1. Keep your client’s chin in mind. Having the chin be too high can create that “up the nose” look. Having the chin be too low can cause double chins.

2. When posing families or small groups using a pyramid shape with some people higher than others can create a shape that’s pleasing to the eye and pose people in a flattering way.

3. Paying attention to composition of the photo as a whole is very important. Rather than just posing someone and framing them in the middle of the photo, try putting them slightly off to one side or the other to add visual interest.

4. Avoid the prison mugshot look and shooting someone with a direct profile shot.

5. I keep the focus on the eyes of my subject. If I’m photographing one person I like to keep the main focal point on the eye that is closest to the camera. If I’m photographing a couple and using a lower aperture I’ll keep the focal point on the face that’s closest to the camera, although usually both people end up in focus.

6. When doing sitting poses with anyone it’s best to keep the knees closed instead of apart. It looks more appropriate and flattering.

7. Eyes don’t always have to be open to produce a good and thought-provoking image. Sometimes the best and most intimate images of a couple are ones where one person has their eyes closed and looks deep in love.

8. Keeping a space between the arm and the body will help your subject’s waist appear trimmer as well as their arms.

9. Have your client relax their shoulders. Sometimes they are nervous to have their photos taken and that can result in a kind of slouched look as the shoulders go up because of their tension.

10. Relax the fingers and hands. The last post I was talking about giving your clients something to do with their hands. Sometimes they start to “over focus” on their hands and the fingers can become kind of stiff. If you ask the bride to put her hand up on the groom’s cheek sometimes her hand looks like she’s trying to do jazz fingers. Reminding your clients to relax those hands and keep them natural is important.

11. Creating a gap between the arm and the waist can be a great way to slim the waist, but creating gaps in general, for example between the legs instead of having your client stand with her legs together can be a great way to make your client appear more narrow.

12. Avoid armpits. End of story.

13. Sometimes for us female photographers it’s hard to figure out how to pose a male in a masculine pose since we’re so used to photographing couples or females. If you need good male pose inspiration check out GQ magazine. Their fashion section for guys usually has some good masculine poses you can recreate.

14. Find all your pose inspiration in fashion magazines. This is a great way to keep up with styles and poses that are current and popular. You can stay ahead of the curve instead of being inspired by photographer XYZ who takes beautiful photos, but the poses are reminiscent of the 80s.

15. When doing group photos try to keep everyone’s heads at different levels to create more visual interest.

16. If you’re shooting large groups at a wedding it’s a great idea to bring a stool with you so you can be slightly elevated. When you shoot large groups straight on it’s often hard to see everyone’s faces and sometimes you have heads randomly placed between other people’s shoulders. Getting that above view will help every person look more flattering and you’ll be able to see everyone too.

17. If you do a pose with a hand in the pocket, have either the thumb or fingers left out so it appears more casual. Sometimes a hand in the pocket can also appear to look like a stump without a finger out to give the illusion that there are other fingers too.

18. Talk to your clients behind the camera, always have it up to your eye. When you take it down to crack a joke or explain something to them you could miss out on a natural opportunity for laugher and a great photo.

19. Have your clients tilt their head one way or another. This is a great way to define a relationship in engagement photos and make your clients feel relaxed. It’s also a great way to adjust the chin and make sure you are getting a flattering angle for the photograph.

20. Outline your expectations before your photo session with posing. I always give my clients a rundown of general rules and the most important one is always, “If I ask you to do something that seems awkward or uncomfortable please say no. If it feels awkward, it will probably look awkward.”

We have some great posing resources here too in the shop. We did a class on posing which you can watch the recording of >here< We also have a >Wedding Pose Guide< and a >Boudoir Pose Guide<

2. Don’t ask the bride and groom to do something they’re not comfortable with. Make the posing about them and let them know that if you ask them to do something they’re not comfortable with it’s okay to say no. One of the biggest complaints I’ve heard from couples that come knocking on my door is that if they’ve been photographed before the photographer asked them to do poses and things they weren’t comfortable with.

3. Be aware of angles. It’s not flattering to get a lot of photos up the nostrils of your clients.

4. Check for double chins. People have a tendency to tuck their chins when they are talking and don’t always think about putting their chin up when they’re being photographed. Remind them to keep their chins up so their necks look nice and long and flattering.

