AmSnaps - Digital Photography Basics For Amateur Snappers

Five Easy Photography Poses
Ideas And Tips For Posing Your Subject

I want to share with you five simple photography poses to perk up your shots. Creating a beautiful portrait is about more than just snapping the shutter or even getting the correct exposure and composition.

In order to create a pleasing portrait or any other picture with a person involved, you need to be adept at posing your subjects so they look their best.

You particularly want to pose them effectively to minimize flaws, whether real or perceived by the person, and to bring out their best features. There are dozens of great photography poses, but the best ones appear natural and relaxed.

Before I show you five easy poses that will improve your photography 100%, I want to introduce you to the book that I use when I want to find the best pose for my subject. It's called Posing Secrets: The Photographer's Essential Guide.

Posing Secrets - The Photographer's Essential Guide By Malcolm Boone

Now YOU Can Produce The Right Photography Poses Everytime

Finally, you'll always be able to get that perfect pose from your subject. Forget trial & error with this simple to follow, easy to read eBook on how to pose your subject quickly and easily for professional results. Click Here To Find Out More*

If you photograph people professionally or are a serious amateur, then Posing Secrets is for you. It shows you the best way to setup every type of pose. Whether you want full length shots, head shots, your model standing, sitting or laying on the floor, this eBook teaches you eveything.

Here's what one happy customer had to say:
"Malcolm's book is a no nonsense guide to posing a model. The book goes into great detail, not only posing the body but even foot and hand placement and what a huge difference this makes! I particularly liked the idea of visualizing my model as a silhouette - this takes away the distraction of everything except the form. Simple diagrams and straightforward language make it easy for non-techies like me to understand clearly."
Amanda - www.amandasphotography.com.au
100% Risk Free Guarantee: If Posing Secrets doesn't help you to pose your model the way you want, you can have your money back. Enjoy the benefit of a no quibble, eight week money back guarantee and give Posing Secrets a try.


If you're not quite ready to jump into professional posing and want to try and master the basics of photography first, then maybe Digital Photo Success* is more suitable for you. It's a great starting point for beginner photographers.

Five Fast And Easy Photography Poses

Women Posing Casually With Her Hands In Her Pockets

Posing Casually With Hands In Pockets

Hands in pockets, with fingers in and thumbs out or thumbs in and fingers out. This pose is best done with the subject in a standing position and is a nice casual pose.

It works well for guys and girls of all ages and gives awkward subjects something to do with their hands when they don't know what to do.

Have the subject put his or her weight on one foot and bend the other leg just slightly for the best appearance. Just be sure the subject doesn't cram his or her entire hand down into the pocket, as that looks awkward.
Women With Both Hands On Her Hips
Photo by Steve Emberton

Standing With Both Hands On Hips

Steve says, "The image was taken in my London studio in the mid 70's. I was working in London as a freelance photographer and while most of my work came from the music and entertainment industry, I did some work for model agencies. This was taken using a Nikon F2 camera on Ilford B&W film. The image you see is from a scanned print".

This pose works particularly well for women, and if they happen to be a bit overweight, it's even better because it shows separation between the torso and arms, making the person appear more slender.

Again, have the subject stand with her weight on one foot and bend the other leg slightly at the knee. It works even more effectively to shave a few pounds off the model's appearance if you shoot the photo from slightly higher than floor level such as when standing on a short stepstool.
Young Girl Laying On Her Tummy On The Floor

Laying On The Floor On Your Tummy

A laying-on-the tummy photography pose is another great way to make someone who is a bit overweight seem a bit slimmer because the tummy itself is never seen at all.

This works particularly well for women, girls, and children. It can also work effectively for a man with a wife and small children if you pose him like this as the center of the composition and then pile the wife and kids around him for a casual family portrait.

For an individual woman, girl, or child, this pose usually involves having the subject bring their legs up behind them and cross them at the mid calf area. Then the photo can be shot from either a normal camera height or it can be shot from down low at about the subject's head height near the floor.

Young Boy Sitting On A Chair Backwards

Sitting Backwards On A Chair

A great pose for young guys and girls is to seat them on a chair backwards so they are straddling the chair and leaning forward onto the chair back with arms folded.

They can rest their arms on the chair back comfortably and it's a great looking pose. Just be sure the subject keeps a straight back so they don't looked hunched over.

Women Sitting On Chair Leaning On Her Knees
Copyright Photo by Remy Musser

Leaning Forward With Elbows On Knees

This is a great pose to use with guys, girls, men, women and even younger boys and girls. Although, it is masculine and casual, and it's a natural position for most guys, it can also be used for girls.

