photography poses for 4 people
portrait posing tips

WRITTEN BY:  BRUCE LOVELACE

UPDATED: JANUARY 5, 2024

Need some ideas for photography poses for 4 people?  This article will give you several examples of poses for 4 people that you can copy as well as the 3 best tips for posing groups of this size.

1. GROUP OF 4 POSING TIP.  As with all poses of 3 or more people, it makes a more pleasing portrait to have the heights of your subject's heads at different levels.

Photography pose of 4 adultsPose of 4 adults


This photo of a family group of 4 was from a photography job I did in a church basement.

There was not enough time for formal posing with posing stools and a background, so I only had folding chairs and a few small foot stools that I brought along to use to help pose my small family groups.

The pose above was of 4 adult siblings. I sat the sister between 2 of her brothers on folding chairs. I had the third brother kneel on one of the foot stools behind the other three.

This way the female was surrounded by her brothers.

If you connect the heads in this order: 1-2-4-3 and back to 1, you see we have a flattened diamond shape which I often use with photography poses for 4 people.

Think about using geometric shapes like diamonds, squares, and triangle when you compose your group shots.

The family was quite pleased with the arrangement, but what could I have improved on? I could have had male #1 sit on a book on the chair to raise his head perhaps 2 or 3 inches.

2. USE ANGLES is to have your subjects turn at a slight angle to the camera, often a 30 to 45 degrees turn from shoulders facing directly at you.

The pose below was a completely different situation. It was an office party at a restaurant. I had just enough room to set up a medium-sized background and two umbrella lights.

Photography poses of 4 adults


This pose was of four co-workers. In a group portrait situation like this, you should use a pose that is a little more formal and professional, rather than how you would with a family portrait. No intimacy or touching allowed!  ;-)

I had the two shorter ladies stand behind and between the two taller ladies who sat on posing stools. This created that pyramid shape that is a composition technique widely used in group portraits.

Usually adult women prefer that their bottoms do not show in portraits and this is a pose that accomplishes that.


casual photography pose for 4 kids

Photography pose of 4 children


The 4 children sat in a straight line along rocks near the ocean.

Photography poses for 4 people are usually not done by having all the subjects sitting in a row next to each other. I wanted the pose to be a little more natural and less structured for these 4 cousins enjoying the beach.

I purposefully did place the two taller children in the middle of the composition to create that pyramid shape that has been discussed in some of the photography articles on family and group posing tips on this site.

Another posing tip is to make sure everyone's hands are not in the same position. Notice that each child has there hands placed in a different way. If there hand were posed in the exact same way it would like like a police lineup.


3. THE THIRD POSING TIP. If you want to add a little intimacy or "closeness" to a family portrait pose of 4, have your subjects lean in a little toward the middle of the photo. This brings their heads closer together and connects them.

Pose of 4 sistersPortrait pose of 4 sisters

This pose of these 4 sisters was a copy of a pose they had done many, many years ago.They had a print on hand of the original pose and it was easy for me to copy it. If you see a pose you really like, use it at the first opportunity. You'll learn it and remember it that way.

additional reading related to photography poses for 4 people

In addition to family portrait poses for 4, here are some more group photo poses you can copy for other group picture numbers.

Posing ideas for 3 people. Five different sample group shots of 3 people, four of them are outside photos and the last one is an indoor shot.

Photography Poses for 5 People. How to do photography poses for 5 people. Examples of poses for a family of 5.

Photography Poses for 6 People. A little more complicated than posing groups of 4 people is doing groups of 6 people. 


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Article published by Bruce Lovelace

ABOUT BRUCE LOVELACE

Bruce is the publisher of this website. He is the author of the book "Improve Your Photography Instantly."  Read more on Bruce on his Bio Page. He's been known as The Traveling Photographer ever since 1994. Read more about this website.

View some of Bruce's photos on Instagram.   Visit the Facebook Page. Watch him on YouTube.  Bruce runs photo workshops for kids and adults, and provides one-on-one photography coaching.

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