Strike A Pose! A Guide For Clients To End Up With Better Photos.

I’ve put together a guide to share with clients before their photo sessions. These are the tips I usually end up explaining during the shoot, but having them ahead of time will help you feel more prepared and confident.

This guide covers everything from choosing clothing to practicing your smile—yes, practicing really does make your smile look more natural in photos.

The information applies to all types of sessions: family portraits, senior photos, headshots, weddings, and engagements. Walking in with these basics in mind will make the experience smoother and the results even better.

1. Clothing & Presentation

• Dress with intention: Choose outfits that match the purpose of the photos—professional for headshots, coordinated for family portraits, elegant for weddings. You can always bring additional clothes to change into if you were second-guessing your current outfit.

• Neutral and earth tones are timeless.

• Avoid loud patterns, neon colors, or logos (they date photos quickly and distract).

• Families/groups: coordinate palettes (e.g., blues/black/grays) instead of matching exact outfits. The goal is to match the vibe. If you have someone who's dressed like they're going to chop lumber and you're dressed like you're about to hit the town going dancing it's probably gonna look a little bit odd in the photos. Dress like you're both going to the same place.

• Fit matters: Clothes should be comfortable but flattering. Oversized clothing makes people look bigger; overly tight clothing can cause self-consciousness.

• Accessories: Jewelry should complement, not dominate. Glasses should be cleaned thoroughly.

• Shoes: Don’t forget footwear—it will show in full-body shots. Clean, polished, and appropriate to the style. I can't cut you off at the feet when we're doing a full body shoot. And I'm definitely not going to want to Photoshop in new shoes. If it's a great photo, you're not really gonna be focused on the shoes anyway anyways, but they still show..

• Hair & makeup: come prepared.

• Do hair and makeup as you’d want to be remembered, not as an experiment. I can't do an hour shoot and then spend two hours Photoshop out straight hairs or doing acne retouching on 60 photos.

• Gentle powder on skin helps reduce shine. If it is a hot day and you are planning on sweating a little bit feel free to bring a little handkerchief or something. But a lot of that will get lost in the photos, we're not going to notice it as much as you think..

• Bring a brush or comb for quick fixes.

2. Standing & Posture

• Weight distribution: this works for both guys and girls. If you put a little bit of weight on 1 foot versus the other, it allows you to more naturally dip a shoulder that way it doesn't look like you're lining up for a military parade.

• Ladies: weight on one foot to pop a hip. When you're able to do this, it showcases a womanly figure if that's what you're going for.

• Men: think athletic, balanced stance—like you own the space. Stand confidently, if you point one of your feet out and stand like if you had to you could throw a punch it ends up, looking like a very masculine stance. If you're pointing both of your toes towards me or slightly apart from each other, it might look like you're standing like a penguin. We wanna stance that looks purposeful.

• Leg positioning: Slightly bent knees look more natural than stiff legs.

• Posture check: Shoulders back, spine tall, chin slightly forward and down (avoids double chin).

• Angles for slimming: I am never going to call anyone out and say that you should stand a certain way, but I want you to love your photos so even with my own photos, I might do a little slight turn which makes the body appear thinner.

• Turn body 30–45° away from camera.

• Rest weight on back foot, lean slightly toward camera. When you do this, it will sometimes alleviate any double chins. But again, this is just tricks of the camera and will only go so far. But it does help.

3. Arms & Hands

• Avoid “dead arms”: Always give them a job. You don't wanna look like a mannequin that hasn't been posed.

• Rest gently on hips. You can usually put one hand on your hip and the other arm that's further away down and out of view.

• One or both hands in pockets. If you're putting one hand in your pocket, then you should put the other hand around someone.

• Wrap arms around a partner’s waist (not shoulders). I loved the one you reach around their lower back and a buddy you reach around their shoulders or upper back.

• Crossed arms = confident. Take both your hands and make fists and then tuck them under your arms or right up against your chest. If you do it in other ways, it tends to look self soothing. It makes it look like you're giving yourself a hug and that you're less confident then you probably are.

• Adjusting clothing or jewelry works for candid “transition” shots.

• Grabbing, clenched fists, or “claw hands.”What you do with your hands looks intentional. You want to look relaxed and purposeful with what you do with your hands. If you're making a fist or you're holding your hand and a karate chop fashion, or displaying out your fingers you're now not going to look at the person's face you're going to wonder why they're doing that with their han.

• Hiding hands completely behind backs. There's a psychological thing in our reptilian brain that wonders what you have behind your back and the longer you do it the more people wonder, is he holding a giant club? So let's see those hands or place them in other areas that we've talked about.

4. Focus & Attention

• Eyes on me: Your job is to follow the lens, not the kids, phones, or the peanut gallery. Kids are going to be kids and they're gonna make faces here and there but my goal as the photographer is to get a few of them looking forward and there are ways for me to trick them into smiles usually it's getting a few silly ones first. Even if we don't get those perfect smiles, we get those memories of them being difficult and silly and showing off their personality. My goal is to get as much as I can for you so definitely keep your focus on me.

• Stay in the moment: The one shot where everyone’s paying attention will be the keeper. The more people in the photo the more photos I take, but I will say that, even if I take less amount of photos after a certain amount of time there is someone who gets bored and ends up, looking around the room and that tends to be the one keeper. I don't correct people's eyes after the fact, so make sure yours are looking forward.

