What Do I Do With My Hands in Photos?

Have you ever said any of these phrases to a photographer:

I don’t know what to do with my hands?

Where do I put my hands?

Where do my hands go?

What do I do with my hands?

Very early on in my photography education, my photography teacher always kept telling us to pay attention to the hands. Hands are very telling and can easily show discomfort. When it comes to photos and especially if being in front of the camera isn’t a place of comfort, the hands will go rigid. 

The #1 thing to remember when you have your photo taken is to keep your hands relaxed! This looks like letting your finger joints bend and not be straight, don’t clench in a fist or look like claws. 

For example, if you have a coffee mug around, pick it up. How do you hold your mug? Many people hold the handle, which makes sense, it can be very hot. However, look at your hand in the mirror as you hold that mug by the handle, how tense does your hand look? Instead, adjust your hand so you have a finger or two going through the handle and your hand is holding the mug and add the second hand under the base or cupping lightly around the base of the mug. Your hands went from tense to cozy and relaxed.  

If you’re adding a face touch in your photo NEVER squish your hand into your face. If you touch your face, once again keep your fingers with light bends and lightly touching your face or just hovering over your skin. 

When it comes to hands around your face, use this intentionally. Covering your mouth with your hands can give off the feeling of you’re keeping a secret or suppressing deceitful words. Keep your hands along the jaw line. Hands in the hair, especially exposing the wrist are flirty and ways to primp. Hand in the hair can also be fun with complimentary body language to support fun vs flirty. 

Keep your hands visible. You may be thinking the easiest solution would be to hide your hands. Don’t do it. Don’t hide your hands behind your back, in your pockets or under the table. Why do you think police officers ask questionable people to keep their hands visible? They want to make sure things are safe and the hands aren’t hiding a weapon. Our brains are constantly scanning for threats. When we don’t see hands, we don’t know what they could be concealing or what they are doing with those hands, but when we can see hands and confirm nothing threatening is hiding we can relax and move to the next step of communication. 

If you want to put your hand(s) in your pocket, don’t put your whole hand in your pocket, keep a thumb out. For men with hands in the front pockets, don’t put your thumbs in your pockets (or belt loops) with fingers out. This is a male crotch display (look at my male virility) and inappropriate for business branding photos.

In a previous blog post I talked about in detail about not crossing your arms in your headshots. Read that blog post next to learn more about why. Mostly crossing your arms has more negative meanings than positive. You can use an arms crossed pose when you want to show you’re thinking or to come across as dominant. Try to keep your arms uncrossed and down by your side. Don’t forget to lightly bend your elbow. 

The key thing to remember is to always keep your hands relaxed and drop your shoulders so they aren’t close to your ears. Hands are a one single piece of the body language puzzle. There are more rules and cues you can learn about hands, but this is simplified with the top points to keep in mind when a phone camera is taking a photo of you. If you’re in front of my professional camera, you’ll have me there in person watching all these little nuances of the hands and directing you on photoshoot day.