Female poses – 9 expert posing tips for photographing women

​I’m primarily a boudoir photographer, so for me posing women isn’t just about making them look better in photos, female poses celebrate the female shape.

But female posing for photos is just as much about body language.

We know that in face-to-face conversation our body language gives telltale clues about how we’re feeling and what we’re thinking. Some of us are more expressive in our body language than others, just like some of us are more open in what we choose to say.

Well, posing is using body language to make a picture truly speak a thousand words.

So, with portrait photography for women, female poses aren’t just about creating a lovely shape, we’re also creating a message. And that adds so much more depth to an image than just a pretty shape.

Now let’s get into how to make women look great in photos…

1. Accentuating and minimizing curves when posing women

The golden rule to remember when photographing women is that whatever is closest to camera will be bigger.

So, when photographing a woman, to slim her hips, direct her to put her weight on the back foot. In other words, if she’s standing facing towards the camera, with one foot slightly forward from the other, her weight must be on the leg that’s furthest away from the camera (i.e. the back leg). This pushes her hips away from the camera, which makes them smaller.

It’s also why a woman’s hands shouldn’t be too far forward from her body towards camera. So also pay careful attention to posing women’s hands in photos.

2. Female poses – if it bends, bend it

This is one of the first rules of posing women. Because women’s bodies have curves, bending limbs accentuates the curves. A quick flick through any fashion magazine will give you tons of examples of this popular technique for female modelling poses.

Bending the arms highlights the curve:

• At the waist
• In the small of her back

Bending one leg and shifting her weight to the other leg will:

• Push her hip out on one side
• which creates a curve when facing to camera

If a woman poses side on to camera it accentuates the feminine shape, because it:

• Amplifies the outward curve of her booty
• and the inward curve in the small of her back

I asked my client to place a hand on the hip of her bent leg to carry the line of the leg further. So, not only does her arm accentuate her waist or back curve, but it also continues the line of her leg, which adds a pleasing flow to her shape and extends her leg. Plus when you compare the two photos you can see that by creating space between her arm and her back in the image on the right, she appears slimmer.

3. Female poses to create space between arm and body

If you add the width of both your arms to the width of your body, you make yourself significantly bigger. So arms need to be away from the side of the body in photos of women.

This is why so often we see women pose with their hands on their hips. However, the space doesn’t need to be so big. I have two other ways of subtly creating space between arm and body.

Ask your female subject to:

• Place her hand on the side of her leg and then drag her hand up her leg by bending her elbow until you see enough space between elbow and waist to separate her arm from her body
• Or, when posed more side on to camera, lean her shoulders backwards slightly and let her arm closest to camera hang down behind her slightly

These before and after photos show how directing the model to bend her elbow slightly to create the window of space between arm and body improved the pose

Whether front on or side on to camera, that small window of space between her waist and her elbow will do two things:

• Reduce her width
• Create curves

This works well for all body shapes, because posing women isn’t always to make them slimmer. Sometimes it’s to make a slim woman curvier. Portrait photography posing is all about how you adapt a concept to a particular body shape.

Watch out for foreshortening in poses, because this will shorten body and limbs. You can easily avoid these posing mistakes by adjusting the pose slightly so that limbs aren’t pointing to camera.

In both these poses the model’s weight is on the front leg to create a curvier shape as she’s quite slim. Note how her arm position in the first photo makes her curvier than in the second photo

4. The magic of 45 degrees for female poses

Speaking of slimming angles, it’s often best to photograph women angled at 45 degrees to camera, rather than facing square on to camera.

At the 45 degree angle a woman’s width is greatly reduced.

5. The feminine S shape in female posing

The beauty of the female form lies in the curves. So when photographing a woman, we need to make sure that we make the most of her curves, regardless of whether she’s standing, sitting or lying down.

The best way to accentuate female curves is to think in terms of an S shape for great curves and apply the pose to the whole body. Because the S curve shape is so distinctly feminine, when you photograph an S pose from the front, the side or even the back it’s flattering.

Examples of standing photo poses for women that accentuate an hourglass shape with an S curve pose

6. Female poses for defining the waist

Here are a few posing tricks for women to create an hourglass shape, or even just more of a waistline in slim women and minimizing a waistline on curvier women.

This female pose may seem to contradict my first tip, because we’re not creating space between arm and body…

However, we’re still not letting the arm just hang next to her body, which would make her body seem wider.

1. Slimming pose for female portraits sitting down

Instead, direct your subject to bring her arm across her body. This makes her shoulders wider than where her arm cuts across her body and so creates a slimmer waist.

