POSING FOR THE CAMERA: WHAT TO DO WITH YOUR HANDS
Expressive hands enhance your photo
Your hands communicate something in every photo, whether you are conscious of it or not. They tell us a surprising amount about you. If you leave them hanging slack at your side, they tell us that you are feeling stiff and uncomfortable in front of the camera.
Instead, let your hands communicate. Turn them into Extrovert Hands. This is one of the easiest ways to make you feel more relaxed when you are posing for the camera. It helps you look more natural and produces more engaging photos.
There are four ways to use your hands in a photo, and each tells us something about you. You can touch another person, your own face or body, an object, or your surroundings.
1. EXPRESS YOUR RELATIONSHIPS WHEN YOU ARE POSING FOR THE CAMERA
Use your hands to connect with someone. Your hands tell the story of the relationship and of your feelings. We tend to believe what your hands are communicating, while we know that people may consciously choose a certain expression for a photo.
Touch your partner, hug a friend, stroke your child’s cheek, pet your dog. This adds enormously to what your photo conveys, visually and emotionally, and gives message about warmth and connection.
You want to be sure to use soft hands, not a vice-like grip. Wedding photographers get that romantic shot of the gentle caress on the bride’s cheek by coaching the partner to have soft hands. They may say ‘imagine you are touching her cheek with just your fingertip, not your hand,’ or ‘imagine you are checking if she is hot, like an oven, and your fingers might get burnt.’ Movie directors advise actors in just the same way.
2. TELL US WHICH PART OF YOU TO LOOK AT WHEN YOU ARE POSING FOR THE CAMERA
Hands tell us where to look. Fingers are like arrows in a photo, so you can actually use them to point to what you like about your appearance. You can highlight your face shape, your smile or your eyes, for instance. You can emphasize the softness of the curve of your cheek by bringing your fingers up to it.
Some people may prefer to touch the bonier parts of their faces–their temples or their jaws–to emphasize the ruggedness of their faces.
You can de-emphasize parts of your face or your body by sending our attention where you want it.
In a full-length photo, you can choose to emphasize your face by placing your hand near it. Or you can emphasize the shape of your body–putting your hand at your waist leads our eyes to the curve of your waist.
Directing us where to look with your hand works with selfies too.
Celebrity photos use their hands in photos all the time. From Jennifer Lawrence on Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar covers, to Taylor Swift on Time Magazine, to Henry Cavill on Men’s Fitness, they put a hand on their face, hair or clothes. Some celebrity poses may be too dramatic for everyday photos, but check out the more subtle poses on your feed and on magazine covers.
3. LOOKING MORE RELAXED AND HAPPIER IN FRONT OF THE CAMERA
If you are uncomfortable about being photographed, your hands will be holding tension and can give this away. The sure-fire solution is The Prop.
The Available Prop
Hold anything you want, anything that is handy and not too distracting or incongruous.
Think about all the things you typically do with your hands. Do you swing a racquet, throw clay, repair bikes, mix cocktails, pet a lot of dogs? All of these can provide useful props. Sportspeople who are shy posing for the camera often respond well to being thrown their favourite type of ball.
You are likely to find yourself doing something spontaneous with the prop, and your expression relaxes as you become absorbed. Doing something makes you use your body actively, which is always more flattering in a photo than standing there stiffly.
No props around? Touch something you are wearing.
Or take off an outer layer or an accessory, and hold it in your hands. Any of these things will instantly make your body language more comfortable.
Celebrities always take advantage of props so that they don’t have to worry about what to do with their hands. Stylists, working with a new celeb in front of a bank of photographers, can’t bellow out obvious instructions, but they can hand the newbie a clutch bag or another small object. Bouquets of flowers give everyone from British royals to bridesmaids something to do with their hands.
The Significant Prop
If you can hold something significant to you, that is even better.
Anything with emotions attached to it—a team pennant or a favorite Disney hat—says something about you and adds a whole new dimension to the photo. When you’ve just been given a bouquet of flowers, that’s the moment to be photographed.
A significant prop reduces inhibitions because you intuitively feel that the photo is becoming about more than just your appearance: it is becoming about your current emotions, or your allegiance to something larger, or your sense of humor. Your expression is more relaxed and natural.
4. CONNECT TO YOUR SURROUNDINGS WHEN YOU POSE FOR THE CAMERA
If you don’t have a prop handy, you can use something in your environment to help you look and feel comfortable. Just reach out and touch something, anything. You will shift your weight and therefore change your stance automatically, which is always flattering when you’re posing for the camera.
Here, casually touching the table produced a photo that the subject liked much better.
This works anywhere. You can lightly rest a hand on the back of a chair, a counter or a table, against a doorway, a fence post or the trunk of a tree. Anything stackable, like books or birthday gifts, lets you choose exactly the height that feels right.
Unless you are standing in the middle of an empty field, you can always find a wall or a tree, and place a hand against it. Your photo will be more interesting to look at, with minimal effort.
AND IF YOUR HANDS JUST WANT TO BE INTROVERT HANDS?
If you are feeling self-conscious about using your hands, you can always put one or both in your pockets. This will make you naturally bend your arms and wrists—which looks much better in a photo than letting your arms hang limply at your sides.
Make sure your pockets are empty. Put your phone in your back pocket or out of sight. Lumpy pockets are distracting in a photo anyway, messing up the line of your clothes. Cramming your hands in as well is too much.
It looks best in photos if your hands don’t disappear entirely, as they do here on the left. Keep your thumb visible so that your whole hand doesn’t vanish abruptly. Try looping your thumbs outside your pocket, or put your thumbs in and keep the rest of your fingers out.
Developing extroverted hands is something anyone can do. If the idea of communicating with your hands feels strange, start by just putting your hands in your pockets. When you get used to thinking of what your hands are doing when you are posing for the camera, pick up something small and handy and just hold it. You’ll see that it looks perfectly natural in the photo.
You’ll find that touching something or someone nearby looks natural too. You become part of the scene, you shift your body, and you convey more warmth and personality.
A person may look out of place standing among hundreds of golden retrievers, but using his hand to pet his dog anchors this man to the scene and makes him look like part of it.
(Where in the world is he? Find out where Art of Being Photographed founder, Renata, took her dog to celebrate the origins of the golden retriever.)
Learn More
The Pose you Need to Know to be Photogenic: The Universally Flattering Angle
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