Eight Posing Tips and Ideas for Portrait Photography

Portrait photography can be a tricky genre full of nuance, and posing can be one of the most difficult aspects. This helpful video will show you a variety of portrait poses and tricks and tips to get the most out of your subjects and to produce better images. 

Coming to you from Jessica Whitaker, this great video details some helpful poses and tips and tricks to improve your portrait photography. Personally, posing was always what I struggled with most; it's relatively easy to understand objective quantities like shutter speed and aperture, but the human element was always a bit more nebulous and difficult to master. Watching a talented portrait photographer work through it can go a long way in helping you to get better yourself, especially if you add a few tried and tested poses to your toolbox as go-tos to help you jumpstart shoots or to turn to when you're stuck. In particular, pay attention to all the small details that Whitaker adjusts; it's the mark of a good photographer, as they know all those little details add up to a much greater result and make or break a portrait. Check out the video above for the full rundown. 

Alex Cooke's picture

Alex Cooke is a Cleveland-based portrait, events, and landscape photographer. He holds an M.S. in Applied Mathematics and a doctorate in Music Composition. He is also an avid equestrian.

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3 Comments

Thank you. I hate videos as my cell phone takes forever to load.

After seeing how she held the camera I had to turn it off, I’m sorry but when you use a 5D like that, you look like my mother taking photos on her iPad 🤦‍♂️