In the world we live in, love means many different things and all love deserves respect. Every couple’s love deserves to be celebrated and photographed.
Natural posing for couples requires clear guidance and direction to provide a final result that doesn’t look overdone or stiff or uncomfortable in camera. If you aren’t given any direction, then many couples will feel awkward – and in turn result in no indication that they’re in love.
Here are some of my best tips to romantic and simple portraits of any couple who steps in front of your camera.
- First, throw away everything you were taught about photographing a couple that you see in magazines and social media “perfect” ads – ALL couples deserve to be represented in these (honestly, shame on you, mainstream media). Every couple is unique regardless of their size, shape, color, ability, gender preference, or who they are attracted to. Posing couples is all the same.
- Let your couple set the tone – not all couples are super touchy feely or overly passionate in public. Your goal is to create photos that feel like them, so encourage them to stay close and interact naturally, with some direction, to get things going. Then throw in some more snuggly poses as they begin to open up. You’re not there to force them into poses they aren’t comfortable in, so be ready for the moments in between.
- Be in the moment with them – the less that you are looking up on your phone how to pose them, or coming up with poses that should look a certain way, the more you will capture the moments that they share organically. Most couples are obsessed with each other, and will automatically hold hands or make eye contact in ways that you can’t replicate. Lean into these moments to capture your clients the best.
Below are photos that we captured while working with these same principles, and my clients were obsessed with their images!
