Posing Tips for Your Senior Session

This resource is to help seniors prepare for their senior shoot by giving them helpful tips before the shoot.

1. Choose inspirational photos to match your vision

My first advice is to head to Pinterest. Type "senior photoshoot" or "senior photographer" and start pinning your favorite photos. Knowing the vibe of your photoshoot can help you find keywords to search for more inspo such as "free", "urban", or "traditional". All of those keywords have different typical poses based on those words and can help give your photoshoot a better direction.

2. Know your locations

I can't stress how important this is! If you are worried about posing then it's very beneficial to choose a location that will be interactive. But what exactly do I mean by that? Being in a field is gorgeous, but it's sometimes difficult to come up with lots of posing options. I'd recommend going somewhere urban so there are walls to lean on and stairs to sit on. Having a wall, stairs, something to back lean on, or something to rest your elbow on can make the senior look way more relaxed and give you more options for poses.

3. Do your research

Research poses on senior photographer's Instagrams and Pinterest. This will help give you an idea of what to expect. Seniors, you can also save the ones you love so you can show your photographer the types of posing you feel comfortable with.

4. Relax and be yourself

When people are not comfortable in front of the camera, it's easy to tense up. Make sure to breathe and relax your shoulders. Throughout your shoot, just check in with yourself a few times to make sure you're standing how you normally do, and not stiff. Another thing that people tend to do when they are nervous in a photo is raise their chin more than usual. Just make sure you are having good communication with your photographer so they can tell you when you look tense.

5. Practice in the mirror

Practicing in the mirror definitely does not feel the same as actually being at the photoshoot, but it will help your body gain muscle memory of angles you know the poses look good at.

6. Small movements

Practice changing small things about your pose to switch things up. As a photographer, I love when my senior naturally changes a facial expression or looks off away from the camera to get a different type of photo. It doesn't have to be hard to find a lot of different poses. Stick to the basics and adjust small things such as, look off to the side, touch your hair, laugh, do a serious face, tilt your head a little.

7. Movement is important

Sometimes a posed photo can look a little awkward, especially when you aren't comfortable posing. Movement is a super helpful tip to make things feel more natural. Walking down the street, touching your hair, or twirling in a dress can be amazing shots that look super natural just because they are natural movements that don't require a ton of focusing. Movement helps with stress because it gives you something to do, and you look great doing it.

8. Trust your photographer

Your photographer is the KEY to everything posing. They are the ones taking the photos, choosing the angles, and directing you. Since of course you love their work, trust that they know best and follow their posing directions. Sometimes poses feel unnatural and come out looking SO beautiful. Trust the process. Feel free to ask your photographer to show you a few images as you shoot, so that you can feel confident knowing that you look amazing.

I know a lot of my seniors main concerns happen to usually be posing, so I wanted to make sure I wrote about this topic to help other seniors feel more relaxed for their senior shoot. Practice these tips and you will absolutely ROCK your senior session!