What should I do with my hands? A guide to hand positions for portraits...

One of the questions I get the most when shooting waist-up portraits: "What should I do with my hands?"

Sometimes instead of allowing for a head and shoulders crop the intended uses for a business portrait dictate we show a bit more body, for example from the waist up. Particularly for people who do not do a lot of public speaking this can present an uncomfortable challenge as they wonder what to do with their hands. The natural starting point, understandably, tends to be hands by their sides, which looks stiff and boring and can result in the hands being cropped off, so that's no good. We need to get those hands up!

No.

One advantage of including your hands in your portrait is their ability to help tell your story. Wherever they are the message they should be helping to communicate is that you are confident and relaxed. The key is to keep any sense of tension out of the wrists, hands and fingers; so rather than stretching all the fingers out, or folding them all in, position them somewhere in between these extremes. I will co-opt the words of the talent agent character Danny Reed in the movie "Holiday Inn" (although he's talking about orchids), when he says (your hands should be) "loose, looking like they don't care".

Left: we pretty much never want to see a "starfish" hand (ie. all fingers fully extended and evenly separated) as it's not pretty and exudes stress. Middle: much better...hand and and wrist are relaxed, fingers gracefully cascade from less to slightly more bent. Right: clenched fingers scream "uncomfortable".

 Please note: throughout this article the blue tinted pics are the "dont's" and the plain black and whites are the "do's".

I shot over 200 frames for this article partly because I kept getting my hands "wrong", which leads me to acknowledge that while it is really easy to get it wrong it is also way easier to get it right when your photographer is guiding you. I ended up with so many bad ones I got carried away selecting example after example of what not to do, until I realized I had an overwhelming number of, in many cases, quite subtly different images. I know from the experience of choosing selects with clients that staring at a bunch of subtly different portraits can result in their all starting to look the same. So I hit the reset button, culled out some of the subtler "wrongs" and chose the following examples to share with you. Obviously I will not cover all the possible hand positions, and there are no hard and fast rules. It goes without saying, too, that hands are just one of the many things we can get right or wrong in a portrait, so for the sake of this article we will to some extent ignore the other things and just focus on the hands.

Let's start with a popular pose for those identifying as women, especially: arms crossed. This pose offers a great way to keep your hands up and not have to think to hard about what to do with them. It doesn't work for everyone, every style of wardrobe, or every body type, but when it is possible it can help make a person look comfortable and confident...unless the hands are tucked away under the arms as if in hiding (below left), or "starfish" fingers are stressfully gripping the arms (below right). The key is to success with this pose is to rotate the wrists upward a bit and gently rest the fingers of both hands just above the elbows.

Left: hands tucked under arms as if diving for safety. Middle: both hands exposed and resting gently on arms. Right: both hands showing but looking like "starfish" or claws, and very tense.

There are a number of other ways to hold the hands up around waist level in a natural and comfortable looking way. I say comfortable looking because many people are not comfortable being photographed in any case, so as always the goal is to appear comfortable, whether you are or not.  There are, however, dead give aways as illustrated in the examples below. It is, once again, always about the lack of tension in the hands.

Top left and bottom right: death grips, dead give aways that the subject is not comfortable. Top right: loosely clasped hands with fingers bent to varying degrees, sort of "care-free" clasping. Bottom left: holding a pen. (I carry a set of silver pens to every corporate portrait shoot just to use as props.)

Lightly holding a finger on the opposite hand can look reasonably relaxed and unposed.

Another example of hands very gently, loosely together. Again, it's all about a total and obvious lack of tension.

The key to this pose is the relaxed fingers on the upper hand -- the fist is not clenched and fingers are bent to varying degrees in a casual, relaxed cascade. Also, the vertical arm is not straight up and down but lists slightly to one side.

Further to the example above here are a couple of variations that can work, or not, depending on some subtle details. Again, these won't work for everyone.

Top left: hands are both curled closed into fists, so looks a bit aggressive and emotionally "closed" as opposed to top right: hands are just a bit less curled up, looking more relaxed so the subject looks more approachable. Bottom left: OK I admit this one is not my favourite but it's OK, and at least looks fairly relaxed, unlike the bottom right pose showing fingers "desperately" intertwined.

Continuing on with the subtle differences and picky details...the next set of images includes a prop -- a table for the subject to lean on. 

Top left: hands gently touching, almost as if the subject is not conscious of her hands. Bottom right: fingers of the right hand rest casually on the hip and are spaced out unevenly, in a good way, while the 'cascading' bent fingers of the left hand appear reasonably relaxed. The wrist could have been a tiny bit bent to allow the hand to droop slightly for a subtly more relaxed look. Top right and bottom left are the "wrongs". Top right: "starfish" fingers on hip hand and hanging hand fingers all extended fully and evenly look more posed, and less natural. Bottom left: fist looks uncomfortable but so does the hand on the hip with fingers all perfectly aligned and fully extended with no gaps in between them.

Next...some seated poses, hand positions in which may be similar to some in the standing poses. Again, for those less comfortable with the whole portrait process the tendency is to place hands together, often in a tight grip.

Very tightly clasped hands belie the subject's attempt to appear comfortable and confident.

