How to Pose for Maternity Photos: You Don’t Have to Know How
I hear some version of this all the time.
And my answer is always the same: you don’t need to.
Knowing what to do with your hands, where to look, how to stand, or how to position your body is not something I expect you to bring to your maternity session. That part is on me.
I guide my clients from head to toe throughout the entire session. Sometimes that means making a small adjustment. Sometimes I’m standing in front of you doing the pose myself so you can mirror me. And sometimes I’ll walk right over and put your hand exactly where I want it.
You’ll hear me say things like:
“Relax your hands.”
“Relax your eyebrows.”
“Push your chin towards me.”
“Lean towards me a bit.”
They sound like tiny adjustments. They are. But those tiny adjustments can completely change a photograph.
Good maternity posing is in the details
When people think about posing for maternity photos, they tend to think about the big things: where to stand, where to put their hands, whether to look at the camera.
But some of the biggest differences happen in the smallest details.
The position of your fingers. The direction of your chin. Where your weight is placed. The angle of your shoulders. Whether there is tension in your hands or face.
Those are the things I'm watching while you're in front of my camera.
You don't have to think about all of them.
I do.
This is also why I don't just tell someone to “stand over there and smile.”
I'm constantly adjusting throughout the session. I might photograph something, look at it, move your hand an inch, change the angle of your face and photograph it again.
That's posing.
I’ll show you instead of expecting you to figure it out
There are poses that are much easier to understand when you can see them.
So I demonstrate them.
If I want your hip in a certain position, I'll show you. If I want your arms above your head, I'll do it first. If I want a particular shape through your body, you'll probably see me making that shape right along with you.
This is one of my favorite things for clients to see because the finished portrait can look so effortless.
But effortless doesn't mean accidental.
There is intention behind it.
There isn't one “maternity pose”
Every woman who walks into my Dallas studio has a different body.
She's also at a different point in her pregnancy, wearing different clothing and creating a completely different kind of portrait.
So I don't believe in running every client through the same list of maternity poses.
A pose that works beautifully with a fitted gown may make absolutely no sense with an oversized suit. A dramatic fashion-inspired pose might be perfect for one image while something quieter is right for the next.
Sometimes we're standing.
Sometimes we're sitting.
Sometimes we're on the floor.
Sometimes we're creating strong angles and shape.
And sometimes the entire portrait is about one beautiful profile.
The goal isn't to make your body fit a pose.
The pose needs to work for you.
Posing is part of the fashion influence in my work
My approach to maternity photography is heavily influenced by fashion and editorial portraiture.
That affects the wardrobe and lighting, of course, but it also affects how I pose.
I love shape.
I love strong lines.
I love a hand placed intentionally instead of simply hanging at someone's side. I love creating length through the body and using shoulders, hips, arms, fabric and even shadows as part of the composition.
But editorial doesn't have to mean stiff or overly posed.
The goal is for the direction to disappear in the finished photograph.
I want you to look at your portraits and see yourself — not a woman desperately trying to remember what she was supposed to be doing with her left hand.
And yes, I pose your partner too
This one matters because partners are often even more worried about posing than my maternity clients.
They don't need to know what to do either.
When your partner joins the session, I'm paying attention to how the two of you fit together in the frame: where he stands or sits, where his hands go, where you're looking and how your bodies connect.
I'm not going to put two people next to each other and hope something happens.
I'll direct both of you.
Sometimes I want you looking at each other. Sometimes I want one of you looking at me. Sometimes it's about a hand on your belly or a forehead kiss.
The connection is real.
The positioning is intentional.
“But I’m awkward in front of a camera.”
You can be.
Seriously.
You don't need modeling experience. You don't need to practice maternity poses on Pinterest the night before. And you definitely don't need to arrive knowing your “good side.”
Most of my clients aren't professional models.
That's precisely why direction is such an important part of the experience.
My job isn't to wait for you to magically know what looks good on camera.
My job is to see the photograph I'm trying to create and guide you into it.
Seated editorial maternity portrait with warm golden lighting and palm leaf shadows at Ana Lanier Portrait Studio in Carrollton, Texas.
The woman you see in the finished photograph doesn't have to know what I know about posing, light, angles or composition.
She just has to listen to me.
And occasionally hear me say “relax your hands” for the 47th time.
Because apparently we all immediately forget how hands work when a camera comes out.
You don't have to be photogenic
I hear this one almost as often as “I don't know how to pose.”
“I’m not photogenic.”
I don't think being photogenic is a requirement for having beautiful portraits.
A photograph is affected by lighting, camera angle, wardrobe, expression, body position, composition and direction. Change any one of those things and you can create a completely different photograph of the same person.
That's why I don't need to “make you look good.”
I need to guide you into the right pose, put you in the right light and photograph you intentionally.
That part is on me.
What should you do before your maternity session?
You don't need to spend the weeks before your session practicing poses.
Come in ready to be guided.
During your maternity session at my Carrollton studio, I'll take you through each look one step at a time. I'll tell you where to stand, what to do with your hands, where to look and when I want you to make a small adjustment.
And if explaining it isn't enough?
I'll show you.
Your job is not to know how to pose.
Your job is to show up. Mine is to take it from there.
Ready to plan your maternity portraits?
If you're looking for a Dallas maternity photographer and the thought of being in front of a camera makes you nervous, that's okay. You don't need experience in front of a camera to do this.
My maternity sessions are fully guided from wardrobe and styling through posing and your final image selection.
Ana Lanier Portrait Studio is a full-service maternity portrait studio located in Carrollton, Texas, serving clients throughout Dallas–Fort Worth, including Dallas, Plano, Frisco and surrounding cities. Ana specializes in editorial maternity photography with wardrobe, professional hair and makeup, fully guided posing and professional retouching.
