3 Senior Boy Poses for Guy Senior Photos | Senior Photography Education — JRP University Business Education for Photographers

Preparing for your sessions doesn’t need to come with stress about posing. With the tips in this blog post (and so much more in my course Posing on Purpose – or POP for short), you’ll be ready with senior boy poses and the confidence to knock your shoots out of the park!

Senior guys present a wide variety of sentiments around getting their senior photos taken — some are excited (and really enjoy getting their photo taken, as becomes obvious as you take the first few shots together), and others cannot wait to meet up with their friends once you wrap the session. So the first 'hurdle' is determining where they land on what I refer to as the 'comfortability' scale — how comfortable do they feel in front of the camera? Once you feel confident about where they sit on that scale, choosing poses in an order that makes sense keeps them upbeat AND produces great results for their senior photo album becomes much easier.

Let’s dive into some examples of great senior boy poses:

1. Sitting down, one or both knees bent

When it doubt, have 'em sit down. Standing senior boy poses can be a bit more tricky to create natural-looking results with, and there's just something about being able to kick back up against a wall or surface that helps guy clients to relax. Kicking the knee up gives them a place to rest their arms, and what's cool is you can quickly capture two very different shots (at least) in a matter of seconds simply by switching up what we call the 'variation' in POP — for example, you can have them look to the side, and then look right into the lens. Then, have them move from one knee up to two knees up, take a few steps to the left, step in closer, and you have a totally different shot.

2. Side profile

Without having to do much, this pose says LOADS about the subject! It showcases their unique features, their resting expression, and symbolizes them looking into their whole life ahead of them. When prompted properly, this pose can be completely powerful, and not at all cheesy.

3. In action!

One thing about guy seniors is that most of them are, if we're being honest, doing this because their mom or dad asked them to. The easiest way to have them lean into a photo session is having them "do their thing” so they forget they're at a photoshoot altogether!

Your ultimate secret weapon when it comes to senior boy poses? A signature posing flow.

Knowing how to move through poses, from one to the next, is what prevents the guy senior from 'freezing up', getting 'awkward', or giving you that small, clenched smile that screams "are we done yet?" A signature posing flow is about preserving their energy AND getting killer candids so you can deliver the best possible results as their photographer.

You can use your posing flow from the first shot you take all the way through to the last. Although, when done correctly, you might find that by the end of your session, you'll have educated your senior client well enough to be able to move through some of the poses without having to yell from behind the camera — a dream!

Once you apply a signature posing flow, two things will happen: 1) your clients will rave about you to their friends "our photographer made it SO easy! You have to book them now before they fill up." and 2) the photos will look NATURAL and not awkward, true to the subject you were aiming to capture.