How to pose for the camera with confidence : NPR

When Stephanie Yeboah was a teen, she rarely saw her body type in the pages of her favorite fashion magazines. So she avoided cameras at all costs.

As Yeboah grew, so did her confidence. She’s now a model and the author of Fattily Ever After: A Black Fat Girl’s Guide to Living Life Unapologetically. “I’m always going to be fat,” she says. “I might as well use the opportunity while people are looking at me to serve looks.”

To her, that means creating for the camera “angles or poses that are very idiosyncratic, that you would see on the cover of Vogue,” she says.

Being photogenic is a skill you can train like any other, says David Suh, a posing coach with over 4.5 million followers on TikTok. The key is to “connect back to your body and let your body language help you communicate.”

Suh and Yeboah share poses and movements to help you get comfortable in front of a camera and achieve a picture-perfect portrait. Try them out the next time you’re taking pictures with a friend or just messing around solo with your phone on self-timer mode.

Step 1: Pick three words to describe the vibe of your photo

How do you want to look in your photos? Look at portraits of people that express different emotions like power, masculinity, femininity, joy, vulnerability and sensuality, Suh says. Then pick three to channel during your photo session.

He does this with his own clients before a shoot. He likes this exercise because it prompts people to think more deeply about their own self-perception, says Suh. “Who do I want to be? Have I been limited by my past experiences?”

Step 2: Find your balance

Posing requires a lot of balance. You need to hold your pose long enough for the camera to snap the photo. To help you ease into these postures, Suh shares a few warm-up exercises.

• Stand at attention. Straighten your legs, lock your knees and keep your body firm. This military position is not comfortable, says Suh, but it can help center your balance. 
• Act like you’re casually waiting for the bus. “Allow your body to rest on one foot,” says Suh. Then begin to shift your weight around — maybe put a little more weight on the back or front leg to feel where you’re most centered. 
• Loosen up. “When we’re nervous, we tend to curl up into a ball,” says Suh. “Our shoulders go up and our knees lock.” Relaxing our joints makes us look and feel more comfortable in our poses. 

Step 3: Try these classic poses

The hand-on-hip pose: If you just want a good, no-frills picture of yourself, Yeboah recommends this pose. Start by crossing your legs. “Then, instead of putting your hand on your hip, put your hand at the top of your butt” so that you’re stretching your arm a bit more, she says. That’ll open your chest up and lift your neck up, “so that you have that authoritative stance.”

The magazine model pose. Models often contort their bodies in unique ways to add a feeling of movement and visual interest – and you can steal inspiration from those looks too. “Distort and contort your face to look unique and weird and cool,” says Yeboah. Use your body to “replicate symbols.” Move your body in peculiar shapes, bring your arms above your head or twist at odd degrees. 

The power pose. If your expressions for this shoot are “fearless” or “bold,” try standing with your “legs wide open as if you’re going into a split,” says Yeboah. Taking up lots of space in the frame and spreading your limbs wide creates a powerful disposition.

The catch-me-in-action pose. You can also be dynamic: crouch or jump, lean on chairs or beams or get low to the ground. “If I want to be a baddie, I am squatting down to the floor in a good Lil’ Kim squat,” says Yeboah.

Step 4: Play around with your facial expressions

When it comes to closeups, don’t be afraid to show different sides of your face or exaggerate your emotions. “We often look dead straight at the camera” when we take photos, says Suh. “We tend to forget so many other angles.”

Tilt your head up, down and side to side. By changing those three angles alone, “we’ve just hit three different poses,” says Suh. “We’re expressing something emotional too.” A tilt up of the chin can connote power, a tilt down sweetness. See what emotions come to the surface when you rotate your features around. 

For a “cool girl vibe,” look down at the camera, says Yeboah. Tilt your head slightly up, gaze down past your nose and slightly part your lips.

For a cute, demure look, softly cup or graze your hands around your face. Yeboah uses this pose to model jewelry or beauty products.

Close your eyes and grin with all your teeth. “Just give the biggest joker smile you can and shut your eyes really tight,” says Yeboah. “It gives off that essence of innocence and joy.”

Try not to stare at the camera. “That can be quite intimidating,” says Yeboah. Instead, pick a nearby target: someone standing next to the photographer or a light fixture, for example. These photos always come out lovely. “It’s like, ‘Oh – this person is in their own world, but they look so content.’ “

If this is your first time trying these tips, you might feel a bit awkward or conspicuous. But Suh says to view posing as a muscle you can train. “Have patience with yourself and practice that creative mind and muscle. That’s how you start getting funky.”

In moments when you feel unnatural, talk to yourself, says Suh. Say: “this feels a little foreign, but I’m OK with that. I’m exploring.”

We want to hear from you! Did this advice help you take a great photo?

Send the photo to lifekit@npr.org and tell us how you were able to achieve your great portrait. We may feature it on NPR.org or Life Kit’s newsletter.

The digital story was edited by Malaka Gharib. The visual producer is Beck Harlan.

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