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How Not to Pose for Photos, Courtesy of Celebrities

Photo: Getty Images


A reader e-mails the Guardian’s Hadley Freeman to ask how a person should pose in a photo — excellent question. Freeman replies that celebrities themselves are often very bad at posing (think Posh Spice), so we shouldn’t take tips from them. You’d think that, given a life on the red carpet, celebs would be a bit better at this, but the Hollywood philosophy, says Freeman, is to look like they’ve been caught off guard so that no matter what, people can say, “Oh, she just looks like a dying fish because she was caught unaware.” One Hollywood trick to achieving this look is to say “prune” when the cameras flash. Freeman suspects this is why Renée Zellweger always looks like she’s trying not to smile or open her eyes too widely in her photos, as you see above. The effect isn’t too flattering. After the jump we take a look at a few more famous gals in need of some new camera tricks.

Photo: Getty Images


Freeman: “Halle Berry is, for me, the classic example, always doing that weird wave, with her arm bent at a perfect 45-degree angle and her mouth agape, as if shouting to her closest friends.”

Photo: Getty Images


Freeman: “Sharon Stone has her favorite pose, too (knees bent, fingers pointing to unspecified friend, mouth open in delight).”

Photo: Getty Images


Freeman: “Kate ruddy Moss, with her mouth half open and her eyes half closed … considering her only soi-disant ‘job’ is to pose for the camera, you’d think she’d come up with one more facial expression for the task, but no matter.”

Strike a pose [Guardian]

How Not to Pose for Photos, Courtesy of Celebrities