In this video, Pye covers some flattering posing techniques for men. People often relate posing techniques to the sex of the person, but in actuality, it’s all about body language and what persona you’re trying to convey using the body. We’ve teamed up with Adorama to bring you a series of photography tutorials called “Master Your Craft” to be featured on their YouTube Channel. Subscribe to see more of our videos on their channel that cover photography, lighting, posing, and editing education to help you hone your skills and master your craft. To watch the entire series, check out our playlist!

For this tutorial, I asked my friend David Suh to act as my male model. You might recognize him from his viral videos on TikTok and YouTube where he is known for providing women with confidence through his beautiful portraiture and photography experience.  David often works with female clients so I thought this would be a great exercise to have him pose for me in front of the camera. Now, although we often associate posing techniques with the sex of the subject,  In reality, poses relate to body language and it truly doesn’t matter how you identify yourself, but more so what feeling you want to convey.

We’re going to start with the typical standing shot.  The message we are trying to convey through body language is to expand presence to create a look of strength. If we want to create more strength in a shot Too often do we describe do we attach words like “femininity” and “masculinity” to sexes rather than the messaging we are trying to convey through a pose. Before we dive into the posing nuances I want to take a before shot to show you the difference posing will make.

2 posing for menStep 1: Lower Your Angle

Whenever we want to convey strength, we want our subject to dominate over the frame. To do this you’re going to move the frame down and this is going to make a dramatic difference because it allows our subject to essentially tower over the frame and it gives them a stronger position in the shot. There’s already a dramatic difference in the tone and message of the image from our first shot and our second after a quick change in angle.

Step 2: Open Up the Feet

By opening the feet and facing the toes out a bit, it gives David a look of more confidence. Often times, when feet are too close together and the toes are pointed inwards, this denotes a lack of comfortability and introversion.

Step 3: Upper Body Adjustments to Expand Presence

I had David pull his shirt back on one side and put his right hand into the pocket. This gives a direct action for his hands and a placement for his arms and shoulders that open up this body to the camera.  The next thing we can do to help expand the presence is changing the direction that his chest is facing. I’m not going to turn him completely in my direction but just slightly so that his body is still open to the camera.

Step 4: Facial Expressions & Demeanor

If I want him to have a strong presence over the frame I’m going to have them actually bring the chin to the right and up a little and then have him look down towards the camera. This ties in with the dominance that we were trying to create with the pose and finishes off the look. Here is the final before and after edited with our Visual Flow Presets Mood Pack.

 

Be sure to catch our next episode of Mastering Your Craft on Adorama’s YouTube channel next week! If you want to catch up on all the episodes, make sure you check out our playlist! See more of David’s work on his Instagram and TikTok and follow us over on TikTok for more tutorials!