How can I become more photogenic? What are some flattering poses for profile photos or just photos in general? What are the good angles that won’t ever fail me?
The answers to these questions feel like they’ve been guarded in an iron-locked vault, stored in a cave hundreds of miles underground and guarded by an oddly aggressive dragon.
Today, that changes. Let’s answer your posing questions, show you some videos to perfect said poses, and get you well on your way to feeling (and looking) more photogenic in every new picture.
We’d like to warn you that not every photo is created equal. There will be times when you’re showing your gums when smiling, have laugh lines, or just look slightly less attractive than you like. That is normal, and don’t let any influencer or photographer tell you otherwise. Filters are crazy, editing is powerful, and there are always ways to improve photos after the click, but this article is more about in-the-moment action.
How to Pose for Photos (That You’ll Actually Want to Post)
Here’s the basics:
- Whatever is closest to the camera will look bigger. This applies to noses, arms, legs, etc.
- Sometimes, the poses that feel the weirdest or most awkward end up looking the best. This is especially true about pushing your jaw out and correcting your posture (imagine having a wooden board between your arms and back to stand up fully straight).
- Men and women should pose differently if they want to accentuate different features.
1. Standing Pose
Professional photographers will tell you that there is one universally flattering stance that creates a long, lean look— and they’re so right.
All women, as well as men who want to look longer and leaner, should learn how to angle themselves this way.
Simply shift your body into a three quarter turn, putting your weight on your back leg.
Next, shift your torso to face the camera.
To perfect this look, you next want to pay attention to your arms.
Men who want big arms in their photo should keep them pressed against their sides, angled slightly towards the camera. This creates a significant muscle effect– love that.
Women should keep their arms away from their bodies to avoid a “smooshing” effect (when your body and arms become a blob). This can mean lifting the arm slightly away or resting a hand on the hip for the sleekest look.
As a rule of thumb, whatever is closest to the camera will look the biggest. So if you really, really want slender arms in your shot, you can also push your elbows backward slightly, creating distance between them and the camera.
2. Sitting Pose
For men, sitting is pretty straightforward. To look bigger than you are, you can always spread your knees widely to inhabit a lot of space and angle your whole body towards the camera. Avoid the dick-to-camera shot (especially if you’re wearing shorts) because it’s not a best-seller on dating apps. For a leaner look, follow the same guidelines as for standing, detailed above.
For women, there are two extra tricks you should know. First— assuming you’re sitting at an angle— always cross the back leg over the front one. This is a cheat code to hide the thigh a little bit. Second, opt to cross your ankles instead of your knees for an even cleaner and leaner look. Mess around with this pose with different outfits because crossing legs with pants on minimizes awkward skin showing, whereas if you were wearing shorts or a skirt, you’d have to angle yourself differently.
3. Neck and Face Positioning
The main objective for face and neck positioning in photos to avoid a double chin, as most people can easily create one (that may not even be there in “real life”) just by posing the wrong way.
Lift your tongue behind your front teeth for the quickest and easiest fix possible. This action naturally tightens the neck muscles, as you can see demonstrated below. Apparently, models are taught to do this, and it’s known as “mewing” in Hollywood.
The second guideline is a good one, not only for avoiding a double chin, but for creating a sleek shadow below your jaw in photos (this is ideal because it creates a visible space between your neck and jaw so it doesn’t look like your head and neck have blended together).
Extend your chin and then tilt it down ever so slightly, elongating the neck. The examples below should show you exactly what I mean. This will feel weird. This will feel foreign, but take it from a professional portrait photographer; this optical illusion really hits the mark in the photos.
Note: While we’re talking about the face, avoid extreme closeups. People feel more connected and familiar with you when you use some of your body in the shot, even if it’s just your shoulder. It gives people more information about you: your body type, style, clothing choice, location, background, etc. There’s so much to pull from when it’s not just your beautiful mug in the whole frame.
4. Hand Positioning
One fantastic tip for positioning your hands in photos is to move rather than place them. When you place a hand on your shoulder, for instance, it can look posey and awkward. But if you scratch your back and pull your hand to your shoulder, the position will look much more natural.
The best way to do this is by putting on the music you like and flowing through the movements. It shouldn’t feel like *pose* *pose* *pose again*; it should feel like a constant stream of you being you and the camera capturing the movements in between your movements. For this, turn on live photos and grab the frame that feels both natural and attractive.
5. Camera Angle
Your choice of camera angle should ultimately reflect what kind of shot you’re trying to achieve. For instance, if you want to look big and tough, you might want whoever is taking the photo to crouch down and shoot you at an up angle.
Generally speaking, people are most flattered by a camera angle that is at or slightly above eye level. If you’re interested, we go super in-depth about all types of angles for every single body type and photo goal– here!
Posing Tip #6: Is it Natural?
To gauge whether you look natural or forced, collect a handful of photos and put them on Photofeeler for free, easy feedback.
We hired someone to test their knowledge from this article, test photos, and get feedback. Our demonstrator set up a tripod to hold his smartphone camera, turned on the camera timer, and practiced posing in his living room. Here are some results he got (feedback is from females of all ages):
Here are the individual scores it got from each person:
And here are the notes they left:
As you can see, this pose did great. Different poses look better than others, but feedback from Photofeeler can help point you toward exactly what works and what doesn’t.
Anyway, this has been a basic overview of the easiest and most foolproof posing tips. We hope that you’ll use them to create your best photos ever! And if you know someone who could use this information, be sure to spread the word. They’ll thank you later.
Now, go apply these tips to your next photo op, rack up some new pics for social media or dating apps, put them through a round of Photofeeler testing, and see the results for yourself.
Remember– it’s not a bad face; it’s just a bad photo. You got this!
Are you on a mission to learn everything possible about taking amazing photos? We compiled a short, free four-part course that covers absolutely EVERYTHING you need to know about posing, lighting, angles, how to work the secret photo options on your smartphone, and more!