AmSnaps - Digital Photography Basics For Amateur Snappers

Creative Portrait Poses Will Leave The Viewers Wowed And Capture Your Subject's Personality

Portrait poses can make or break your photo. All seasoned photographers know the value of strong portrait posing.

Taking a great picture that gives your subject justice is more than just getting the location and lighting just perfect. You also need the perfect portrait pose to create a magical picture that grabs attention and holds it for a while.

It doesn't matter if you are shooting high school senior portraits for graduating students or wedding day pictures for a memory book.

Bad poses will kill otherwise beautiful pictures. A decent pose may deliver nice pictures but they will never give that "wow" effect when someone looks at them.

Female Posing With Her Arms Folded In Evening Sunlight

The only way to reach creative magic with a photo is to know all about portrait photography poses and pick the perfect one for each picture. Posing will be different for every subject and every occasion, but if you know what to look for you can find the perfect poses for every subject.

Know The Body

Before you even start shooting your next subject, you need to study up on the human body. You should be familiar with every moving part of the body right down to eyeballs and the little toe. Even the nature of hair or the bald scalp should be understood.

Portrait Pose Of A Young Lady With Wet Look Hair And Green Eyes

Great portrait posing takes advantage of every small body part. Sometimes the beauty and perfection of a picture comes down to the finer details.

A pointed toe or a bit of breeze blowing through the hair can make the difference between a stunning, show-stopping photo and an average picture no one looks twice at.

The Subject's Personality

The more comfortable your subject is with posing and the location, the more relaxed they will be. The more relaxed they are the more natural they will look on film so to speak.

Woman Standing With Her Arms In The Air Smiling With Her Eyes Closed

You want to get them comfortable by thinking about their personality. Try to talk to them a bit before shooting to see what type of pictures they are wanting and you will start to get a sense for their personality.

Switch to something new if a subject seems uptight, nervous, or uncomfortable with a particular type of portrait composition. You will never get magic from a nervous, uncomfortable subject.

One great thing about personality is that you can come up with unique and inspiring photography poses on the spot when you really "get" who a person is. Paying attention to personality may lead to some great shots that you wouldn't have thought of without that focus on personality.

The Power Of The Eyes

Eyes are one of the most powerful parts of the human body. The best models know that they need to manipulate their eyes to draw others into the photograph in the right manner. The right eyes can make a photo engaging and ten times stronger than the same photo without the intensity in the eyes.

Woman Posing With Furry Hat And Icy Blue Eyes

When working with subjects who are not models you may need to give more guidance in this area. If you learn about how portrait poses work with the eyes you can help your subjects create more powerful glances, smiles, and glares to infuse the picture with the right emotion.

Really studying every moving part of the body including the fingers, toes, hair, and lips, can give you the raw instinct you need to come up with creative portrait poses on the spot.

This is the ability you need to take stunning photos that draw others in and makes them want to look longer.

There is nothing more pleasing than the look on a client's face when they feel you have really captured their spirit in a photo! The good news is that you too can learn to produce high quality portrait shots.

If you want to get more from your portrait photography, I can recommend an eBook from Edward Verosky called "Taking Your Portraiture to the Next Level".

Ed talks you through each portrait shot in this eBook and explains how to setup and position your lighting for producing the best exposures.

There are alot of example photos in the eBook with detailed text explaining the technique required to achieve them yourself and how to use reflectors, natural light and studio lighting.

One you have mastered the basics of portrait composition and lighting, you will quickly and easily be creating your own professional looking photographs using the skills you have learned.

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