What should I do with my hands in pictures?

Give each hand something to touch or hold: a thumb in a pocket, a hand on your hip, a bag strap, a railing, your hair or a friend's shoulder. Keep a small gap between your arms and your body, turn your hands side-on to the camera, and rest them lightly instead of gripping or pressing.

What should guys do with their hands in photos?

The same rules work for everyone. Positions that suit most menswear are thumbs hooked in the front pockets, a hand adjusting a cuff or watch, hands loosely in jacket pockets, forearms resting on a rail, and a jacket held over one shoulder. The one to skip is both hands clasped together in front of the hips.

What do you do with your hands in a group photo?

Use the inside hands to connect, with an arm around a waist, a hand on a shoulder or linked arms, and keep the outside hands relaxed at your sides, in a pocket or holding something. People at the ends of a 0.5x group shot should keep their hands close to their bodies, because the frame edges stretch them.

Why do my hands look big in photos?

Because they're closer to the lens than the rest of you. Anything nearer the camera looks bigger, especially on 0.5x and in close-ups. Keep your hands level with your body instead of reaching toward the phone, turn them side-on, and step back and zoom in for close portraits.

What to do with your hands in photos: 10 positions that work

In photos, give each hand a job and keep it relaxed: a thumb in a pocket, a hand on a bag strap, a rail or your hip, or one lifted into your hair. Leave space between your arms and your body, turn your hands side-on to the camera, and keep them level with your body, not reaching toward the lens.

That covers most of it. Below are ten positions that work alone, with a friend or in a group, with a camera note for each, because where the phone is changes how big your hands look.

Why hands look awkward, and what the camera adds

Hands go wrong in three ways:

They have nothing to do. Idle hands clench, hover a few inches from the body, or hang straight down like they’re waiting for instructions.
They’re pressed flat. Arms clamped against your sides merge with your body, and the outline turns into one block.
They’re closer to the lens than you are. This one is the camera’s doing. Whatever is nearest the phone looks biggest, so a hand pushed forward, a palm facing the lens or a fist under your chin can look much larger than it is.

The camera fixes are simple:

Side-on, not flat. Show the edge or the back of the hand, not the palm or the knuckles face-on.
Keep hands at body depth. Rest them against you, at your sides or behind you, not out in front.
Step back for close-ups. For head-and-shoulders shots with a hand near your face, stand farther away and use the first zoom step above 1x instead of holding the phone close on 1x or 0.5x.
Crop between joints. If a hand is at the edge of the frame, crop at the forearm, never at the wrist or across the fingers.
Soft fingers. Slightly curved and a little apart, neither splayed nor in a fist.

10 hand positions that work

1. A thumb or fingertips in a pocket

Hook a thumb into a front or back pocket with the fingers resting outside, or slip just the fingertips into the front pockets. Keep the elbows slightly out so there’s a sliver of background between your arm and your waist.

Camera: full length, phone at hip height, 1x. It’s the lowest-effort position on this list, and it suits almost any outfit.

2. A hand on your hip, elbow back

Rest the hand on your hip bone and let the elbow point back and slightly out, so the arm frames your waist. Your fingers can face forward or back; what matters is that the hand rests rather than grips.

Camera: hip height, 1x. On 0.5x, keep that elbow away from the edge of the frame, where the ultra-wide stretches it. The outfit poses open with a version of this against a wall.

3. Hold a strap or a handle

Hold a shoulder-bag strap at chest height, or carry a small bag low by its handle with your arm straight. Both give one hand a reason to be where it is.

Camera: for a bag held low, frame full length so the bag isn’t cut at the bottom edge. It works especially well in back views with a glance over your shoulder.

4. Rest on a rail, a ledge or a banister

Put a hand on whatever is next to you, with a light grip and a relaxed wrist. Both hands resting on a ledge behind you opens the shoulders; one hand on a stair rail gives a standing pose a reason to exist.

Camera: hip height for full length. Step to one side so the rail runs into the frame at an angle; a rail flat behind you looks like a barrier.

5. Hand in your hair

Lift one hand into your hair at the side or top of your head, with the elbow up and pointing away from your face.

Camera: raise the arm that’s farther from the phone, so the elbow doesn’t cross in front of your face. Chest height, 1x, thighs-up framing. The hand in hair pose goes through the three places the hand can land, and the night out poses include two versions of it: against a lit wall and in a booth.