The top row are the "wrongs". Bottom row are the "betters". Top left and right: obviously tightly clasped hands which look the opposite of relaxed and confident. Top and bottom middle: this difference is subtle... in the bottom one hands and fingers looks a little more "random" (note the way the index finger on the top hand is separated to sit over the thumb of the bottom hand). The top middle one is not terrible but the fact that all fingers on the top hand are neatly beside each other makes it look more formal and posed, which again works against an overall appearance of naturally occurring comfort. Bottom left and bottom right: hands look reasonably "tidy" but not too perfect.

Another useful prop can be a table or desk at which the subject sits, circumstances allowing. This can be a great help, especially for more casual portraits, in terms of getting the hands up and into the frame.  An added bonus when using a desk or table is that additional props may be added and not seem out of place. I used a pen here, again. Another option might be a cup or glass, if appropriate. As always the desire is for the hands to support the overall appearance of comfort and confidence rather than to betray it, and to make sure the hands and fingers look as aesthetically pleasing as possible, meaning, for example, no "log jams" (as shown in the bottom middle shot below where all the fingers are prominently intertwined and positioned distractingly straight toward the camera).

Oh-oh...model is getting a but grumpy! As I said near the beginning of the article we are here to look at hands so please excuse my increasingly dour demeanour! By now the reader will know what I am going to say about each of these. I'll add that in terms of the props, it's important to make sure the prop does not become too much of a focus point...it's just there to give the hands something to do, not to look like a product that the subject is selling. If the subject gets even less comfortable worrying about how to hold it "correctly" ditch it!

One final set of at-the-table poses to illustrate, especially, a pet peeve of mine -- the back-of-fist-to-the-camera scenario shown in the bottom left image. This has a simple fix which is to rotate the wrist to expose the side of the fist to the camera in a much more aesthetically pleasing way (bottom middle).

Top left: fingers look like a tense log jam compared to top middle: nice and relaxed. Top right: something like this can work but you need to make sure it doesn't look weird and posed like this one does. Bottom right: The top hand is not terrible although it looks a bit posed (the chin is obviously not actually resting on the hand), but the hand on the table is curled into a fist, which does not contribute to a feeling of approachability.

I realized after doing the first shots for this post that many of the poses I was suggesting work much better for female identifying subjects than male. So I decided to put on a suit (since I photograph a lot of men in suits, and suits can affect the kinds of poses that will work) and shoot a quick example of a common, more casual, usually male pose...hands in pockets (often not an option for women because as we all know and complain about incessantly, women's clothes tend more often that not to be missing pockets). Turns out I don't have a business suit, so I donned the closest thing I had, noting that when men put their hands in their pockets when wearing a suit jacket their hands aren't actually visible. (My little jacket is much shorter than a suit jacket.)

Left: One thing subjects often try right off the bat is putting their hands behind their backs which is a no-no as it can make you look as if you have no arms, and it is not a comfortable look. Right: Putting hands fully in the pockets can work really well if your jacket covers your hands, but works less well if you can see the hands disappearing into the pockets, and in this case stretching out the pants. Brief wardrobe note: I cannot fail to acknowledge the shirt wrinkles. No matter what I did to try to mitigate this my crisp, white shirt pulled in the same places every frame I shot creating several unsightly stress wrinkles. This is one reason I do not love crisp shirts especially ones that don't fit very well!

Last set of examples: casual standing. Once again I shot so many bad ones I was tempted to share them all with their nit picky but important flaws. But rather than overwhelm the reader with multiple examples of not-quite-right I narrowed it down to these. One more time...it's about keeping the hands loose, as if they fell into place without a moment's thought.

Left: too formal, the hand on the hip looks unrealistically perfectly placed with fingers all aligned, as if it's hovering instead of really resting on the hip, while the hand on the leg looks pressed too smoothly against the leg and not at all relaxed. Middle: both hands look relaxed...fingers not perfectly lined up, lightly bent, hands relaxed, hand by the leg rotated toward camera very slightly. Right: Hand on leg looks like a tense "starfish" as, to some extent, does the hand on the hip.

I will just mention one more "don't" I didn't even shoot because it is so often a hard no: both hands on hips. There are a number of reasons this pose can look less than awesome: it can look like a fashion model pose (so just not appropriate), it can force too wide a crop, or cause the elbows to be cut off in the crop, it can cause a whole bunch of unsightly stress wrinkles and buckling of fabric, and it can make your body look oddly wide. Best just to avoid!

And that's about it for now. As I mentioned at the top it was not my intention to cover every conceivable workable or unworkable pose. And to repeat myself further, what works or doesn't  won't be the same for everyone anyway, due to people's different body types, wardrobe, personalities, etc. It's not as if you have to remember all this! Your photographer will help you. That's what we're here for! But I thought it may be helpful to provide an overview of some of the more and less successful basic hand positions so you'll feel maybe just a little more comfortable next time you find yourself required to use your hands in a portrait, as you tell your story.

I can't wait to get back to capturing your stories when human contact is allowed again and business resumes!

In the meantime please don't hesitate to get in touch if I can help you prepare for your next shoot or be of assistance in some way.

kathryn@hollinrake.com
www.hollinrake.com