Seat the subject on a chair with legs spread and simply have the subject lean forward and put his or her elbows on their knees, lightly clasping their hands together. Be sure the subject keeps a relatively straight back, as a rounded back can look hunched in this pose, too. Then, get down close to the subject's head or chest level to take this shot. You could try looking at Brain Morrison's poses from http://www.brianmorrison.co.uk

More Articles About Photography Poses

Family Portrait Poses – Family Photography Poses & Ideas
Planning perfect family portrait poses is just as hard as taking the actual pictures. The lighting and backdrop are very important, but also producing some creative family potrait pose ideas is too.

Portrait Poses – Capturing Your Subject's Personality
Portrait poses speak volumes about the personality of a person. It is the job of the portrait photograper to capture and convey that personality within the portrait by posing the subject correctly.

Baby poses - Tips & Ideas For Great Baby Portraits
Baby poses are one of the most challenging areas of studio photography. You have to be patient and shoot plenty of pictures to capture a golden moment. Make sure to have entertaining props on hand.

Perfect Engagement Poses - 5 Tips Every Photographer Can Use
Choosing the right engagement poses to commemorate your new relationship status can be exhausting. What type of posture do you go for? Classic, Fun or Timeless? I'll help you decide.

Couple Poses For Any Occasion: Engagement, Wedding, Flirty
Whether you are celebrating an engagement, wedding anniversary or other milestone in your relationship, proper couple poses are crucial. If you fail to pose the couple properly, the memory is ruined.

How To Create Romantic Poses To Photograph
Creating romantic poses is a challenge for some photographers. You need to have a creative eye to pose the couples with the right lighting and props to convey a romantic feeling in the pictures.

Glamour Poses: 3 Tips for Shooting Glamour Photos
Shooting glamour poses that are creative and interesting in easy when you follow three simple steps. Find the right location, pay attention to different body lines and parts and use soft lighting.

Share Your Best Photography Poses

Do you have a great pose that you'd like to share with us? Maybe you have a great story to tell about your poser or posers. Share your posing shots below and show them off to the world.

Poses Other Visitors Have Shared

Click below to see the pictures other visitors have shared with Digital Photography Tricks.com...

Fight or flight 
Camera specifics are Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSi, the fstop: f/9 with ISO at 200, shutter speed is 1/250 sec. This is a photo I shot while I was out on …

Innocence... 
Hi, I'm Gautam, new to photography. I have no such equipment for capturing snap but, this is the picture of my neighbour...Krishna. The baby boy came to …

Jailed 
This pup was just looking to escape from his grounds just to go walking around. It was a cold afternoon and he was so friendly and you can see the sadness …

Purched  
The photo I have entered into this competition is a pose of a child in the park purched up on top of statue balancing himself as if he were a bird. …

Jumping For Joy 
Hi... I am Raj.. This pic taken by me is an unexpectedly amazing picture of mine that I have taken till date.. It's a guy jumping with joy with the sun …

Happy poses 
This Shot was taken at India gate New Delhi India. It is so hot during summers that little kids like to enjoy their time at the water canal there near …

Day Dreamer 
My little day dreamer...This is my little boy he is nearly 2, he loves the camera which is good for me as i love to take pictures... I bought my first …

Glamourous Life 
My name is Myesha and I'm a photo newbie who became passionately involved with photography about a year ago. This photo was taken in my livingroom around …

BE TOGETHER FOR ALL 
This Photograph Was Taken In Sri Lanka. A Rural Village Call Nakkala At Monaragala District. The Woman In The Your Left Is Just 19 Years Old And A Mother …

Waiting Period 
One fine morning we were on the way to a trip with office colleagues. We were waiting for one of our colleagues to join us. Suddenly my eye noticed a school …

Tania 
This portrait is of Tania, my nephew's wife taken at a family gathering in Melbourne, Australia in September 2009. The image was captured using a doorway …

THE UNIQUE COUPLE... Not rated yet
TRUE LOVE LIFE PARTNERS...........ALWAYS MADE FOR EACH OTHER....

Tree Hugger  Not rated yet
I was walking with some friends to a dance when I came across a tree and decided to pose for a pic beside it. What do you think?

Beautiful Sophia and I Not rated yet
Beautiful Sophia and I posed together on Thanksgiving Day 2009

Wild Girl Not rated yet
My daughter had her face painted at a family-fun day. I asked her to hold on to her hood so the fur offset the face! Such a gorgeous little pic.

BUT WITH THIS SMILE .... Not rated yet
This Picture was Taken By a Sony Erricson K750i Camera Phone. This morning while driving to work I was thinking about Life. The little boy I posted about …

Different Not rated yet
This picture was taken with a small digital camera on a trip to Hungary some years ago. There was a huge zoo in the middle of nowhere, actually I figured …

Glamorous Life Part Deux Not rated yet
Contrary to what others say...I play with lights, shadows, colors, etc... I am a newbie at photography but have often been complemented on my choice of …

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