• Hair/outfit fixes: Do them early. Avoid constant fiddling during the shoot. I cannot count the times that I've done a big group shoot and there is some girl off to the side who just keeps flipping her hair and flipping your hair and flipping her hair and before you know it, everyone starts to look around because they're wondering why I'm not taking photos and then I have to gain everyone's focus again and then the hair flipping starts again.

5. Expressions & Interaction

• Smiling: show some teeth when possible. When I have a chance, I will typically bring down the saturations of yellows so we make sure everyone has a brighter smile than usual. A true smile usually has cheeks raise and eyes somewhat squinting. This lets people automatically know that you're happy, they can recognize it. If you're just faking a smile, someone can recognize that too.

• Practice in a mirror. Your natural smile comes when you breathe, not when you force it. It sounds very weird, but this is true. Practice your smile in the mirror and then you can throw it up during those family photos.

• Think of a happy memory—emotion shows through your eyes. You can even fake a laugh to really get your face to contort to a natural smile.

• Couples: Hands on each other, gentle touches. Think romance, not stiff formality. Remember to still face slightly outwards just because if you face too much into your partner, it's going to broadcast that you're very dependent on them. You wanna come off as equals. Make sure to not lean into the other person too much, we never want to sacrifice your height, so always stand for your height. If you start leaning down towards a smaller person, then it might look like you have a bone disease someday in the photo.

• Families: Engage with each other. A natural laugh, a glance at your child—those are gold. When you do these photos, make sure to keep an audience in front of you so imagine that you're on a talk show you wouldn't face the talkshow host all the way you'd still keep a good portion of your face to the audience and use your eyes to talk to talk. Show host as you slightly turn towards them.

• Individuals: Confidence wins. Even if you’re nervous, lean into the direction and it will show as natural. Doing different expressions or variations of smiles will really show off in your photos. It may feel weird during the photo shoot but afterwards when you look at all the variations, you might find one that you've never done before and love it.

6. Direction During Shoot

• Listen first, then move: I’ll guide poses step by step. The less talking over me, the faster and smoother things go.

• Skip the jokes: “Careful, you’ll break the camera” slows everything down. Let’s keep the flow moving.

• if we're doing a bunch of group photos, I'm gonna try and go through them as quick as I can to make sure we fit everything in. I'm always going to ask after the fact if I'm missing anything or if you wanna change anything.

• Speak up early: If you have a request, say it at the start of the session, not mid-pose.

• Be quick and to the point. If you want just all the guys or just the girls say so. I often don't need the backstory or a long sentence of “last summer, we had all of the girls do a photo and we stood there and looked this way and it was really nice and right now. It would be nice if we got Cindy, Sue and Louise and the other girls and stood in the exact same way and will look towards the camera and smile. Do you think we can get everyone to come over and do that that would be great. It was just so nice back in the day when we did that photo and it would be really great if we could create it again because our grandmother would really like to see that.” Maybe just sum it up with all the girls in the photo we want to re-create a photo.

7. Props & Distractions

• Empty pockets: No phones, wallets, keys, hair ties, sunglasses.

• No drinks, purses, or bags in your hands unless it’s intentional for the photo.

• Leave coats/jackets off unless they’re part of the look.

8. Group & Family Arrangement

• Parents/elders in the middle.

• Alternate genders when possible for balance.

• Tallest in the center, heights descending outward.

• Layering people in two rows, sometimes three. Shouldn’t exceed that If possible.

• If rows are stacked, every head must be visible between shoulders of the row in front.

• Confidence: Don’t try to “hide” in the back. Everyone matters in the photo.

9. Kids & Pets (if applicable)

• Parents: Focus on the camera, not on correcting your child. I’ll handle getting their attention. Some of the shoot may be a ticking time bomb so my goal is to get those photos before they explode. Sometimes it's making a silly noise to get their focus. The main goal is to show some of their personality as well and not just a blank smile. Hopefully, they've gone through enough. Photos shoots where they can muster a good fake smile.

• You can place your hands on their shoulders. You can even take a knee or crouch down with them if they're that age to do so. You're not all going to be the same height and you don't need to be. You actually want to showcase how small they are at that age. You can wrap your arms around your kids. Pretty much anything goes.

• Bring bribes: Snacks (non-messy), toys, or rewards help. Maybe they're going to their favorite restaurant or ice cream spot afterwards?

• Pets: Walk them beforehand, bring treats, and expect a few “wild card” shots. We start with the pets to get them out of the way. But just like kids they can be unpredictable. So we might end up with three good photos of them even though we've taken 20.

10. Final Reminders

• These photos aren’t just for today: They’re for your family history. Commit fully, even if you’re not a “photo person.” if you're at a wedding and you don't want your photo taken, but you're happy to have shown up to eat the steak dinner and have some of their cake, you are the problem. Just be a team player and get a photo for the bride and groom.

• Relax: I’ll guide everything—you don’t have to figure it out. I want to set you up for the win. I want you so happy about the photo and looking forward to seeing the finished version of it. Let me cook.

• Trust me: The best photos come from following direction, keeping energy up, and letting go of self-consciousness.