How To Pose People Who Aren’t Models For Photography Sessions

Easy Ways To Help Your Clients Ace Their Portrait Session

If you’re excited to start photographing clients, and want to get the best photographs possible, you’ll want to brush up on how to help your clients with poses. It’s a big gamble to play this by ear, and it’s far better to have a quick cheat sheet of pose ideas to help make the photography session go well. 

Put Your Client At Ease

Putting your photography subject at ease is the number one way to ensure that you’ll both have a good experience. This can involve anything from small talk to cracking jokes and will set the tone for the session. Having a consistent flow of communication will help you to keep them at ease, and you can give plenty of constructive and positive communication to help the model maintain their relaxed attitude. 

Add Interest With Angles

While a sweet smile is definitely eye-catching, adding in a demure hand on a chin for a close-up picture will be more memorable. Likewise, doing a full body portrait that includes a feisty hip pop and hand on hip gesture will translate far better than a curled-in hesitant pose will. 

Elongate And Relax Their Posture

When it comes to posing, anything which will help to elongate the body will read beautifully on the camera. Some easy ways to do this are to get the model to walk across the room and turn only their head towards you, or to stand with their legs apart and rest their arms in front of them while playing with an accessory like a cup or hat.

Posing them fully square does not look flattering for anyone, which is why adding interest into the frame is a must – even something as simple as putting their hands in their pockets and swaying can change the static image into a vibrant visual one.

Camera Placement Matters

Though eye-level images are good to start with, you’ll want to drop your level at some point and point your camera up to your subject to give them a more commanding presence. The change in angle will also open the body, make it look longer, and can also help capture elements of interest outside the camera frame. 

Ready For A Close Up

For close-up images, get your subject to move their face around, add in a hair twirl, look pensive, move the head from side to side, and glance around while smiling, frowning, or even using a prop like glasses which they chew on contemplatively. Since we animate our faces and move them constantly when talking, these kinds of small, nuanced gestures will carry over well for the final images.

Use Objects Around Them

While a walk in the park may yield a pretty background for some pictures, get your subject to interact with it. Ask them to lean on a tree, or climb it, to pick a flower, or to sit pensively on the grass like they’re waiting for the next hand to be dealt in an online blackjack real money game. You’ll capture images they’ll love by creating a tangible action within their surrounding environment.