5. Follow the couple’s natural cues when directing their poses. I like to let them be together and then just enhance the natural way they’re standing by placing a hand here a head tilt there instead of coming up with something entirely new.

6. Your clients will be more comfortable posing in front of you if they’ve had practice – encourage an engagement session so you have that practice with them before.

7. Ask your clients politely before the wedding if it’s okay if you take them to do their bride and groom portraits alone. Having an audience of guests saying, “wait one more!” or “do that again!” in the background of your time with them can be distracting and produce photos that aren’t as good.

8. Relax. This is the best part of the day. This time is my favorite when I get to pose just the bride and groom and let them enjoy each other. Remind the bride and groom that this small bit of time with just the two of them is probably the closest thing to alone time they’ll get all day. Usually that reminder is enough to help them really enjoy it.

9. Sometimes weddings are at odd times of the day when the light isn’t best. If the sun is high in the sky and there’s nowhere indoors you haven’t already photographed or if there’s nowhere indoors that’s great to photograph (at their venue) take them outside and look for shady spots so you can get more even light.

10. Take a couple minutes to do some poses of each of them separately.

11. If you have a second shooter with you have one of you posing and talking to the couple and the other capturing those “in between” moments between poses when they’re at their natural state of relaxation. These can be some of the most beautiful moments of the day.

12. Stress to the bride and groom ahead of time that these few portraits of them are some of the most important ones to take.  When the bride and groom are in a time crunch usually the first thing they want to cut out is picture time and these photos of the two of them are the ones that will go on their mantle over the fireplace for years to come.

13. Tell the bride to hold her flowers by her hip. Many brides have a tendency to hold them up high over their chest and this can distort the bride’s figure and create an unflattering photo.

14. Keep the bride and groom touching in some way it helps them appear interested in each other in photos.

15. Sometimes kissing doesn’t convey as much emotion as almost kissing. Tell the bride and groom to get close and cuddly, but don’t kiss, or ask them to kiss on the cheek, head, hand, etc…somewhere that’s not the lips.

16. Provide encouragement so your clients know they’re doing the right thing.

17. To save time and make sure your clients can get to their reception quicker instead of verbally explaining a pose (not many people are auditory learners), just get in there and show them. It helps posing go quicker and can also help your clients loosen up, laugh, and have a good time trying to mimic what you showed them.

18. It’s always easier to get your couple to do their portraits before the ceremony, but don’t pressure them simply because it’s easier for you. If they truly want to wait to do their photos afterward that’s okay and you’ll still have the opportunity to capture beautiful images.

19. If your clients are interested in the option you can get them together before the ceremony back to back with a wall or doorway so they can’t see each other, but they can hear and talk to each other beforehand or hold hands.

20. Photos can be more interesting with your clients engaging and looking at each other rather than looking at you and smiling!

Have you checked out our new Fall online classes? >Classes<

1. The Full Length Kiss Pose: Get the full bodies of your bride and groom in the photo and kiss!

2.  The Unposed Capture Pose: She’s looking at him and he’s looking at you. Everyone’s happy!

3. The Look at Each other and Smile Pose: The bride and groom face each other, hold hands, and smile.

4. The Snuggle from Behind Pose: Bride puts her head on the groom’s shoulder from behind.

5. The Snuggle in His Chest Pose: The bride puts her head on his chest and looks at you. The groom can do a forehead kiss, lay his head on hers, or whatever works.

6. The Walk and Talk Pose: The bride and groom hold hands and walk away from the camera and back again while you snap away.

7. The Up Close Kiss Pose: The head and shoulders of the bride and groom as they kiss.

8. The Hands Pose: Simple…get a detail shot up close of the bride and groom holding hands.

9. The Walk and Look Back Pose: The bride walks a short way in front of the groom and reaches back to hold his hand and look at him.

10. The Wrap Your Arms Around Me Pose: Either the bride or the groom can stand behind and wrap their arms around the other.

For more bride and groom wedding pose ideas, check out the Wedding Pose Guide there are over 40 image samples and pose tips. These poses are also great for engagement photo sessions as well. If you’re starting to shoot your first wedding get the Wedding Photography ebook to learn how to photograph and run the wedding business from the first inquiry all the way through the final thank you card.

