They say the camera adds 10lbs and for the majority of your clients, that is going to be a bad thing. We all want to look our best in photographs and our jobs as photographers is to make our clients look and feel their best when we photograph them. Peter Hurley is a master at this.

Peter Hurley, one of our favorite headshot photographers to watch and glean from for his charisma and his arsenal of handy portrait photography tips and tricks, is back with a new and simple tip that helps your subjects look slimmer. The headshot technique is called, “Hold Your Sub.” When women are in front of the camera, most of the time, we naturally put our hands on our hips. Peter says this is not a good thing for clients who want to appear slimmer as it makes your subject look three times larger than they actually are by making the shoulders look broader. The Hold Your Sub technique will tuck the elbows in and pull the back muscles back which makes a marked difference in a headshot situation.

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[REWIND: See more of Peter Hurley’s tips in these articles]

All you need to do is have your clients pretend to hold a giant submarine sandwich – the kind you get for staff meetings and birthday parties. (An added bonus is to have them hold a real sub sandwich, and then they don’t have to pretend, plus everyone gets lunch after the shoot).

This is one of many techniques Peter has shared with us. Among the more notable ones: The Squinch, which makes people look better in photos, and accentuating the jawline to create a more flattering look in the space between the jawline and neck. For a comprehensive photography tutorial, be sure to check out Peter’s Art Behind The Headshot DVD here.

[Via Fstoppers]