Full body portraits (posing, composition, camera angles and lenses)

To be a better photographer, when photographing anyone who isn’t a model, you need to remember what it feels like to stand in front of a camera. It’s important to make your subject feel comfortable, especially for full body portraits, regardless of whether it’s an individual, a couple or a group of people.

The more of a person that’s included in a photo, the more vulnerable they’ll feel in front of the camera.

The first question most people ask is “What should I do with my hands?”, followed by “Where should I look?”. So you need to pre-empt their questions by giving clear, confident direction for portrait photography poses.

Don’t give them a chance to have to ask the question. Before you even pick up your camera let them know that you’ll direct them into great poses and they don’t have to think about a thing.

With headshots or three quarter photographs there’s less of a person to pose. Much easier! With full body photography, not only do you need to work on making your subject feel comfortable, so that their facial expressions are relaxed and happy, you also have to pay attention to their whole body. So full body photos are more work for portrait photographers.

This includes:

• Posing
• Hair and clothing
• Camera angle
• Background
• Camera settings
• Lens choice

Let’s first focus on the subject before we move onto your position, camera angle and the technical aspects of how to take full body pictures.

Posing for full body photography

Posed portrait photography requires more detailed attention on your subject than lifestyle photography.

While both styles of photography apply to full body portraits, the difference is that lifestyle photography is more about conveying emotion. There’s always a lot of movement involved in lifestyle photo shoots so it’s not about getting exactly the right poses.

Portrait photography on the other hand is about showing a person at their best, so it’s more focused on posing the entire body and camera angles.

This applies to both indoor photography and outdoor photography. Neither one is better than the other – they’re just different and they both have their place.

So the following full body posing tips are mainly portrait photography techniques, rather than lifestyle photography techniques, and also apply to modelling photo shoots.

Posing the full body from the feet up

When I pose a subject for full body poses I start from the feet up, because I find people are less likely to move their feet while concentrating on, for example, hand placement, than the other way around.

To be honest, I do this for three quarter shots, as well as headshots, because feet placement makes a difference to a person’s body shape and appearance.

Best angles for full body photo

Rotating to a 45 degree angle to the camera is slimming and less confrontational than facing full on to the camera.

Place weight on the back foot

When weight’s shifted to one foot, as opposed to being equally on both feet, it creates shape and the subject appears more relaxed than if they’re standing firmly planted on both feet.

To make this look as natural as possible in standing poses for women I always ask them which is their shopping queue leg. In other words, if they’re standing in a queue at the till, which is the leg they stand on. Whichever they say is their usual load bearing leg is the one that should be the “back leg”.

That said, not everybody shifts their weight to one leg. Some people do stand with their weight on both feet.

Bend one knee

Again, bending one knee creates shape. For women this is a great way to start creating a flattering S shape, which is both flattering for women and more interesting from a composition point of view.

Let the hips fall to one side

Obviously, when it comes to hip placement it’s different for posing women and men. Popping the hip to one side is another essential technique for creating the S curve for full body portraits of women.

This should simply be a slight exaggeration of their normal way of standing “in a shopping queue”.

A masculine pose doesn’t require “popping the hip”.

Asymmetrical shoulders look great with full body poses

Again, this should feel natural. Your subject shouldn’t feel contorted as their discomfort will show very clearly in a full length portrait.

Try this – stand up now and relax your posture as though waiting for the bus, or standing in a queue.

You’ll notice how your shoulder on the load bearing side drops slightly, making your pose asymmetrical. Exaggerate this slightly, maybe raise the other shoulder slightly and you’ve got the basis of a good full body pose.

Arms and hands in full body photos

Now we’re at the part that concerns so many subjects posing for full body pictures. Men in particular need something to do with their hands when posing for photos.

Think asymmetrically again. You can achieve so many full body pose variations simply by moving the arms around.

• If one hand is in a pocket, or on the hip let the other hand loosely.
• For a woman let one hand come up to the collar bone or jawline or rest on the thigh of the bent leg while the other is on the hip, or folded across the body.
• If wearing a jacket they can hold onto the lapels, but make sure that one hand is higher than the other.

You don’t have to be a stickler for asymmetry though.

For men, folded arms work great, clasping hands in front, adjusting cuffs, or resting both hands in pockets or on hips.

Think about what the body language of a pose is saying and if it matches the intended message of the photograph.

Just one word of warning on posing before we move on. Watch out for foreshortening when posing as this can cause a subject’s body or limbs to look shorter than they are. And pay careful attention to posing hands in photos.

Head position in portraits

The angle of your subject’s head makes a big difference in portrait photography. I say this from two points of view:

• The one being body language and how the tilt of a head can affect the message. Tilt a chin up slightly for a more confident pose and tilt it up even further for a more challenging pose.
• The other is an aesthetic consideration, because whatever is closest to the camera will appear larger. To de-emphasize a large forehead, even in full body pictures if your subject lifts their chin slightly it’ll move the forehead slightly further way from the camera, making the forehead smaller. Likewise for chins – tilt the chin up to make it bigger and tilt it down to make it smaller.

Position the head at an angle to the camera that’s not fully face on to camera is slimming, but also more friendly.

Hair and clothing in full length pictures

As I mentioned at the beginning, with full body portraits there’s a lot more work for the photographer, and that includes scanning your subject for anything out of place.

I once spent a ridiculous amount of time closing the best man’s zipper in Photoshop. Obviously, when photographing a wedding you can’t stop the speech to tell the person their zipper is down, but during a portrait photoshoot, you absolutely can and should.

But clothing fails aren’t always as significant as that.

