One of the biggest fears or points of hesitance I hear from people when it comes to having their photos done, is that they are afraid of what they will look like on camera. They are afraid they will not know what to do or how to ‘act‘ in front of the lens to get a natural looking photo.
I’m not going to lie, there is an art to looking and feeling natural when posing, but unless you are a full time model, there is no way you are going to know how to achieve this on your own without tons of practice.
This is where you need to put trust in your photographer and research a photographer who is able to achieve this working with everyday people.
I want to give you some helpful hints here for you to envision when you are being photographed. Some of them might seem obvious, but until you, yourself are directly in front of the lens, you won’t know that truly awkward feeling. (but don’t worry, my clients usually never end up feeling awkward for too long).
LAUGH OUT LOUD
You know, you see those photos where people are looking happy and laughing and it looks so natural? Guess what? You actually have to laugh out loud to achieve that. So what if there is nothing to laugh out loud about? Well, we fake it until we make it. Doing a fake laugh usually erupts into real laughter because you feel a bit like an idiot laughing in front of your photographer and we laugh and laugh together, so don’t worry.
MOVE IT
This is kind of like the laughing thing. If you want a natural looking photo of you cutting out a piece of paper, tying your shoes or drinking a glass of water or coffee, actually do those things! The one thing I have discovered, especially when it comes to liquid in cups, is to actually put liquid in cups. When they are empty, you hold it differently, there is no fear of something spilling out, so you become less aware of that prop. Also certain angles I shoot you at may reveal nothing in the cup and that just looks weird. You want things to look and feel as authentic as possible.
BUSY HANDS
Following up with movement, people are always worried about what to do with their hands. Hands are far more important than you can imagine. When people are posing without holding something in their hands, the mystery of what they should be doing with them reveals itself. Often people stand and leave their hands hanging at their sides or splay their fingers straight on their thigh. This looks stiff and posed.
I am forever telling people to give me soft, bent fingers or putting your hands in your pocket works great too. As I mentioned above, props are great for giving you natural angles. Sling a purse over your shoulder and grab on to the strap, hold a mug or a pen or anything gives your hands something to do and looks natural. Touch your hair, adjust a button, raise a hand to rub the side of your neck. Move it, combined with laughter or facial expressions make this a winning combo of natural posing.
ACTIVE REST
What is this you ask? Basically when in front of the camera you will look relaxed and unposed, but in reality you will be moving in a way that creates space between you and an object and intention with your body.
Let me give you an example. You might hear me ask you to go over and sit on that comfy chair and we’ll take a few shots. Your first instinct will be to go sit on the chair and push your body back into a comfortable position and slump down like you would if you were going to sit in a comfy chair. While this is natural, it looks terrible on camera. Let’s face it, most of us have poor posture and when we go to sit on a piece of furniture, we sink in, our back might hunch slightly, we give ourselves belly rolls and we just kind of hang there.
Instead, I will ask you to push yourself to the edge of the chair or couch and maybe lean forward with your elbows onto your lap or lean your arm over to the arm of the chair so you still look comfortable, but not slumped. Your spine will straighten a bit more and you will relax your shoulders. People tend to tense their shoulders for some reason during shoots and I am often telling people to relax, take a deep breath and let that tension roll out. We don’t even realize we are doing it most of the time.
WEIGHT DISTRIBUTION
Shifting your weight while standing can really go a long way to give you good posture and a slimmer looking angle. If you are standing straight on to the camera, I will often tell you to cross your legs. It might feel weird, but it gives you a slimmer profile. You see all the Celebs doing it on the red carpet and that is for this very reason.
Also shifting your weight either on to your front or back leg, depending on which angle you are facing the camera, gives you a trimmer look and natural pose. Having a bend in one knee or propping a toe slightly looks more flattering also (for women anyway). Some of us ladies are also worried about our arms looking too big. Creating angles and bends in our arms away from our body is another way to combat this. How do we do it naturally without the classic arms on hips pose. You guessed it, hold something between your two hands to create a natural angle.
GET ANIMATED
This ties in with my first point, laughing. If you want a nice variety in your photos, vary your expressions. Smiling is of course a gold standard in brand photography if you want to be seen as a happy person, but not every photo has to be a smile. One thing that often happens when I am photographing is that people expect that they will smile, so they keep on smiling….smiling so hard it turns robotic and unnatural. I often tell my clients to stop, take a breath and a break then smile again. When you hold it for too long, your facial muscles get tired and it looks like you are trying way too hard….unnatural. Not every photo has to be a smiler either. Your resting face can be contemplative, wistful, thoughtful or a range of other emotions, depending on the actions you pair with it in the photo. You can also depending on your personality get over animated to make a point with your expression. Roll your eyes, open your mouth wide with wide eyes, look surprised, angry, tired etc. These are expressions everyone relates to because we all make these expressions. When you are making them on camera, people want to know why.
There you have it folks. The how to’s and reasoning behind how you can and should be posing for your personal branding shoot. That’s why you need to be sure you hire a photographer who specializes in personal branding photography and knows all of these tips, tricks and more!
