How often do we do this in real life?
• the chin-on-fist pose (looks like a punch on the chin)
• the finger-on-chin pose (I'm smart and pensive, see)
• the drooping fingers under-chin pose (I'm nonchalant, see)
• the chin-almost-on-palm pose (I'm uncomfortably relaxed)
• the fingers clasped pose (please buy my book, I beg you)
• the fingers-over-mouth pose (I'm muzzling myself)
* the Mr. Burns evil steeple (come into my parlour)
As few of us are actors or models, we’re not usually comfortable with cameras so posing can be awkward and unnatural and we tend to do what we’re told by the photographer.
Few photographers are directors so they don’t really know how to get our quintessential body language right.
If you feel uncomfortable in a pose, pick your own, the photographer wont mind and you’ll look much better.