Step #4: Props & Posing

Incorporating props is a great way to personalize your shoot and showcase the hobbies that you hold closest to you. They will really make your shoot unique!

You can pick props like instruments, sports equipment, or dance outfits if you’re on your school sports team or choir and want to showcase that. If you don’t want to do a hobby, you can also wear your college or favorite sports team spirit wear. If you want to go cultural, you can wear cultural clothes for an outfit or bring a flag (which adds a whole new set of photo poses). If you’re a foodie, you can always opt to bring coffee, doughnuts, ice cream, cotton candy, popcorn, or cupcakes to add some color and add to the aesthetic. Finally, you can also bring books, magazines, journals, or paintings that you feel represent you.

These girls brought a skateboard to spice up things and make it look like they came straight out of a magazine!

I’m also completely okay with you bringing a special person. This can be your significant other, best friend, parent, or pet for a short portion of the shoot (around 30 minutes)!

Bringing an extra person can lead to fun shots like this!

Finally, a lot of you guys who will be coming to be for senior shoots are not professional models and I know that. Trust me. I’ll help you guys warm up and you can always do a lot of instagram stalking and googling to look at poses beforehand to help you feel more comfortable. I will guide you from behind the camera and tell you poses that make you look flattering and look natural. Adding movement into the poses is also a fun way to spice the pictures up. Bringing props and accessories will also allow you to do more poses and give you something to do with your hands (which is always the real struggle).