How to Pose People For Your Pictures

If you want to be a great 'people' photographer, you might think you need to know a lot of different poses, or know how to talk to your subjects like a fashion photographer. But really it's more about being yourself. Photographing people can be the most rewarding and yet the most difficult subject to photograph. The photographers in magazines make it seem so easy. Is it really that difficult? I used to think so, I used to be pretty intimidated by it. I struggled with; do I see their whole body, or just their face, what do I do with the hands, what do they wear? Yikes, just a few things to think about, all of this when you're also struggling to think about exposure and lighting.

I guess where I had my break-through was when I realized that they were just as intimidated as I was. I learned that there's nothing scarier than having your photograph taken. As soon as I learned this, I started paying more attention to my photo subject than to my nervousness, giving me more time to figure out how to pose them and how much of them I wanted to see in the picture.

If you want to take successful photographs of people you need to pay attention to the person and you have to have the confidence to photograph them. You need to believe in yourself as a photographer and you need to respect the person you are shooting. And forget about how nervous you are and start making them feel comfortable.

Specific things you say to a photo subject or how you pose them can also help make the picture better. If you want to take great photographs of people you need to make your subject at ease and pose them comfortably.