Three Tips for Headshot Posing
Just booked your first headshot session? Awesome! You’re already one step ahead to renovate your virtual presence. These simple tips will guide you into a successful headshot session.
Your headshot photographer will utilize their camera, lens, and studio lighting to cater for an optimal session. This means that your poses will be a tad different from your usual full-body portraits or standard cell phone photos.
At 415Headshots, our San Francisco Bay Area-based photographers will guide you through subtle body adjustments for the best headshot, nevertheless, it’s always helpful to see where we’re coming from.
These THREE tips below will give you insight into our approach:
From working all day to texting, we’re always on our phones and laptops. This constant electronic use leads us to slouch our neck and shoulders. For our headshot sessions, we like for you to convey your confidence and persona, thus it’s always important to focus on your chest, shoulders, and chin positioning.
While keeping the back straight, your chest should naturally become upright. However, it’s best not to over accentuate the chest, which leads to an artificial look.
From the constant day-to-day stress we all face, we tend to hold this stress in our shoulders. For a relaxed, confident headshot, it’s key to relax the shoulders while in your session. Take a deep breath & let those muscles relax!
Your chin is key to the perfect headshot! Keep the chin too low and it might seem as you’re looking down at your phone, however posing with the chin too high and you’ll accentuate your neck. Position your chin as if you’re talking to someone your own height & maintaining eye contact.
Your smile!
Your smile is key for your headshot. Each headshot caters to a different need (lifestyle headshots vs. business headshots). You might not show that ecstatic smile to your boss on the first day of a job that you might show off to your best friends for 10 years. Thus, it’s pertinent to cater your smile to the headshot you’re going after.
Your eyes!
Even though individuals may be smiling with their mouth, their eyes are narrating a different story. It’s important to showcase an emotion with your entire face for your audience. For example, when laughing, an individual’s eyes tend to squint. Thus, if you’re pursuing a headshot for an ecstatic Instagram post, it’s best to smile & squint your eyes a tad to showcase your happy emotion to your Instagram followers.
