When it comes to posing for photos, there are three equally important things to keep in mind. Whether you're stepping in front of the camera for the first time or just want to feel more confident in your photos, these tips will help you strike the right balance between structure and natural expression.
1. The Full-Body Checklist
The first thing to remember is to keep track of every part of your body – think of it like a checklist from head to toe. The more parts you're specifically putting into place and thinking about, the better your pose is going to be. When you're standing how you normally would and throwing up a peace sign with the other hand on your hip, you're only addressing two things. One hand is in a peace sign, the other is on your hip, but what about everything else? How is your head positioned – is it tilted or straight? What about your chin – is it slightly out, up, or down? Where are your hips, your shoulders, your legs, and your feet?
Go through every part of your body and adjust it individually. It all comes together as one cohesive pose at the end. This creates a much more intentional and dynamic photo compared to just focusing on one or two parts.
2. Start Natural and Adjust
At the same time, posing shouldn’t feel forced. The second key is to stay natural. I always tell people to start in whatever position feels most comfortable – don’t overthink it. Often, when I place someone in a spot, they ask how exactly they should sit or stand. My answer is simple: however you would naturally do it. From there, I make small adjustments to enhance the pose without making you feel stiff or awkward.
Starting with a natural position helps ease any tension and keeps the overall feel relaxed. The goal is to make you look like the best version of yourself, not someone attempting an uncomfortable magazine pose. Sometimes, the smallest shifts – turning your shoulder slightly, shifting your weight to one leg, or relaxing your hands – can make all the difference.
I often compare it to stretching. If you ease into a stretch, it feels much better and more natural than jumping straight into something extreme. In the same way, as the session progresses, I gradually guide you toward more creative or dramatic poses, but I always build up to it. This approach allows you to feel more confident as the shoot goes on. You start by standing or sitting how you normally would, and little by little, we refine and adjust until we land on something that feels natural yet polished.
Additionally, staying natural isn’t just about physical comfort – it helps with facial expressions, too. When you feel comfortable in your body, your face reflects that ease. It creates an authentic, relaxed look that shines through in the final images. This step is especially important for those who feel nervous or stiff at the beginning of a shoot. By keeping things simple and allowing poses to evolve naturally, you’ll walk away with photos that feel like a genuine representation of yourself.
3. Embrace Awkward Poses
Now, this next part might sound contradictory, but sometimes the best poses come from positions that feel downright awkward. This is where I encourage you to trust the process. Sometimes I put people in poses that feel ridiculous, but one of two things happen: either it actually looks really cool from the angle I'm at, or it doesn't – and you'll never see those shots.
The real value in these strange poses is that they shake things up a little. It loosens your body, makes you feel more comfortable, and allows for more fluid posing afterward. Compared to the exaggerated pose, the next one feels easy and natural. It’s almost like a mental reset – once you’ve done something that feels over the top, everything else feels a little more effortless. Even if it doesn’t seem logical at first, trying those awkward poses can break the stiffness and bring out something great.
Sometimes those awkward poses serve as a test run. I’ve had situations where the initial pose didn’t work at all, but a slight shift – angling your body differently or turning your face just a little more – transformed the entire shot. It’s often about finding that middle ground. The awkward pose may not be the winner, but it might lead us right to the perfect one.
If you feel self-conscious, this process can also help. There’s something freeing about knowing that not every shot has to be flawless, and that experimenting a little is part of the fun. Often, by the time we move to the next pose, that nervous tension is gone, and your confidence really starts to show through in your expressions and body language.
Beyond the Three Key Elements – Additional Tips for Enhancing Your Poses
Storytelling Through Expressions
Facial expressions are just as important as body positioning, and storytelling can make all the difference in achieving the right look. Expressions can shift the entire mood of a photo, and I always aim for variety in every shoot. Whether the goal is bright, happy smiles, soft subtle expressions, or something more serious or sultry, I like to capture it all. Even if you aren’t sure what you want, having options to look at later often leads to surprising favorites. This is just as true for self-portraits – take more expressions than you think you need. Sometimes the shots you didn’t plan for are the ones that stand out the most.
When guiding facial expressions, I find that storytelling works far better than strict technical direction. If we’re in a forest setting, I might say, “Imagine you’re a princess wandering through the woods” or “Think of yourself as Alice in Wonderland.” These kinds of prompts naturally bring out subtle expressions that are hard to achieve through micromanagement. Trying to micromanage each part of a facial expression – raising your eyebrow by just the right amount or squinting your eyes at the perfect percentage – rarely works. There are too many small muscles and subtle shifts to control individually. But if you connect to an emotion or story, your face adjusts naturally, and the tiny, nuanced details fall into place on their own.
Take More Photos and Let Yourself Choose
One of the most helpful things you can do is take more photos than you think you need. This gives you plenty of variety to work with and increases the likelihood of capturing those perfect moments. Not every pose or expression will land, but the more photos you have, the better chance you’ll have of finding the shots you love.
After the shoot, I narrow down the hundreds of shots but leave plenty for you to choose from. I cut the obviously unusable ones (like blinks or sneezes), but anything that looks decent stays. My favorite shot from a session might not be yours – and that’s okay. Everyone sees themselves differently. I’ve had clients who picked a photo I thought was just “fine” as their absolute favorite because it reflected something personal to them. By providing a variety of images, you can select the ones that resonate with you, even if they aren’t the ones I would have chosen.
Conclusion
Posing for photos is a process of balancing comfort with creativity. By keeping track of your full-body positioning, starting with natural poses, and embracing the occasional awkward moment, you open the door to capturing authentic and striking images. Trust the process, experiment a little, and remember that the best shots often come when you least expect them. The more you relax, adjust, and explore, the more confident and comfortable you'll feel – and that confidence will shine through in every photo.
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