How not to pose for pictures sitting down (left) vs a much better way to pose women for pictures when sitting down (right). I directed her to cross her left arm across her body, with relaxed hand side on to camera. Then rest her right elbow on her left forearm and bring her hand up to frame her face. It’s important not to block the waistline with arms, but rather use them to slim the waist.

This female posing trick works particularly well for seated subjects facing to camera, because the waist is less obvious when sitting.

However, it’s also great for standing female poses.

2. Slimming trick for female standing poses

When a woman isn’t square on to camera, but standing at a 45 degree angle, this posing technique accentuates the curve at the small of the back. This in turn makes her waist slimmer and introduces an S curve to the pose.

These portrait examples show variations on women poses with arms crossed across the body for sitting poses and standing poses to create curves and make the waist look slimmer.

7. Confident portrait poses for women

When a woman looks confident, she feels great and looks good. So I love photographing women in a way that makes them look strong, confident and sometimes with a bit of attitude.

For this reason I very, very rarely photograph a woman looking up into the camera. The high camera angle places the viewer in a dominant position and the subject in the submissive position.

Traditionally women were photographed from above their eye level and men were photographed from below their eye level, but times have changed and so have camera angles.

Plus, there’s a better way to make double chins disappear – keep on reading!

It takes confidence to take up space, so big female poses that take up space automatically look confident. Get her arms up and away from the body, even above the head.

I’m about to contradict some of the advice I’ve already given…again…

You don’t always need to bend everything to look good. There. I said it. Totally goes against the golden rule of female posing that “if it bends, bend it”. Well, a woman can be curvy, slim and stand strong all at the same time. Here’s how…

When you (male or female) plant your weight firmly on both feet, you look confident, sure of yourself. Just mentally scroll through all the images of superheroes you’ve ever seen to confirm this.

However, with full body poses for women, standing with weight on both feet and square on to camera makes everyone wider, which we don’t want to do to a woman. A straight on to camera pose can also be confrontational, and you don’t have to be confrontational in attitude to appear confident.

You just need to look sure of yourself, which is communicated with a strong stance.

So all we do is take that pose and angle it 45 degrees to camera with just her head turned straight to camera (like below).

In the first and last posing examples she’s standing on both feet. In the middle photo, her weight is on the back foot. What makes the pose so confident in the last photo is her body and arm position and the fact that she’s looking straight to camera.

8. Head angles of posing for women

Now here’s the really exciting part about posing women for portrait photography.

Just the slightest adjustment to the angle of a woman’s head in posing changes everything. You can cycle through several different looks with the smallest of head movements while holding the same pose. So I love playing with head tilts in poses.

Three examples of head position in female posing…

• For photos with attitude that scream confidence, direct a female subject to tilt her head back slightly and quite literally “look down her nose” to camera. If she has a beautiful jawline, it’s even better.
• Tilting her head slightly so that her ear closest to camera is closer to her shoulder creates a questioning look that invites the viewer in.
• Tilting the other way, so that her ear furthest from camera moves closer to her far shoulder, creates an engaging look if the chin is tilted down (like the main photo to this tutorial) or challenging if the chin is tilted up.

Do you see how the angle of the head makes such a difference to the feeling of an image with photo poses for women?

9. Speaking of jawlines in female portrait photography…

Not all head positions in female portraits are about attitude. Head angle in female posing makes a huge difference to defining the jawline, even for women with already firm jawlines. For those of us who are carrying a little weight below our chins, the slightest movement of the head in the right direction has the same effect as weeks of dieting!

This pose feels weird and looks a bit strange from the side, but it’s a great posing trick for women and men.

When a woman pushes her face towards the camera (the way a turtle would), she gets a more defined jawline. She’ll feel it in the back of her neck if she’s doing it right.

Steps for improving portrait photography poses for women

• Practice female poses yourself in front of a mirror – it doesn’t matter if you’re a male or female photographer, you need to be able to show your subject how to do the pose. It’ll be so much easier for her to copy you than try to understand your explanation. Besides, you can make a joke of it, which is a great way to have fun and make her relax.
• Scour Pinterest for poses you like and then reference them on your phone if you need a reminder during a shoot. You can either just have a quick look yourself, before you demonstrate the pose, or you can show her the image on your phone.
• Don’t try to remember too many photo poses for women all at once. Start with three. Get really comfortable with the poses so that you don’t have to think about it and then learn another three. It’s easier to build up your knowledge gradually than trying to cram it all into your brain at once.
• Find women to photograph – friends, family, new and experienced models (read these tips first for finding models)

Further reading: How to choose the best lens for portraits to avoid bad photos

Leave a comment

If you have any questions about portrait photography poses for women, let us know in the comments.

Also, I love good news, so if my female posing tips have shown you how to pose women in portraits, share that too.