Inside: Sharing my Posing Guide for my senior girls portrait sessions. For every single senior session you want new senior picture poses and reviewing this Ultimate Posing Guide helps spark that in me. I sure hope these poses for girls helps you on your next senior session.
The Ultimate Girls Senior Photography Posing Guide
– With over 50 photo poses for girls – which include senior girls pictures and images to boost your creativity for posing senior girls
Senior Picture Poses
#1 With senior girls you want to photograph them at different angles, essentially find their good side and stick with it. Consider angles from the side, looking down while they are looking up at you – a super flattering pose that most any senior girl loves. I also love standing over them while they are looking down their shoulder and I tell them to close their eyes a bit…usually their eyelashes are what I focus on and it’s a gorgeous shot!
#2 Always save your best poses for the middle or end of a shoot. This gives your model time to warmup and feel more comfortable trying more close up shots! Without fail I always tell them to save their favorite outfit for the final wardrobe change for last as well. At the end they are comfortable, having fun and feeling beautiful which truly shines through their final images…hence they love those shots and poses more than their first outfit and poses. Not that they don’t love the first of the session but they are typically head over heels for the last portion of their senior session.
#3 I placed Kaylen by the trees and started a conversation with her and asked her to tell me about what she daydreams about. As she was talking we got the daydream face and she was lightly touching the tree. Having the senior talk and then think about what they re talking about creates real emotion in the face. Emotion is the key to capturing your senior girls. Whether the emotion is happy, thoughtful, serious or smirky when emotions can shine through your images become captivating!
#4 I had Maribeth lean back against the barn and relax. She had her hands in her pockets which caused her elbow to reach further back onto the wood separating them from her body. We sat there for about five minutes and she was looking at the tree in front of us. I said, “Look over here.” And SNAP there’s the look.
Ashley Nicole Photography
#5 The best way to get a real smile is to give constant positive feedback. Continue talking to your senior to make them more comfortable. They will relax and you will be able to capture a genuine smile. Once you set down your camera is when you get the genuine real smile…so the moral of the story is don’t set your camera down! When they think you are finished snap again!
#6 Don’t be afraid to try what your photographer suggests, it might end up being your favorite picture!
I always…always…always…ask if they have a pose in mind, something they want to try or have seen. It never hurts to ask!
#7 Make sure you choose a photographer you will feel comfortable with and whose style you love. If you love their style, you’ll love your pictures!
#8 We went out and enjoyed ourselves in the waterfalls, in the creek/river, and just playing…and I told her to dress in her style – boho.
What to Wear For Senior Pictures is our latest article to help give tips and ideas for senior girls portrait outfits.
#9 I want seniors to have something they love, and want to show off just as much as the parents. I try to do two shoots…one for the senior and one for the parents! If I am able to – i try to have the session for the seniors without the parents….as a surprise. For them to see the beautiful person they have turned into.
#10 My senior girls seem more comfortable in sitting poses. When they stand, they sometimes don’t know what to do with their hands without direction, and they seem awkward. Having them be comfortable is the most important thing. Start with sitting poses and then move your way into standing poses…the key is getting them comfortable.
#11 I love this pose because it is simple and elegant. It is of course flattering to the face and the rest of the body because the angle pushes the body slightly away to look smaller, and the attention stays on the eyes. It is a little more of a romantic look, but still 100% appropriate for a teenage girl. With this pose, beware of having your subject look too far back over her shoulder or of creating unflattering neck rolls from turning her head.
#12 I love this pose because it is so flattering. It pulls the arms away from the body to slim them, and pulls the face up and out to elongate the neck. From this angle, the entire body is slightly de-emphasized, even though most of it is visible. And at the same time, it feels natural and youthful, like a senior portrait should, without being too childlike or stiff or awkward. With this pose, be attentive to how you are shooting your subject’s legs, since it will not be flattering to that part of her body.
#13 I love silhouette photos because they are so unique and timeless! If you aren’t sure how to create a silhouette here are 8 Steps to Create the Perfect Silhouette Picture!
I like to plan ahead for silhouettes, because for these, the clothes can be an integral part of the pose. Since you lose some of the subtlety of the pose since you can’t see facial features or emotions, I like to have the poses be a little more dramatic and over the top than they would be otherwise.
#14 For this image, she had wanted to incorporate her leather jacket that she wears a lot & is just “her”. I wanted her to swing it over her shoulder but do something to make her loosen up a big so she wouldn’t look so stiff. She swung the jacket over her shoulder just right & then I asked her about the boy in her life 😉 That got quite a few giggles & JUST the shot of her I wanted! This image goes down as one of my favorites!!!
#15 Involve them moving…including their hands and hair! Have them twirl, dance, swing their hair or even walk towards you, as the photographer…this really makes them comfortable and gives your images a really great authentic feel.
#16 To accomplish this pose , I told the model to jump on three. I had counted to three and pressed the shutter on two. Don’t worry if your first couple of tries on this pose fail. Try try again! You’ll nail it and in the end they have fun jumping over and over again!
#17 To accomplish this relaxed, sultry pose, I had the model exhale as I took the picture and relax her jaw.
#18 This girl was already a pageant queen for every title in our county, so she is use to being in front of the camera. Such a natural and a natural beauty. I was working with this fabulous wall. I love LOVE the texture and the natural light coming in through the front window. I made sure to give her a little arched back and pull her arm up and away from her body so I wouldn’t cut off any limbs with this particular crop and she worked it well! 
#19 Tilt head away from body. Place hands behind body and cross legs. Place arm furthest away from camera behind head. Tilt chin towards camera and ask your client to “squinch”… Not squint.
#20 I used her arms to create different angles/planes in the composition which is much more visually intriguing than arms to the side, limp.
#21 No fancy lenses? No problem. You can use a kit lens to shoot gorgeous senior shots – just use tricks to make it look as gorgeous as a prime image. Shooting in a field of tall grass allows you to get some of the grass directly in front of you and far behind you out of focus, giving the impression of beautiful depth of field where it doesn’t actually exist. This was my very first senior session, shot with an 18-55 Nikon kit lens.
#22 Sepia seemed cliche and out, but new techniques make it look gorgeous! Try using radial gradient layers and gradient maps to create the tones in Photoshop, rather than using the black and white tool. A gradient layer set to Soft Light at 60%, Reverse, Align with Layer, scaled to 150%, and then the color changed to a dark, almost black red, will add a nice soft vignette to the image without overpowering it. Then add a gradient map (reverse if needed so it is black and white and not an inverted image), and set the tone to a dark, almost black brown-orange hue. Copy that gradient map layer, set it to Soft Light and change the opacity to around 40% to richen the tones. Open up the map and adjust it to a lighter orange color until you achieve a color you like. You’ll get a beautiful sepia image with copper tones that are just gorgeous, rather than an ugly golden image.
#25 talk with your model/client. Find out likes, interests, get them laughing so they feel more comfortable.
Jenny Loo Photography
Jessica Collins Photography
What to Wear For Senior Pictures is our latest article to help give tips and ideas for senior girls portrait outfits.
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Hi! I’m Erin, a Southern mama from South Mississippi, owner and chief editor of Sixth Bloom a blog helping mom-tographers capture their kiddos and life, talking all things home, parenting and how we navigate through life. You will find me living life to the fullest with my mister (aka husband) and our little two year old, Miss E, in our 500+ sq foot cottage as we build our dream house on our two acres! We are blessed beyond measure, love to travel, involved in ministry at our church and in between all of that we run two successful businesses together!
Justin Waybright says
Great, in-depth pose ideas. Love it. I’d be interested to submit a few of my own…