How to Pose in Front of the Camera (for Women)

While I pride myself on being a mostly photojournalistic (or documentary) photographer, I’m very conscious of how a BRIDE (or any woman) looks to the lens of a camera. There is definitely a way to look look more graceful/slim/curvy/whatever and hopefully this little tutorial will help women learn a few tricks. Let’s dissect how we get from the pictures on the left to the picture on the right, below.

As the name of this blog entry implies, the nuances are what it’s about. While you could do an exaggerated version of what I am showing in this article, I’m personally not a fan of the “glamor shots” look. I feel like it has a tendency to get dated fast and look very fake and forced. That’s why – to me – it’s all in the nuances. The more subtle the better.

Feel free to watch the VIDEO all the way on the bottom of the blog post.

I’ve asked our lovely model Sophie to do a progression of body positioning to show how a little change makes a big difference. In each picture I asked her to change a specific aspect of her positioning. I will explain these step by step and hopefully give you a better idea on how to present yourself in the best way to the camera. And as always, I will walk you through these on your wedding day as well.

In image #1 (left) I’ve asked Sophie to stand in any old way – just forward facing the camera. In the second image I’ve asked her to turn a body just a tad to the side, while keeping her face forward. You can see that she has been instantly slimmed down (NOT that she needed it… at all). I don’t like turning totally profile, because to me that looks face and forced. Just a tad will do.

Then (image #3) I asked Sophie to put her weight on the leg that was standing the farthest from me. This is very effective from slimming the bottom portion of the body. All of this ties into one basic principle – whatever is closest to the camera is going to appear larger, and whatever is further will appear smaller. Putting your weight on the foot that’s slightly away from the camera makes the bottom portion of the body go further… this pose also adds just a little bit of a curve.

Next was the space between the arm and body. If you’ve seen ‘glamor shot’ types of images, the women/girls often have a hand right on the hip. I like to use a very subtle variation of that. When that triangle is seen between the arm and the body, the body again, is going to appear slimmer.

An even more slimmer look would happen if we hid the arm on the other side of the body, as you can see in image #5. I’ve also asked her to arch her back just a bit. Posture makes a huge difference!

Finally, I’ve asked Sophie to lean forward towards the camera. Again, this puts her face closer to me, which makes her more engaged with the photo and the camera.

Here is a video that I recorded reiterating the same concepts