30 Inspiring Hand Placement To Bring The Focus To Your Face

Hand placement can be an awkward thing to do. It’s not common that we put our hands aesthetically on our face or head on a daily basis. Maybe for makeup, facial and what not and that’s it. It can be a real challenge to take the shot with hand framing our face without looking awkward. However, if you can do it right, it’ll increase your shot uniqueness by 10 fold! So, when in doubt, refer to the pros! Today, we will be bringing you some model-like hand placement to elevate your portrait shots! With just your face and your hands, you’re about to set your Instagram shots on fire!

1. Same Side Touch

Touch the same side of your head both up and down! It’s as easy as that! Try out with other props such as neon light, string light and more to complement your hand pose!

You might like this: 30 Fabulous Closeup Portrait Shots To Copy

2. Resting Arm Cross On Head

Covering part of the face is alright as long as you’re still recognizable! This would probably look better for a close up shot. More emphasize will be put onto the face if the arm can be taken slightly outside the camera frame.

3. Palm Up Arm Cross On Head

Here’s another variation of hands on top of the head. Both arms are flexed out showing off the palm. Would be nice if there’s rings or bracelets to complement the shot!

4. Side Way Hand Serve

It’s like serving your beauty with your hand. Jokes aside, it’s cool to experiment with these hand poses and combine them with sitting poses or other actions to make your appearance richer.

5. Head Tilt With Head And Face Touch

The side cheek touch is almost like a classic move. Make your shot a little bit more complex with a head tilt and hand over the head to play with that beautiful hair!

6. Waking Up

Sometimes, a common gesture that you make as you wake up can be a good shot too!

7. The Right Swipe

The eyes, the hand on top of the head and the hand by the lips are all pointed towards the same direction.

8. Symmetrical Head Staging

It’s cool to go for the simple poses. Here’s one that we’d probably do a lot since a kid. It’s simple but with a hair fashion like that, it’s popping!

9. The Curious Touch

Expressions play a lot in photography too. This pose looks as if the girl is in awe looking at something and wanted to give that gentle tap to it.

Model: @katyamiro

10. Over Shoulder Side Look

Don’t just focus on arm placement. Use your shoulders too!

11. Gentle Hush

Try a different variation such as looking straight to the camera or looking elsewhere. It’s all about experimenting! With the same pose, you could probably look at the camera or top it with a hand over the head for a unique shot.

12. Resting Heads Up

Rest your hands on top of your head! There’s the arm cross earlier. Now, there’s also the both hands touching over your forehead gesture.

13. A Point Up Finger On Lips

Play with hand angling! This idea applies with one finger touching a certain part of your face. It can be the lips, chin or side of the cheek. You can try and move your hands around to use different fingers!

14. Finger Bite

Finger licking good! Or should I say, finger biting good! Looking at the camera can be a bit too mainstream at times. That’s when you put your gaze into play. Look up or down or side ways. Play with other part of your facial feature as you maintain your finger bite pose.

15. Stretching Index Finger

The index finger is laid on the face where as the other digits slide a bit to the other side. This hand pose is totally not a common thing but it looks good! The low angle shot and the eye gazing away adds up to the complexity of the shot.

16. Thumb Bite Wink

You can basically bite any part of your fingers and get a good shot! Do a wink or a frown. Play with expression!

17. Hands At The Back

Give off a relaxing vibe in your portrait by placing your hands at the back as if you’re casually resting your head.

18. Two On Lips Two On Cheek

Here’s a little upgrade to the classic move of placing the palm facing up. Instead of putting your hand under your chin, place it to the side with a different finger arrangement.

19. Pinky Up

Remember the pose with no. 13? Any finger can touch the face! Just play around with the finger gestures till you get a style that doesn’t look awkward!

20. Head Palm Laughing

A laugh is often the best expression you can put in your face. It projects friendliness. On top of that, a casual hand placement on the head would serve just fine without any complex hand pose.

21. Face Framing

Bring the highlight to your face! Frame your face with your arm!

22. Pinky Bite

Finger bite can be sexy when done right. Here’s one with the pinky finger and hand with palm facing up.

23. Head On Back Hand And Head Tilt

You can put your hands facing up, turning yourself into a flower. Or, you can have those hands facing down and give serious look!

24. Shoulder Finger Show

In this shot, you basically show all off those rings on your finger. But, even without the accessories, it would still make a good pose!

25. Touch On Face And Neck

Try out different way to place your hands on your face with backhand facing out. It can be a mix of neck touch and a face touch. Or a cheek touch with a temple touch. The angles on how you put your hands can affect the shot too! Always put your hand side ways. Placing the entire backhand facing directly the camera would just make you look awkward.

26. Show Of Hands

At most of the time, the best way to have both your hands together for a pose is when you put it under your chin or the side. Some might choose to cover part of their face with both arms. That would be alright if you want to highlight certain part of your face such as the eyes.

27. Biting Invisible Apple

Imagine something invisible that you’re holding. It can be a pencil or an apple. Then, imagine the gesture you can do with it. This model is biting off an apple off her hands. Well, not exactly but you get the idea! Now, try to imagine holding an invisible juice box and imitate the drinking gesture. Would that look nice? Try it and find out!

28. Head Tilting Headache

There’s normal head tilt and there’s extreme head tilt. This head is bending so much to cope with the straight arm. It looks nice with a plain sleepy expression as if the model is getting sick of hearing the same joke.

29. The C-Shape

You probably got used to the single finger on chin pose by now. But, what to do with the other hand? Oh yeah, make a C-shape out of it and place it on top! If you know sign language, it’s probably cool to experiment with other signs as well and see how it goes.

30. Head Cover And Hand Blocking

Blur and focus too gives a different unique look to your shot. Hand blocking is just one of those gestures that you can try. You can also try with the index and thumb forming the number seven and frame it to your face.