Here and there I can easily find useful posing guide for women, but hardly do I found any decent descriptive posing guide for men.
So here it is what I found:
The link above provides a very good explanation along with some examples as reference. Very good read indeed. Below is a brief summary of the guide. For the pictures, please refer to the link.
- The Face – The Jaw Line
- The jaw line is a critical measurement of perceived manliness.
- Make sure the jawline is well defined and as angular and sharp as possible.
- Ask the subject to push their chin out and a little bit down.
- Never let your subject pull his chin back
- The Face – The Eyes
- Big round puppy eyes do not look good on men.
- Ask you subject to do “squinch”: It is a half squint, where the lower eye lids raise a bit to narrow the eyes while the upper eye lids don’t move much or at all.
- The Face – Head Tilt
- Never let a man tilt his head towards the camera.
- Keep the head neutral or tilt slightly away from the camera.
- Tilting too much away from the camera can be perceived as being rather arrogant and a bit aggressive.
- The Body
- The ideal male body form is a V shape: broad shoulders, thin waist.
- The Body – Shoulders
- Should look as broad as possible.
- Square the shoulders towards the camera and if possible leaning a bit towards the camera.
- The Body – Waist
- You waist will look slimmer if your lower body does not exactly square the camera. Also, keeping your upper body closer to the camera will make your waist seem slimmer
- The Body – Posture
- Make sure your subject is standing tall, with shoulders up yet relaxed and keeping his core tight.
- The Body – Hands
- You need to keep your subjects hands busy by giving a reason for being where it is.
Here are a few ways to take care of this problem:
- hands in pockets, either thumb in (GQ style) or palm in and thumb hooked on the pocket
- hands hooked in the belt loops or one hand hooked on the belt buckle
- one hand loosely to the side, one hand in pocket
- arms crossed on chest with shoulders a bit down (relaxed shoulders)
- holding newspaper with one hand
- fixing tie with one hand
- fixing link cuffs
- hands on football, guitar or other prop that your male subject may have brought with him
- one hand in pocket, the other hooked on a jacket thrown over the shoulder
- when standing, you can have your subject rest his hands on a tall chair, desk, etc
- The Body – Legs When standing
- Legs crossed at the shin level with weigh on back leg
- Legs shoulder width apart, one leg slightly closer to the camera
- When leaning against a wall, the leg closer to the camera gets higher on the wall and the knee gets bent
- The leg closest to the camera higher (on a rock, step, etc) with the outer tight facing the camera
- The Body – Legs When sitting (chair, bench, desk)
- For a natural relaxed pose when sitting on a chair, the ankle of one leg goes onto the knee of the other. Shoot slightly from above (avoid getting too close
- Leaning against a desk at the waist, feet a bit forward, arms crossed on chest
- when posing sitting, the subject should not sit square with the camera