What to do With Your Hands in Photos (and Every Other Thing You’re Overthinking)

The hands thing. It’s always the hands. The moment a camera comes out, everyone suddenly becomes extremely aware that they have hands and has absolutely no idea what to do with them.

Arms? Also a problem.

Where do you look?

How do you stand?

Is your face doing

something weird?

Let’s just go through it.

The Hands

First: relax them. Literally shake them out if you need to because loose hands photograph much

better than tense hands. From there, give those hands something to do.

Hold something, your phone, a prop, the strap of a bag. Put them in your pockets (one hand, not both, unless we say otherwise). Let them rest naturally at your sides with a slight bend at the elbow.

Hook your thumbs. Rest a hand on your collarbone. None of these are wrong.

But also...

And this is important!

We’ve got you and will walk you through this. You don’t have to remember it. I know some people like to have tips and come prepared though so here are some more tips.

The Arms

Arms pinned straight to your sides read as stiff and nervous on camera every time. Create a little space, even a tiny gap between your arm and your body makes a visual difference.

Cross them loosely. Let one hang and bend the other. Rest one on something. The goal is just to not look like you’re standing at attention. Relaxed and slightly asymmetrical almost always looks better than right and symmetrical.

Where to Look

We’ll direct you on this during the session, but the general options are: straight at the lens (direct and powerful when it works), slightly off to the side (natural and a little mysterious), down at something specific (thoughtful and real), or at someone or something that interests you.

What doesn’t work is the unfocused “I don’t know where to look” gaze. Pick a specific thing and look at it.

How to Stand

You can just... stand. And we will show you what to do.

But turning your body slightly always works and so does shifting your weight to one leg.

It feels more natural than standing with equal weight on both feet. Leaning on or againstsomething gives your body a reason to be in a position, which always reads more naturally than just standing in space.

The Face

Stop thinking about it. Genuinely. The more you think about your face, the worse it gets. Focus on what’s happening around you instead, the conversation, the music, the thing we just said.

Your fun face takes care of itself when your brain is occupied with something real. If we need something specific from your expression, we’ll make it happen.

The Real Answer to All of This

Move more than you think you should. Talk more than you think you should. React to things in real time. The body knows what to do when it’s engaged, the hands find a place, the arms relax, the face does something genuine. All of this overthinking dissolves when you stop trying to hold a right moment and start just living one.

Add some movement and be more you.