Strike a Pose: Engagement and Wedding Posing Made Simple
It’s one of the most common things we hear from our couples—“We are so awkward in photos.” Although we find very quickly that this is just not true, many couples feel intimidated by the thought of having to pose for photos for even an hour at an engagement or even longer on wedding day. You really shouldn’t worry though because we’ve got you. Posing just shouldn’t be something you even have to think about, and today, we are sharing our pro tips for looking your best in front of the camera so that you absolutely love your images.
1. Shift Your Weight
Women, in particular, have a tendency to want to do the tried and true hand on hip pose, but many naturally lean forward when doing so, putting their weight on the front leg. Instead, try shifting your weight to your back leg and bending the knee (no…not a Game of Thrones reference) in front slightly.
2. Hands!
Seriously, this is the number one concern from our clients—what to do with those pesky hands. First, whatever you would naturally do to engage with your significant other is always a good idea. For example, placing your hand on the face, around the waist, or on their arm is always natural posing. The key, though, is to keep those fingers loose and the hand soft to avoid what we call “The Claw” (definitely a Toy Story reference). Just wiggle those fingers and touch lightly or just touch with one or two fingers to keep things soft and romantic.
3. Wear that Chin Proudly
Think of a business man in a suit with a square jawline. He’s proud of his accomplishments, holding his head high and jutting his chin out just slightly. That little lean forward and slight outward thrust of the chin is incredibly flattering. Not only does it show confidence, but it can help eliminate the double chin many people also worry about appearing in their photos.
4. Forehead to Forehead
It’s romantic; it’s intimate, and the forehead to forehead pose is one of our favorites. The key, however, is to not go straight on with your heads. Since we want to still see some of your face in the photo, we actually want those heads to touch more on the middle, far side from the camera. To avoid going cross-eyed, just look downward instead of directly at each other.
5. Engage with Each Other
We don’t want your chatting, goofing off, and giggling to stop when the camera comes out. Keep on being yourselves and interacting like you always do. We frequently find ourselves encouraging our couples not to be quiet but to, instead, chat about where they want to go to dinner after the session, what they loved most about seeing each other for the first time, or even their plans for the future (for those super emotional moments). We all want authentic interactions in these shots, so keep up your normal conversations and flirting, please.
Bonus tip for men: A hand in the pocket (thumb in or out, whichever you prefer) is always a good, polished look.
Bonus tip for women: Create separation between your body and your arm for slimmer looking upper arms.
And guess what? If you hire professional photographers who know how to make you look and feel good when taking photos (wink…wink…nudge…nudge), then you can leave all of this to us.
