Portrait Photography How To

Posing men for portraits can be harder than posing women. Maybe it's because men are often more self-conscious in front of the camera than women. It's even harder though when your male subject is not a model, but just a regular guy.

Professional portrait photographer Julia Trotti knows all about this because she's used to posing both experienced models and friends, family and other non-professional subjects. So Trotti has learned a thing or two about how to bring out the best in non-models including men.

In the below video she shares her tips on how to pose men who are not models for portrait photography. For her subject, Trotti used her boyfriend Dan who usually spends most of his time behind the camera shooting her videos, not in front of the camera posing for portraits.

Here are the five simple poses that Trotti has Dan demonstrate in the tutorial.

#1 Symmetrical Pose

#2 Pacing Pose

#3 Tree Leaning Pose

#4 Sitting Poses

#5 Laying Down Pose

"You don't need to get your subject to do absolutely everything while you're shooting," Trotti explains. "I think you should also get yourself and your camera to do the work as well. So, you get them into a pose and then you can get a bunch of different photos in that one pose."

Check out the full tutorial below and then go visit Trotti's channel to see all of her portrait tips. She actually has an older popular video that also has great tips for posing men who are not models.