How to Make a Heart With Your Hands

For some, making a heart with your hands can seem to be an elusive process. I know when I was growing up and saw people taking pictures where they'd make hearts with their hands together, I was a bit envious and would try to copy them. It wasn't until high school that I discovered my favorite hand position to use for photography and modeling, as well as for selfies!

Rest assured that if you've stumbled on this simple how-to then you'll never have to worry about how to make a heart with your hands again.

When I make a heart shape with my hands, this is the technique that I use. It is a simple technique that my ex girlfriend from high school showed me how to do, and the practical use of it fits into almost any situation. Unlike other methods you won't be taking any pictures of the sun directly, you know that "heart made of light" photo, at least it won't be the most aesthetically pleasing for that scenario. However, I like to call this one the "universal method" because it is so easy to do, and it forms a near-perfect heart shape.

If you are doing portraits and landscapes and want hands forming a heart over the scene, then this is your go-to positioning.

This is probably one of the funniest of all the ways to make a heart with your hands. It always makes me laugh because someone sees a different shape every time you do it, and it totally depends on perspective. For me, whenever I look at a picture of myself or see someone else doing the "meditation heart" shape, all I see is a butt shape. This is definitely the most comfortable position for your, or most of your models' hands to be in, however.

My models and I prefer to use this hand position for pictures with a more "meditation" or lofty feel to them. I'm sure you can see why!

Here you can see me performing the whole-hand method. Personally, this is my least favorite of all the methods you could use to make a heart with your hands, because I find it to be the least comfortable and hardest to get the right angle on. I've had people throw me a heart using this method and if they don't hold it at just the right angle then it looks like they're just holding their hands up in front of their face.

I find this method to be the most useful when taking pictures of the sun directly, because at the right angle you can really make that heart-shaped silhouette pop out! Unfortunately the light just isn't right for such pictures today, so I couldn't get a good example shot for you; I'm sorry!

Alternate method: "I make heart hands with eight fingers bent and touching at the first knuckle. The thumbs point downward and come together at the pad...."-- Shauna L Bowling

This method is the one I consider to be the silliest, because I can't take it seriously in any real capacity. It makes me feel like a ballet dancer, a really flippant ballet dancer, and I can never find much use in this pose outside of humorous pictures. It is often hard to get a good heart shape out of yourself or the model as well, so if at all possible I'd advise avoiding this one for any serious shoot.

Over-the-head pose is really only good for humorous shoots, but can be an appropriate symbolic centerpiece much like the meditation heart method.

These are the four best methods for making a heart with your hands that I was able to come up with off the top of my head. They are my fallback plan when someone wants to do a shoot that contains a lot of symbology for heart, love, romance, and other cute topics. It really adds a lot of flair and personality to any dull set of selfies as well, and could be just what your love interest needs to brighten their day!

I'd love to hear about how you like to make a heart with your hands, and what methods you have come up with to do so; go down into the comments and tell me about it!

Always remember: Be body positive! You're beautiful inside and out!