Portrait Photography How To

Portrait photographers are always keen to capture their subjects in the best light. One common request from the people you are photographing is to make them look thinner.

In particular, some might ask the photographer to make their arms look slimmer. One way to achieve that, of course, is during post-processing in Photoshop or some other program. But there's a faster and better way to produce slimmer arms directly in-camera and that's through proper posing.

Fashion photographer Bonnie RzM shows you the right poses to make arms look slimmer in the video below.

"Sometimes our arms don't look exactly how they look in real life in photos but don't worry, here are the tricks so you can make them look slimmer," Bonnie says. "And I'm going to show you how."

#1 Reduce Pressure

"Try not to have the subject put a lot of pressure in their arms," she explains. "Don't have them put their arms super close to their body. It's going to add a lot of pressure and it's going to make them look double the size. Just give a space between the body and the arm. It's going to look more relaxed and slimmer right away."

#2 Distance

"Don't put arms directly in front of the camera. The closer something gets to the lens, the bigger it's going to look. So instead of putting them in front of the camera, push them back slightly."

#3 Smaller Shoulders

"Instead of putting two hands on the waist, which is going to make shoulders look broader, put the elbows closer to your back and put two hands out. This is going to make it look less wide and make your arms look smaller."