{"id":216,"date":"2011-10-01T08:09:55","date_gmt":"2011-09-30T22:09:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digital-photography-school.com\/how-to-pose-hands-in-portraits\/"},"modified":"2017-10-09T21:00:23","modified_gmt":"2017-10-09T10:00:23","slug":"how-to-pose-hands-in-portraits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digital-photography-school.com\/how-to-pose-hands-in-portraits\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Pose Hands in Portraits"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/span>\"Minolta<\/span>

Image by Alex<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Sometimes the smallest things in a photo can impact the overall feel of the image.<\/p>\n

\nI learned this important lesson the first time I photographed a wedding.\n<\/p>\n

\nThe grooms hands gave it all away.<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

On the day itself I thought the bride and groom were very relaxed an enjoying the day, but on getting the photos back I was immediately drawn to the hands of the groom. In virtually every shot they were clenched or grasping at the sleeves of his suit coat.<\/p>\n

\nIn showing the photos to others I found that quite a few of them noticed the same thing while others thought he looked stressed but couldn’t quite put their finger (no pun intended) on why.\n<\/p>\n

\nI later found out that the groom was having second thoughts about what he was doing all day long. His hands told the story.<\/strong>\n<\/p>\n

\nThe hands and fingers are often giveaways to how the rest of the body is feeling.\n<\/p>\n

How to Photograph Hands<\/h3>\n

\n1. When posing a subject pay particular attention to their hands and encourage your model to keep them relaxed and their fingers separated. <\/p>\n

2. If your subject can’t seem to relax their hands – consider composing shots that don’t include the hands (head shots and upper body shots).\n<\/p>\n

\n3. Sometimes the best thing to do with hands is to give them something to hold or do. Consider using a prop (as long as it adds to and is relevant the shot and isn’t distracting), get your subject to play with their ring (if they wear one), straighten a cuff of their shirt, or have them rest upon some other element in the shot (a leg, a chair etc).\n<\/p>\n

\n4. Lastly – hands tend to look best when shot from the side. Front on shots of hands can often look quite blob like.\n<\/p>\n

\nDo you pay attention to hands in your shots? How do you pose them? Share your tips.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sometimes the smallest things in a photo can impact the overall feel of the image. I learned this important lesson the first time I photographed a wedding. The grooms hands gave it all away. On the day itself I thought the bride and groom were very relaxed an enjoying the day, but on getting the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":91451,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-portrait-photography"],"yoast_head":"\nHow to Pose Hands in Portraits<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sometimes the smallest things in a photo can impact the overall feel of the image. 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