If you’re super thin then your arms may photograph well, but for the rest of us, there are two tricks you can keep up your sleeve.
Pam was the first volunteer to be an arm model for this blog post series. I had the privilege of photographing her daughter giving birth 15 months ago, and then the honor of photographing Tirian for his newborn session. Even though our paths have crossed only briefly I’ve grown attached to their family. Pam is an encouraging woman – put having a conversation with her on your bucket list!
I asked everyone participating to bring a tank top, short sleeved shirt and long sleeved shirts so that you can see what they look like on different arm types. Pam described her arms as being very thick.
Tank tops tend to be unflattering on most arm types – especially with your arm directly up against your body. You’ll notice a slight improvement with her arms away from her body.
Then I asked her to change into her short sleeved shirt. As you can see this is immediately more flattering, even with her arm flat up against her body.
When her arms are placed away from her body, they look even better.
In the final images she’s wearing a long sleeved shirt. This is pretty much always safe, though you’ll want to balance that choice with how much you might be sweating if it’s warm out.
Again her arm is completely flat against her body and when it’s out a little, the image is even better.
Here are all three of the properly posed images (with her arms away from her body) side by side:
So our tips for sleeve length are:
1. If your arms are thicker than pencils you may want to consider a short sleeve shirt or longer (3/4 length, long sleeved, etc.).
2. Always try to keep your arms at least slightly away from your body – either by putting them behind you, on your hips (if you would ever stand that way without looking mad) or with your thumbs in your pockets.
