Examples of Photography Poses

A sound knowledge of basic poses is essential to the budding portrait and people photographer. In this lesson we’ll concentrate on poses for headshots only, as this is a good starting point and easy to describe without diagrams.

If there’s a rule of thumb when it comes to posing, it’s this: ‘angles are good’. The second mistake that beginning portrait photographers make (the first is giving no instructions to their models at all) is to get their models to look at the camera straight on. Almost any kind of angle to the plane that the lens is in will be an improvement over a completely head-on shot.

The great thing about today’s digital cameras is that you can review poses on the fly on the camera’s LCD screen, and use this feedback to direct your next shot.

So what are some angles you can use? Paradoxically, it can be easier to tell your model to change the angle of their body rather than their face, and it accomplishes the same thing in a more natural way. For starters, have your model stand up and turn their body so that it is at a roughly 45° to the camera, then turn their head back towards the camera. Then have them shift their weight onto their back foot. This should already be creating some dynamic angles. Try shooting this and review the results. Note that the model’s eyes should always be looking be looking straight down the barrel of the camera unless you’re specifically trying something different.

If you’re posing a female model, then once you’ve done the above, have them incline their head slightly towards the shoulder closest to the camera for a classic ‘female’ pose. You often see a more extreme version of this ‘looking over the shoulder’ pose on the red carpet at move premieres (Jennifer Love Hewitt is a repeat offender), and that’s because it works – try that as well if you want to (as above, but the model’s body is turned at 90° or even more [.e. away] from the camera).

If you’re posing a male model, have them incline their head slightly away from shoulder closest to the camera. This is a classic ‘male’ pose – it communicates more strength than the female pose. Note that this male pose works for females as well, but the reverse is not true.

By the time you’ve worked through the above with your model, both you and your model should be getting more relaxed, and from this point you can just experiment. Just remember – angles are good!