Tips on Portrait Photo Poses

Head Positioning Tips

• Head positioning for a portrait is critical for beautiful portraits. Most people take the best photos with their head turned slightly to one side away from the camera. Only those with thin faces look best looking at the camera head-on. In addition to angling the head away from the camera plane, tilting the head back and forward offer different visual effects as well. Tilting the head back, with the chin up, gives your subject an air of cockiness. Have your subject tilt his head down and shoot up toward him to give an air of power and confidence.

Body Positioning Tips

• Portrait posing also includes positioning the body of your subject, even if the portrait is just a head shot. Shoulders are especially important, since they are the widest aspect of your subject. Subjects naturally position their heads so their faces are perpendicular to the planes of their shoulders. Angle the shoulders away from the camera, rather than have them square with the camera plane, and have the subject turn his head toward the camera for an appealing pose. Dropping one shoulder, in conjunction with tilting the subject's head, can add further visual interest to the portrait. For full-body group portraits, you can show the closeness of your subjects by having them bend slightly at the waist toward one another.

Hand Positioning Tips

• Hands are a particularly tricky aspect of portrait taking. Although many head and head-and-shoulder portraits do not include hands, any portraits including the upper torso must take hand positioning into account in their poses. Of course, hands can be hidden in your portrait pose either by crossing the arms, positioning them behind another subject, or tucking them casually into a pocket. If hands are shown in the portrait, position them so that they are photographed from the edges, rather than the flat planes of the front or back of the hand, to minimize their size. Curve fingers at each joint to give a relaxed appearance and never pose subjects with their fingers interlocked.

Tips to Correct Subject Problems

• Everyone has some aspect of their appearance they wish were different. By adjusting the portrait pose, the photographer can help minimize these issues. Here are some tips to counter common problems:

  Pose subjects with a rounder face at a 45-degree angle from the camera.

  Use softer lighting for subjects with wrinkles.

  Pose subjects with scars or blemishes so that these areas are in shadow.

  Raise the subject's chin slightly if he has a large nose.

  For subjects with different-sized eyes, position the head so the larger eye is farthest away from the camera.