Pose samples are also in the gallery below!

Carrie Swails Photography

*November 2012 Update* Check out the sequel to this article >here< to get 20 additional posing tips!

These tips are not intended to be any sort of official rules. These are things I’ve learned as I grew into a photographer. I can only speak to my own knowledge, experience, and style. Not all of them will fit everyone’s style and some of them might work or not work depending on what type of photography you are focusing on or how your photoshoot is going. These are tips I merely use as a “general rule of thumb” set of tips.

1. Don’t shoot shoulders square on. Shoulders are the widest part of a body and as a photographer it is our job to flatter the least flattering parts of our bodies. Shooting straight on is not flattering. Angle the shoulders slightly to lead the viewer into the photo.

2. If it bends, then bend it. Don’t let your clients have straight joints. It looks stiff and unrelaxed. Asking your client instead to slightly bend an arm or walk as they have their photo taken will help your client look relaxed and naturally posed. This rule also applies to the neck. If the neck looks stiff, ask your client to tilt their head slightly.

3. Shoot straight on, or better from above. Shooting from below a person makes even the most gorgeous subject look awkward. Shooting from above can make someone appear slimmer, eliminates double chins, and can provide a beautiful look into your subjects eyes. Shooting from below can make someone’s hips appear wider than they are or any other body part and this is generally unflattering.

4. No up the nose. Sometimes we forget our perspective and as moms when we photograph newborns we look at them the way a mom would holding them and take a photo. Anytime you are shooting a face from below or at an angle, be careful you are not doing ‘up the nose’ shots where you can see up your client’s nostrils. This can happen during any type of photography, so it’s good to be aware.

5. Sharkeyes. Sharkeyes are when someone’s eyes in a photo are black and have no light or color to them. Ensure that the eyes of your clients have good catchlights or sparkle to them by asking them to tilt their head or turn slightly one way or another. These small movements can give that sparkle to a client’s eye that can make or break a photo.

6. Put weight on the back leg. Have clients angle their shoulders so they’re not square to your camera and put their weight on their back leg. This automatically makes them relax.

7. Give your clients lots of direction. Most people are uncomfortable in front of the camera and you have to direct them. Giving them direction will help them feel confident and that confidence will show up in the photos.

8. Let one pose become many. You can move your own feet, or zoom in or zoom out or move slightly to the side and take photos from different angles.

9. Have your clients look places other than your camera. You can tell them to look away, look down over their shoulder, look past your camera to provide a different emotion to your photos.

10. Give your clients encouragement. When they’re in front of the camera they can’t see what they look like and they need to know if they look good. When they hit a good pose or you’re taking photos that you know have hit the mark, let them know how good they look.

11. Portraits are traditionally shot a few degrees above the eyes.

12. Bring a stepstool with you to all your photography shoots and weddings.

13. Talk to your clients. Getting to know them gives them a sense of trust with you. You want your subject to trust that you know what you’re doing and can make them look good.

14. Sometimes people’s faces get stiff. Ask your clients to take a deep breath and breath out with their lips slightly open. The few moments after this your clients face will be relaxed and natural – so snap a few. If that doesn’t work, ask them to do the “pufferfish” face where they blow up their cheeks and then let it all out. That helps their face to relax too. If you do it with them, they won’t feel as silly.

15. Give them something to do with their hands. They can touch their cheek, run their hands through their hair, put their hands on a nearby object…something.

16. Show them what you mean. Instead of trying to tell your client how to pose, get in the pose to show them how you want it to look. You’re a photographer right? You are visual and probably learn visually and it’s likely that your clients are visual learners too!

17. Be aware of ears. Shooting people straight on can make their ears appear large. With women if they are tucking their hair behind their ear or if their ear sticks out just slightly it can be one of those things that will bother them later in photos and can sometimes look distorted when in 2-dimensional photography form.

18. Get close. One of the biggest newbie mistakes is to shoot from far away and get lots of the background or landscape in the photo. This happens a lot when we’re not confident with posing. If you force yourself to get close the photo becomes more about the clients and their interactions with each other or with you than about the background.

