Individuals

We use our base pose with the athlete standing at a 45* angle to your left. Have them stand tall and straighten their back. 

Female Legs

• • T formation with the heel going into the arch of the other foot.

  • Bend the front knee and kick her hip out with the back leg. The idea is to have both legs combine into one line.

Knee Bend

Bending the knee displaces the body weight, making it look more relaxed and natural. But if you bend the back knee, you might be unnecessarily making your subject appear wider. Always bend the front knee to slenderize legs and draw attention back up to the face.

Male Legs

• • Spread legs shoulder width apart. 

  • Feet still angled at 45* away from the camera. 

Hands

Have your subject wrap their hand around the ball rather than holding the ball with their forearm.

Fingers

Watch for the spider finger effect when taking Activity photos. We don't want weird hands to distract from their adorable faces.

Arms

• • Place both hands on top of their hips. Fingers forward and thumbs back

  • Cross the arms with shoulders relaxed,  without  fingers showing and without hands tight in the armpits.

Posture

Look for the details when posing a subject. Little adjustments can make for a much more natural looking pose. This li'l pumpkin just needed to relax her should to take her photo from okay to adorable!

Expression

You will have to work a little harder to get a great expression out of some players. If the first expression is a yawn, take a second photo!

Head and Face

• • Pointed and tilted directly to camera. 

  • Whenever possible, get them to smile. 

  • Expression is everything

  • Make sure eyes are visible under caps

Glass Glare

Always make sure you eliminate any glass glare. Try these tricks:

• Push glasses all the way up the nose

• Tilt the chin down slightly

• Tip the back of the glasses up so it rests just above their ear

• If all else fails, raise your main light a little.

Small Adjustments

The images below show how some minor posing adjustments can change the overall effect of a photo. Throw a hand on the hip. Pop that front knee. A little bit goes a long way!

45 Degrees

Rotate your subject forty-five degrees for a more flattering angle, but don't go too far!

Jerseys

There are a lot of things that can go wrong with a football uniform. Make sure t-shirts and shoulder pads are tucked in. 

Oversized Jerseys

League shoots are notorious for the ill fitted jersey. Avoid the pantless look and have players tuck in their shirts.

Props

Incorporate what's available to make your images more interesting. Don't forget to throw a light on it to add some emphasis to your props.

Logos of equipment should always be pointed straight at the camera.

Pump valves, markered lettering  and bar codes should be facing away.

Balls can be placed on the hip with hand and arm wrapped around the ball and not hanging. 

Bats and rackets can be placed onto the back shoulder with them angled at 45*. 

Here's some inspiration for your next basketball shoot! Get creative! 

Poses for Days

Mastered the basic pose for Activities? 

Try out some of these alternative poses.

Buddy Photo Inspo

Buddies for days! Remember the Buddy Photo is a square product so crop accordingly. Here are some tricks for posing Buddy Photos:

• Pose one subject and have the second subject and reflect that pose. 

• Pose one subject and give the second subject a new pose.

• Give the center subject a pose, but keep the other subjects simple.

• Give everyone the same pose but cluster their faces in the center.

• Have the players line up tallest to smallest.

• Stand the tallest person in the center of the back row and then put the next tallest person next to them and the 3rd tallest person on the opposite side of the tallest.  Continue alternating until the back row is complete.

• Pose the back row standing with feet together. Hands placed behind their back.

• Position middle row kneeling on both knees in the gaps between the players behind them, alternating similar to back row. They should be up tall and off their heels with hands behind their back.

• Position front row sitting on ground between the kneeling players behind them.  with legs crisscross or mermaid for females.  Hands on knees or in lap

Dynamic Posing

Once you've mastered basic posing, experiment with more dynamic posing techniques.

Group Shape

It's important to maintain the correct aspect ratio so that it fits the final product. Be careful not to let your teams get too wide or too narrow.

Weird Edges

Just sticking coaches on the edges can look a little awkward. Try to fully integrate them into the shape of the group. 

Windows

Nail your windows every time. You can always tell when something is slightly off. Double-check that you aren't stacking heads! 

One person out of place can make the whole picture look awkward. Make sure you're putting people in their windows!

Tiny Teams

League teams can have an unpredictable number of players and coaches. Here are some ideas for how to pose your league team! Here are a bunch of different examples of how to pose small teams. All of these examples only have 4 or 5 players! The trick with these tiny teams is to spread them out, give them poses that fills the empty spaces and have fun with it! The goal is to give them a cute picture that fills up the frame with their smiling faces.

Towering Coaches

Make sure coaches are never towering above their team. Ask them to come down on a knee to bring the focus back to the group. Fill the frame with their lovely faces, not a bunch of dead space. 

Coach Placement

Here are a bunch of different examples of how to integrate the coach or coaches into a team picture. Don't let them be an afterthought!

Slash Lights

Adding a slash light can have a big impact. Adding more lights gives your images more dimension. It helps separate your subject from their background. Check out these examples.

Distracting Lighting

These slash lights are casting unflattering highlights on the noses of these subjects. 

The solution is to rotate the slash lights so they highlight the rim of the subject rather than the side. Make sure to use grids on the slash lights to narrow the spread of light.

Watch that your slash lights aren't overexposing the players on the outer edges of your team photos. The slash light in the first photo is way too hot. A good practice is to meter your slash lights from the widest point of the team rather than the centerpoint. 

The slash light hitting these subjects is overexposing the side of their face. This probably happened the slash lights aren't positioned correctly and were probably metered a little too hot.