Shooting male models differs completely from females models which usually focus more around fashion, glamour, beauty, makeup and accessories.
Unless the photoshoot is for a fashion label, male portrait photoshoots rarely emphasize clothing, accessories or enhanced beauty.
Here are few tips to enhance facial and body features so that you are able to capture those perfect male portraits.
1) The Jaw line:
The jaw line is considered as the ultimate representation of manliness. Ensure that jaw line appears angular and sharp in the pictures. So don't hesitate to ask your subject to pull their chin down.
2) The Eyes:
Squinting is the key! The subject must close their eyes partly, raising the lower lids to give even wide eyes a narrower, focused look. Narrow eyes enhances intensity.
If your male model has one eye smaller than the other, which is a very common phenomenon, and you want to make both the eyes look the same size, you could position him in such a way that smaller eye is closer to the camera. As mentioned before, anything closer to the camera will look bigger and this will equalize the effect and size of both eyes.
3) The Head:
Tilting the head towards the camera is ONLY for women portraits. Always have your male subject to keep the head straight.
4) The Shoulders:
As a photographer it is your job to make the shoulders appear as broad as possible.
The ideal male body type is one that has a V shape, meaning it’s broader at the shoulders and thinner at the waist. So ask your model to square his shoulder as much as he can and lean in towards the camera. This will accentuate the shoulders because bringing the shoulders towards the camera will make them look instantly bigger.
5) The Waist:
Ask the subject to lean the shoulders in, and the waist away from the camera. Getting the waist a little further away from the camera in this case will make it look thinner because any object that is at a little distance from the camera automatically looks smaller.
7) Legs:
Put the entire weight of their body on the leg in the back will make your model look more relaxed.If your male model is going to be sitting down then ask them to put the ankle of leg over the knee of the other.
Based in Mountain View, California, TerrificShot Studio Headshots Photography™ in the middle of the Bay Area, including but not limited to San Francisco, Burlingame, Woodside, Atherton, San Mateo, Foster City, Belmont, San Carlos, Redwood City, Stanford, Menlo Park, Palo Alto, Los Altos, East palo Alto, Sunnyvale, Los Altos hills, Cupertino, Campbell, Santa Clara, San Jose, Saratoga, Los Gatos, Milpitas, Newark, Hayward, Fremont, Union City, Santa Cruz