19. Limbs. If you are cropping out anyone’s body ensure that your crop lines do not fall at the joints (wrists, knees, elbows, etc.). When this happens it gives the appearance that the subject’s body does not continue past the frame of the photo. Instead if you have to crop, do it where there isn’t a join and this will give the impression that the rest of their arm, leg, etc. continues beyond the photo.

20. Watch for shadows and light. There’s a reason a lot of photographers like to shoot in that ‘golden hour’ either in the wee hours in the morning or just before sunset. The light is even and not harsh and it prevents you from having strange shadows on your clients faces. Shadows below the nose or below the eyes can give your client the appearance of not being as good looking as they truly are. Whatever time of day you are shooting aim to ensure that your clients faces are in perfectly even light where there are no harsh shadows. If you have to shoot in the middle of the day, shoot in the shade.

The shop has posing guides in our ebooks section. We have a posing guide for weddings and a posing guide for boudoir currently, but I’m working on putting together a portrait posing guide as well. Get over and purchase a posing guide and print it out and take it with you to your photo sessions!

New news – yesterday I released an awesome tool that will help you do marketing for free. It’s an SEO guide to help you format your website and blogging so you can be found better in search results. Make sure you get it!

http://carrieswailsphotography.com

Photographers new, old, experienced, inexperienced and beyond all have opinions about this. So do the clients. Here’s the conclusion I’ve come to – you have to do what’s best for you. You don’t need to do what I do or what the pros do just because someone else says so. There’s a lot of peer pressure about this in the photography world. At the end of the day what someone else thinks of how you run your business shouldn’t dictate what feels right for you. You have to make your own choice even if others don’t agree with it.

You see…we’re in this transitional period with photography. Digital cameras as a concept are not that old and technology improves at such a fast rate these days it’s almost impossible to keep up. Anyone can go out and buy a relatively nice DSLR which means, yes, there are more folks out there starting photography businesses. These fast steps with camera technology really separates photographers into two big groups. Those that give out high resolution images to their clients and those that don’t.

It would be so much easier if I could chose one side of this debate over the other, but I just can’t. I very much value and respect having professional quality prints done through my photographer and ensuring they see the profits from me printing their images. Perhaps I value that because I am a photographer and an artist, or maybe I just value it. My husband and I recently hired a photographer to take anniversary photos of us. I didn’t even ask if we were going to get a CD or DVD of all the images. At the end of the day I didn’t really care. Although I would truly love to have the CD of images, all I’d do with those is share a few on Facebook (and give her credit where credit is due), but I would want her to deal with printing the images I want to hang on our wall as we go through life’s journey. I am very happy to say that her package for us did include a DVD of the images and I’ll be so glad to have those, even if they’re just stored somewhere in the depths of my computer and my kids’ kids will look through them someday on technology I can’t even begin to imagine. I love knowing that I’ll have them in a format that if my house burnt down I could get the prints replaced. This means a lot to me. At the same time I would never go get the images printed off the CD myself. I’d rather have our photographer print them at her lab so they look the way she intended them to look. We hired her for her artistry after all so I want our photos to be done in her vision!

As a business owner I do include an online gallery where clients can go download their image files for all photography I do. I like to have a balance. I want my customers to order prints that will last a lifetime through me and I also want them to have digital copies of their images as well. I see the benefits of both ways. Do I have to choose?

Since I couldn’t chose this is what I did. Every client can get their image files. In order to receive them they must come in for a gallery review after the photo session. If they don’t come in for their gallery review they forfeit their right to the image files as agreed to in my contract. If they come in there’s no obligation to purchase prints, but it’s the opportunity to give my sales pitch and get those print sales.

Rarely does anyone come in and not order prints on their gallery review day. I’m able to make great print sales and give clients their images so they can share them on Facebook. I love that I can do both. The gallery review time is also the perfect time to discuss copyright with your clients. My clients are awesome – they are so respectful of giving me credit when they use my images and I love it and I love them for it.

So – maybe we don’t have to pick sides? My way is not the right way for everyone though. I think both sides of the ‘CD’ argument are equally important and have very valid points. Choose what’s best for you.

If you would love to learn more about in-person sales techniques schedule a business consultation (mentoring session) with me and I can teach you how to improve your in person sales as well as much much more!

I also released a new product today. Be sure to check out the Wedding Pose Guide. It’s on sale today only! Take $5 off with the code: 5off