Four rules, and the guide above this one
This page is the narrow version of a larger subject. If the whole photo feels wrong rather than just the hands, start with the posing guide, which covers the body angle, the weight shift and where the camera goes, and come back here once the stance is right. Hands are the finishing detail, not the foundation.
Give each hand a job. Hands left with nothing to do either hang dead at the sides or clench, and both read as discomfort. A task, not a shape, is the instruction that works.
Keep the fingers slightly apart and softly curved. Fingers fused together read as a mitten and splayed fingers read as a signal. A small gap between each, with a gentle curve, reads as a hand at rest.
Show the edge, not the flat. A palm or the back of a hand square to the lens is a large pale shape competing with the face. Rotate it so the camera sees the thin side and it shrinks to something you stop noticing.
Keep hands well behind the face. A hand closer to the lens than the face is rendered larger than it should be, and at short range the effect is dramatic.
The shape a relaxed hand actually makes
Photograph somebody asleep and their hands make a particular shape: fingers slightly curled, the index least curled and the little finger most, thumb resting alongside. That is the resting shape, and it is the one that reads as natural in a photograph. Almost every hand that looks wrong in a photo is either flatter or tighter than that.
Do not grip. Squeezing a bag strap or a glass makes the tendons stand up on the back of the hand and turns the knuckles white. Rest the fingers on the object instead and let it take the weight. In a photograph you cannot tell the difference between holding and touching, so touch.
Keep the thumb visible. A thumb tucked fully out of sight behind the fingers makes the hand read as truncated, in a way viewers notice without identifying. Let it sit along the side of the index finger where it can be seen.
Keep the wrist straight. A line running from the forearm through the back of the hand looks like an arm. A sharply bent wrist shortens the forearm, breaks the line and reads as a held pose. If a hand rests on a hip, keep the wrist in line and let the fingers do the bending.
Jobs to give your hands
| Situation | What to do with the hands | Why it works | Avoid |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standing, full length | One thumb hooked in a pocket, other arm hanging | Opens a triangle of background at the waist and keeps the arms asymmetric | Both hands in pockets, which flattens the whole outline |
| Standing, holding something | Fingers resting on a bag strap or a cup, not gripping | The object gives the arm a reason to bend and the fingers a natural curve | A white-knuckled grip with the tendons showing |
| Seated at a table | Forearms resting, one hand loosely over the other | Gives the arms a line and keeps the hands away from the lens | Elbows on the table with the chin in the palms |
| Seated, no table | One hand on a thigh, the other over the arm of the chair | Different heights break the symmetry | Both hands clasped in the lap, which makes a knot |
| Nothing to hold, nothing to sit on | Push your hair back, adjust a sleeve, touch a necklace | A transitional action rather than a pose, and it photographs as movement | Both hands on hips, which is a school photo |
Hands near the face, and why they usually fail
The hand-to-the-cheek shot is everywhere and it goes wrong more often than any other pose, for a reason that is purely optical. Perspective enlarges whatever is nearest the lens. If your face is at sixty centimetres and your hand is at forty, the hand is rendered roughly half as large again as it should be, and a hand that size next to a face is the first thing anybody sees.
Three fixes, in order of reliability.
Keep the hand in the same plane as the face or behind it. Against the side of the jaw, behind the ear, at the back of the neck, or resting on the far shoulder. Never in front of the cheek towards the camera.
Touch with the fingertips, never the flat. Fingertips against the jaw read as a light gesture. A whole palm pressed against a cheek deforms the face under it, which is visible and unflattering, and it hides the jaw line that the pose was meant to show.
Keep the hand off the chin. The chin-in-palm shot compresses the jaw upwards and forwards, which is the opposite of what any other posing advice is trying to achieve. If you want the elbow-on-table look, rest the side of the jaw against the fingers rather than putting the chin in the hand.
Skin, nails, rings and cold weather
Hands show more detail than a face at the same distance, because they are usually closer to the camera and because light tends to skim across the back of a hand rather than land on it flat, which throws every tendon and vein into relief.
Soft frontal light flattens them. The same window light that works for a face is even more important for hands. Hard side light and direct flash exaggerate the texture of the knuckles and the veins.
Warm them up first. Cold hands go red and blotchy, and in a winter photo taken outdoors that colour difference against the face is very obvious. Two minutes in pockets before the shot fixes it.
Nails read at full size even when the hand is small. Chipped polish is one of the few details that survives every resize, because the eye is drawn to a contrast boundary. If the hands are anywhere in frame, either the nails are tidy or the hands are out of shot. There is a whole page on photographing nails if that is the subject rather than an accident.
Rings catch specular highlights that clip. A polished stone or a metal band under a bare bulb produces a tiny blown-out spot that no editing recovers. Turn away from point sources, or shoot in soft light where the highlight spreads instead of clipping. Turn a stone so it faces up towards the light rather than sideways.
Ours, so discount it: ShutterAI has a Nails and Rings mode that focuses close and holds the highlight on metal and polish instead of letting it blow out. It is not out yet. It arrives on iPhone this fall, free to start, with an early list on the homepage.
Two people, and sitting down
In a photo of two people, where the hands go is what the picture says about the relationship, which is why they look wrong so often when people are trying not to think about it.
A hand on a shoulder should rest, not clamp. Fingers softly draped over the top of the shoulder, thumb visible, no pressure. A hand gripping a shoulder reads as restraint.
Interlocked fingers photograph as a knot. Held hands with the fingers laced turn into an unreadable shape at any distance. Hold hands loosely with the fingers together instead, or let one hand rest over the other.
An arm around a waist should show some fingers. A hand disappearing entirely behind a waist leaves an arm that appears to end. Let the fingertips come round far enough to be seen, relaxed rather than gripping.
In group photos the same rule as everywhere else applies, only more so: the hands that look worst are the ones with nothing to do. Arms round the people next to you solves every hand in the row at once, which is why it is what everybody does.
Questions people ask
How do you pose your hands in photos?
Give each hand a job rather than a shape, keep the fingers slightly apart and softly curved, turn the hand so the camera sees its narrow edge rather than the flat palm, and keep it level with or behind the face. Resting on an object beats holding one, because gripping makes the tendons stand up.
What do I do with my hands if there is nothing to hold?
Use a transitional action instead of a pose: push your hair back, adjust a sleeve or a collar, touch a necklace, or hook one thumb in a pocket and let the other arm hang. Shoot through the action rather than holding it, and keep the two hands at different heights.
Why do my hands look huge in photos?
Because they were closer to the lens than your face. Perspective renders whatever is nearest largest, and the effect is strong on a phone's wide lens at short range. Keep the hands level with the face or behind it, and step the camera back rather than reaching towards it.
Should I put my hand on my face in photos?
Only with the fingertips, against the side of the jaw, and never with the palm flat against a cheek or the chin resting in the hand. A flat palm deforms the face under it and a chin in the palm compresses the jaw, which is the opposite of what the pose is supposed to do.
How do I make my hands look better in photos?
Soft frontal light rather than hard side light, which flattens the tendons and veins. Warm cold hands before shooting outdoors in winter, keep the wrist in line with the forearm, and make sure the nails are tidy, because chipped polish is visible at almost any size.