@bennett-family Ooh! Posing! I took a course on this. 🙂 The base pose for women is to have their toes pointing 45 degrees away from the camera, have them twist at the torso toward you, and lean forward a bit. This creates a synched waist and a nice jawline (eliminates double chins!) If they are standing, you also have them put their hand on their hip, and then lower it a little bit. That is the most flattering base pose for women. If they are standing, you do the same thing – you have them point their toes 45 degrees off camera, have them turn at the torso toward you, and lean forward a bit. Generally they don’t put their hands on their hips when they are sitting – lol – but they can fold them in their lap. Make sure to create space between their arms and their body so that their arms don’t lay flat against their torso. There is a tendency to do that when you are nervous, but it flattens their arms out to almost twice their size and no one likes them then. (That is one of the reasons you have them put their hands on their hips.)
For genuine smiles, the easiest and best way is to praise the smiles out of them. 😀 I have heard some photographers say that it is okay to “lie” and tell them they look great even if they don’t because then they WILL look great when you tell them that… but I wholeheartedly disagree because lying is never okay… it is *always* dishonoring to God and I just will not do that. However, there are tactical ways to get them to smile well, like, “oh, this looks *good!*” (if it does! – you don’t have to say ‘perfect’ or ‘great’ or ‘amazing’) and then when they smile a little bit bigger, you say, “YES! Aaaah, you’re going to love this photos!!! Yes yes yes, keep doing what you’re doing! Yep, you’re nailing exactly what I told you, this is great!! Awesome job!!!” (If, of course, they are doing a good job, but if you are positive, they can’t help but have genuine smiles. 🙂 And snap away while you’re saying these things, because that is the window where you will get the most genuine smiles. 😀