6. A light touch at your face

Rest your chin on a loose fist, lay your cheek in your palm, or bring your fingertips near your lips. The key word is rest: pressing pushes the skin up and reads as tense.

Camera: this is the position most changed by distance. For a close shot, step back and use the first zoom step above 1x, so the hand near your face stays in proportion. Seated, put the phone at your seated chest height. The sitting on stairs poses use several versions.

7. One arm across your waist

Bend one arm across the front of your waist and rest the hand at your side or on the other arm. It pairs well with a look back over your shoulder. Both arms folded tightly reads as closed; one arm across reads as relaxed.

Camera: hip or waist height, 1x. Make sure the crossing arm doesn’t hide the whole waistline if you’re showing an outfit.

8. A palm flat on a wall

Reach out to the side and set your palm flat on a wall or a door frame, and lean a little of your weight into it. The straight arm makes a strong line.

Camera: hip height, centered. The arm reads best running sideways across the frame, parallel to the phone, not reaching toward the lens.

9. Hold something small

Sunglasses, a coffee, a book, the collar of your jacket, or on graduation day the diploma cover (graduation photo poses). A small object gives the hand a job without any posing at all.

Camera: hold it at waist level or lower. Lifted toward the lens, it becomes the subject.

10. Hold onto a friend

In two-person photos, the hands that touch do the work: holding hands low, an arm around a waist, a hand on a shoulder. The outside hands stay relaxed, in a pocket or in your hair.

Camera: chest height, 1x, both of you the same distance from the lens. Almost all of the poses with friends are built around a point of contact like this.

When one hand is holding the phone

In selfies and mirror selfies, one hand is taken. Hold the phone by its lower half so your fingers stay clear of the lenses, and keep that elbow close to your body. The free hand gets one of the jobs above: a pocket, your hair, a strap or your collar. There’s more on phone grip in mirror selfie poses.

For guys

Everything above works for anyone. The positions that suit most menswear:

Thumbs hooked in the front pockets, fingers outside.
One hand at the opposite cuff or watch, as if adjusting it.
Hands loosely in jacket or coat pockets, thumbs out.
Forearms resting on a rail or a ledge, hands loose.
A jacket held by the collar over one shoulder.

The one to skip is both hands clasped together in front of the hips. It reads like waiting in line.

In a group photo

Inside hands connect. An arm around a waist, a hand on a shoulder, linked arms.
Outside hands relax. At your side, in a pocket, or holding a drink or a bag.
Watch the ends of the frame. On 0.5x, people at the edges get stretched, hands included. Keep end-of-row hands close to the body, or switch to 1x and step back.
Not everyone in the same position. Six people with a hand on the hip looks staged. Mix it.

Where everyone stands, and where the phone goes for three, six or twelve people, is in group photo poses.

Give your hands something to do while the camera runs

Some of the most natural hand positions are the in-between moments of a small task: fixing your collar, tucking hair behind an ear, pulling a sleeve down, adjusting a strap. Do the task slowly while the camera shoots in Burst, or on a timer with a few rounds, and pick the frame where the hand lands softly. The steps are in how to use the iPhone timer and Burst.

Copying the hands from a saved photo is harder: they’re the smallest detail and the easiest to get slightly wrong. In Onpose, the reference sits semi-transparent over the live camera, so a friend holding the phone can compare your hands with it directly and say “fingers down, elbow back” instead of guessing.

Quick fixes

What you see	Cause	Fix
Hands look oversized	Closer to the lens than your body	Keep them at body depth; step back and zoom for close-ups
Arm merges into your side	Pressed flat against you	Leave a small gap; put a hand on your hip or in a pocket
Fingers look stiff or splayed	Holding them out with nothing to touch	Give them a strap, a rail, hair or a pocket
Elbow blocks your face	The arm nearer the phone is raised	Raise the arm farther from the camera
Hand looks cut off	Cropped at the wrist or across the fingers	Crop at the forearm, or include the whole hand
Face looks pushed up	Pressing a cheek or chin into the hand	Let the hand support lightly, without pressure

The full set of posing rules, each with its camera setup, is in how to pose for pictures, and the poses that lengthen your line, a lifted arm among them, are in poses to look taller.