It’s all the little details that count. As people move, their clothing shifts and while we don’t notice these things in normal life, when you take a photo it freezes the moment. A rucked up shirt can be very unflattering in photos and also distracting.

So once your subject is in position, you could simply give the shirt a little tug to even out the folds. Ask them first – never touch a person in front of your lens without their permission. If it’s your family, that’s different of course.

Clothing hiccups to watch out for:

• Buttons – are they meant to be done up or not?
• Tie – is it straight?
• Dresses, shirts, jerseys and jackets – are they hanging correctly?
• Are trousers hanging correctly, or is one leg maybe rucked up a little?
• Any loose threads?

The list goes on, but you get the picture (haha).

Hair can be particularly difficult in photos, especially when somebody is nervous as nervous people shift a lot. You might have got them into the perfect full body pose and you’re ready to go and they look down and back up at you dislodging their hair again. Or a gust of wind wafts up a tuft of hair.

This again is why, just like with posing, I scan wardrobe from the feet up.

Don’t take too long posing subjects

That’s a lot of stuff to get right before you take the shot, but you can’t take too long. So, no pressure, but get it all right and do it fast. Seconds pass very slowly for anyone in front of the lens so you have to keep a shoot moving to keep the energy up for good photos.

As always, practice is key, so find models for practicing your full body photography.

My family tease me that they don’t need to worry about something being out of place, because I’ll point it out before they’ve had a chance to notice. They have no idea how often I don’t actually say anything. This is the downside of doing portrait photography for years – I never stop scanning!

So that’s your subject covered. Now let’s look at what you can do to take better full length pictures, particularly:

• Camera angle
• Background and foreground
• Camera settings
• Lens choice

Camera angle for full body portraits

I’m standard height for a woman, which I think puts me at an advantage for capturing full body photos. If you’re tall, full length photography becomes a bit of a workout for your thighs, because camera angle plays a big role in the appearance of your subject.

I do bend my knees, but not as much as a tall man would need to.

That said, I tend to shoot from a kneeling position most of the time, because this puts my camera at my subject’s waist height, which is a flattering camera angle for full body photography.

This is why waist height is the most common camera angle for full body portraits. So, make sure you change it up a bit to incorporate other angles for variety.

Lying on the ground photographing up towards your subject puts your camera at roughly knee height of your subject. It creates a very dynamic photo, putting the subject in position of power over the viewer and changes the usual perspective.

The opposite camera angle is to get up high and shoot down on your subject. This places the viewer in a position of power, so completely changes the feeling of the photo. You won’t see politicians photographed from this camera angle.

To avoid an image feeling cramped, remember to include more space above your subject’s head than below their feet.

Background & foreground in full length portraits

The more of a person you include in a photo, the more the background and foreground is visible in pictures. So, for outdoor photography, you need to be careful when selecting a location to avoid distractions in the background and foreground.

But more than that, add to the picture by actively thinking through your background and foreground. Use the space to make the image more interesting.

Considering the background, naturally leads to thinking about what aperture to use.

Aperture for full body photography

A wide aperture works well to blur the background in full body pictures, which will reduce distractions in the background and isolate the subject.

I don’t like to blur the background in photos completely, so I don’t go for very wide apertures. Turns out I shoot at F4 a lot of the time. Nothing wrong with photographers that do use wide apertures, it’s just not my style.

Also, sometimes you want detail in the background of photos, especially if the background is relevant to the subject, like in an environmental portrait.

Aside from personal style, a blurry background isn’t solely dependent on wide apertures. So if you don’t have a lens that goes wider than f5.6, but you want a blurry background, don’t despair.

All you need to do is make sure that the distance between you and your subject is less than the distance between your subject and the background.

Another way to blur the background is to use a longer focal length for full body photos.

Lens for full length portraits

The reason I mention lenses for full body portraits last is because the above considerations impact your choice of lens focal length first. For example, if you want to blur the background, using a wide angle, like 35mm, won’t work well for you, especially at apertures narrower than F4.

I also believe that you should learn to work with what you have – it’s a great way to stretch your knowledge of portrait photography techniques.

So, with those camera setting considerations aside, you also need to be aware that your choice of focal length affects the appearance of your subject. Let’s take a look at the best focal length for full body portraits…

35mm lens

If using a 35mm lens for full body portraits, make sure that the subject is towards the center of the of the image. Elements at the edge of the frame will be distorted by the wide angle lens.

Be careful about how you tilt the camera when using wide angles for full body portraits.

It can work to your advantage, because to lengthen legs, shoot from a lower point of view.

However, when photographing from a higher point fo view with a 35mm lens, angling the camera down will make the head seem larger than normal, especially in relation to the rest of the body – creating a lollipop effect.

50mm lens

A 50mm lens will give you the most normal view for full body portraits – i.e. the closest to how our eyes see a scene.

So, a 50mm would make a good lens for full body pictures, especially with a wide aperture of F1.4 or F1.8 if you want to blur the background.

However, many portrait photographers prefer 85mm over 50mm. 

85mm and 105mm

The ideal lens focal lengths for portrait lenses are 85mm and 105mm, because they’re most flattering.

With a 105mm lens you’d have to be a fair bit away from your subject to capture a full length portrait, which makes directing more difficult and breaks the connection between you and your subject. It’s easily overcome, however, you just need to work a bit harder at your personal skills.

What are the three types of portrait lengths?

To finish off, if you’re wondering what three portrait lengths are used, they’re:

• Head and shoulders
• Three quarter length (from the top of the head to mid thigh or below the knee)
• Full length

Any of these portrait lengths can be applied to posing somebody from the front, the side the back or an over the shoulder angle.

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