The “E” Zone

- Experiment with camera angles and body positioning. If you’re concerned you look heavy, for example, stand at a 45-degree angle to the camera, place one foot behind the other and all of your weight on the back foot.
- Consider your clothing. Opt for solids
- When in a seated pose don’t lean against the chair. This will help keep your back straight.
- Keep your back straight and your shoulders back. It will also give you an air of confidence.
- Keep your arms and legs relaxed – you don’t keep them straight all the time in normal life
- Get some variety in your shots. Have some looking directly at the camera, some looking away, some smiling and some serious
-  Research poses in magazines from models you’d like to emulate and practice them at home
- Put all of your body weight on one foot only, this will make your body make a naturally gracious “S” shape.
- If your hands are on the picture, try to show the sides of the hand only, never the full palm or the back of the hand.
- Keep your back straight and your shoulders up
- When posing, make sure to differentiate your arms and legs with asymmetrical poses. If you have one arm long and straight by your side, make sure the other arm is bent. The bend will make the modeling pose look more real, less artificial. Continue the asymmetry to your legs. If one leg is locked straight, give the other leg a casual bend.
- Do not always look directly into the camera. To enhance the quality of your photo shoot, look away from the camera with a mix of head and eye poses. Your head and neck can remain stationary  and your eyes can do all the work. Look off to the right or left side.  Tilt your neck. Try different facial expressions.
- Always turn or twist your body to an angle from the lens
- If the shot calls for facing the camera then pose using a 3/4 turn with your hips diagonally and then twist your waist back square. This will make your body look longer and will produce an excellent straight on photo.
- Discover your best angles in posing
- Shift your weight from side to side — Do not stand head on in front of the camera
pose for portraits
- Place one foot behind the other and turn it at an angle to the camera, preferably 90 degrees. This has a slimming effect and looks more natural.
- Place your weight on your back foot. This creates a relaxed look. Placing the weight on the front foot creates an edgy look, while equally distributing the weight looks stiff.
- Tilt your head slightly at an angle to one side or another. It’s common to want to “stand up straight” but tilting the head will make you appear more relaxed. Example.
- When turning your head it is natural to tilt it toward the shoulder that your turning toward and it does have a natural look but if you want your portrait to stand out and attract positive attention tilt your head the opposite way instead. This technique will make your neck muscle flex in an attractive way sliming your neck and is used most often by fashion models. Example.
- If the camera is at eye level or lower, lower your chin very slightly. If you’re worried about a “second chin” raise the camera above eye level and look up slightly. This works well seated.
- Place your hands correctly. Hands are often the second most prominent feature in a picture after the eyes, but we often don’t know what to do with them. When hands are below the waist, the wrist should curly down or be neutral. When hands are above the waist, the wrists should curl up. Also, don’t make them overly prominent. Keep thumbs and fingers in and try to avoid the hands being prominent in the composition or too near the camera compared to the rest of the body. Again, breaking the rules can create an edgy look.
- Smile. Often people don’t feel comfortable smiling on demand. Obviously it’s better to make it spontaneous, but not always possible. Remember that a really big all out smile rarely looks fake like the half smiles that people sometimes try. When a smile looks “fake” it is because the muscles around the eyes aren’t involved. When you need to smile on command, think of first creating the smile with your eyes and your lips will follow. Also, people often try to go for the serious or thoughtful look to avoid smiling, but end up looking like they’re serial killers or half asleep. If you want to go for the thoughtful look, it’s especially important to remember the other steps. Look relaxed and tilt the head while looking towards the camera with the eyes.
- Avoid red, black or white.
- Be aware of angles that work for you. Example.
- Experiment using a digital camera so you see the results of each pose immediately. It will very quickly become obvious which angles are most flattering for you. Once you’re aware of this, use the best angles as much as possible in the future.
- The classic model’s pose is to arrange your body three quarters toward the camera with one foot in front of the other and one shoulder closer to the camera than the other. Women tend to do this naturally, but it’s harder for men, who tend to present a square angle front-on to the camera. If you turn your head slightly to the side and look straight ahead, you will appear to be looking straight at the viewer of the photo no matter the viewing angle
- Try looking slightly above the camera when the picture is taken. If the photographer is at a lower level look more or less directly forward, not at the camera, so your eyes aren’t mostly closed
- Tilt your head up slightly and try to position yourself so that the camera is a little above, or at, your eye level. This will hide a double chin effectively.try resting your tongue against the roof of your mouth.
- Relax your lip (mouth) region and don’t have any delirious thoughts filled with gloom. It’s a natural way to appear fresh and appealing in photographs.
- Try to time yoursmile so that you don’t have to hold it for too long. Also, imagine something funny (don’t be afraid tolaugh a bit, even) or think of someone—your spouse or child, for example—who makes you happy
- Smile with your eyes. Nothing projects happiness and beauty like smiling eyes: a happy, somewhat mischievous expression of the eyes. To achieve this effect, imagine that the camera is a person you have a crush on walking into the room. This will create wider open eyes and a relaxed, three-quarter smile.
Photography tips
- The best times for photoshoots good light are early morning and evening; a golden glow on your face can work wonders.
- Use a telephoto lens or zoom out, and move back. This avoids the nose being proportionately much closer to the camera, and being overly magnified relative to the rest of your face. This also will make the background more defocused and less distracting. (To accentuate that, have him set a wider aperture if possible.)
- Use more contrast for men (the wrinkles and pores are often considered interesting or tough), less for women.
- Ask the photographer to have the camera at eye level or only just above eye level. This allows for the most natural, flattering photo. If the lens is lower, your shot risks showing a double chin.
- Choose Side Lighting – photographers know this trick, so be aware of it! Indoors try to stand where the lighting falls on your good side. Outdoors try to get your picture taken in the morning or afternoon, not noon. Don’t face the sun or get backlit by it
- Taking pictures without flash, the front lighting from flash is the number one offender for unflattering family photos
- For seated photos, instead of leaning in, sit up straight and relax.