) Besides, these are ficus--sorry, but I'm not much of an enthusiast. Power hedgers would save time with the task.

Thanks Jean. So what would be the best approach to hand pruning my slightly smaller, younger ficus to get them to fill out?

should I prune each shoot back to a healthy bud? Leave the main leader unpruned, or snip that as well?

What is in the photo is a single vertical leader, with shortened branches coming off that leader Keep training the leader upward on a tall strong stake, and clip the branches to force them to branch further and become bushy. If the vertical leader fails you pick a side branch at the base to become the new vertical leader.

Awesome, thank you. Would it be safe to prune these throughout fall and winter here in San Diego, or should I wait for spring?