How to: Pose Clients during a Photoshoot

When it comes to posing clients for a photoshoot, many photographers have stated that posing for the entire duration of an hour-long shoot is a difficult task that can cause stress, imposter syndrome, and a fear of failure. Luckily, there are ways to combat this feeling through actionable steps that make posing clients something to be excited about, rather than something that makes you feel as though taking photos is a difficult task that leads to stress and a sense of failure. Through this blog, I will explain ways to pose and prompt your client for beautiful, natural, and authentic photos. 

Posing vs Prompting

To explain how to pose or prompt your clients, you must first understand the difference between the two. Both make for beautiful photos, but depending on the outcome you want from your photoshoot, these two methods can cause different results.

Posing is when the photographer directs clients to stand still in a position and then captures it. The photographer can capture different angles, make small changes to the pose, and evaluate how the client looks to the camera. Here are some examples of posing that I have taken:

Now what is prompting? Prompting is directing clients into moving and capturing the movement. This can be the client walking, swaying, dancing, twirling, etc. Any way that allows for movement to come through the camera and create a natural flowing look in the photo. Here are some of my prompting examples:

Preparing to Pose and Prompt

Now, how do you come up with good poses or prompts that fill the entire hour-long photoshoot, not just 10 minutes? For coming up with poses, there are many different ways to get ideas for poses and prompts, but I will share what I personally do to get the most out of my clients' photoshoots. The first thing I do when booking a client is set up the date, time, and location. For location, I ask first if they have one in mind, and if not, I provide some options that are local to me. Once the location is found, I look up both the type of shoot and the vibe of the location on Pinterest. So, for instance, if I did a graduation photoshoot in the Arizona desert, I would look up different variations of “Arizona graduation desert photoshoot” on Pinterest, and create a mood board for the photoshoot on my Pinterest (which you should follow MY PINTEREST). Then I send the mood board to the client of the poses, overall vibe, and ideas, and see if they like the idea, have something to add, or maybe want a different location or style entirely. This is essentially the “homework” I give myself to provide an idea and plan for what photos I want to capture. Also, when booking the location, I look at locations near the area and what is within walking distance from where I am meeting with the client. This allows for additional posing and prompt ideas with the new location and the props it provides. 

How to Pose:

Now that you know how to prepare, let's discuss how to pose. Posing is a great way of getting solid photos that show off your client in a beautiful way. It shows their face, angles, and presentation the way you and the client want. Posing can tend to be seen as “stiff” - although that is not a bad thing. When you want your photos in a certain way. No movement or motion blur to worry about, posing is a simple and easy way to ensure that your photos come out clean and crisp without worrying about user error. A clean and crisp pose may be difficult to come up with - but with some practice and a few basics, it can be easier than you think. 

First, if you are new to posing the best way to do it is to just practice. Practice angles, practice looking in different directions, practice for the sake of learning how a camera works. When you give yourself stress-free time with your camera, posing is not scary and you can remember why you love photography to begin with. So grab a friend, go to the park, and have fun shooting different angles, being creative and seeing what you can make when you don’t force any rules on yourself. 

Other ways to practice posing is to seek inspiration. Photographers pose all the time, do not be afraid to look at their work, and see what you like and dislike. If there is a pose you like, save it for your next shoot. If you watch a movie that has an angle you like, try to recreate it. Gain inspiration from everywhere, and don’t be afraid to test different things that you may not think will work. Get 5 of essentially the same photo to practice different editing of the same pose. No one has ever gotten worse from trying to do something more often. Find poses, I will have some of my favorite poses below that you can feel free to use in your own shoot!