Posing for Wedding & Lifestyle Photography

Posing is one of those crucial elements of lifestyle and wedding photography that many aspiring photographers tend to over look at first. When you are first starting out, you will most likely find your family, couple, or bride and groom standing there asking what they should do with their hands, where to look, and how to stand. In fact, you may even find that right out of the gate a family or couple will say that they are uncomfortable with having their photo taken and it’s your job to make them not only look their best but feel more comfortable and confident during their session or wedding.

Making sure that your family or couple naturally look their best involves a technique that takes some time to master. It’s not all about trying to emulate a pose that you thought looked good in a magazine or online. Placing your client a pose that is flattering to their body type and doesn’t look forced is something that will take some practice. One thing that many aspiring photographers can easily over look is the significance of comfort and confidence. 

Helping your bride and groom feel comfortable in their pose will accomplish a couple of important things.

1. They will look more relaxed, which will absolutely serve to make their pose more natural.
2. They will be able to enjoy their wedding more. Being a wedding photographer is more than experience and quality, it’s about spending the day with your bride and groom during an important milestone in their lives.

Helping your couple or family feel more confident in their pose will accomplish a couple of things as well.

1. Confidence is a key element in photography for your subject. If your couple or family members feel like they’re not confident in the post that you’ve put them in then they’re more likely to look awkward or uncomfortable.
2. Confidence has a way of presenting itself in imagery. It can take a simple pose and turn it into some with affection and passion.

Achieving That Candid Look Through Posing

Many times when you’ve created an environment where your bride and groom (during their wedding or engagement session) or your family (during a lifestyle session) are comfortable and confident in what you’re able to bring to their wedding or session they will quickly relax and almost forget that you’re there. This can accomplish an element of a beautifully natural “pose”. I like to allow my clients to relax and have fun during their session by positioning them in the best location for lighting and background, and then by posing them and allowing them to “fall into the pose”.

I accomplish this by setting up the pose and telling the couple to feel free to talk to one another, to laugh, and to just be with one another during this time. Unless I am giving them cues on where to look or how to stand in order to create a better body image, I want them to forget that I’m there.

Allowing your bride and groom to fall into a pose can achieve a number of things.

1. I am able to capture genuine smiles that are not forces or unnatural.
2. I am now able to capture pure emotion, the look someones eyes as they laugh together or hold one another.
3. It allowed the couple or family to let their guard down and will automatically stand more naturally.

Which brings us to detailed posing. . . .

The Details of Posing

Being aware of the little details in a pose and with working with a bride and groom, couple, or family during their wedding or session can go a long way towards creating a curated look in the final portrait. Over the past 11 years, I have gotten into the habit of noticing when a person has his phone or keys in their front pocket, or when a groom doesn’t have their top button buttons on their jacket for formals. You begin to automatically notice when a wallet is in the back pocket, bulging out, or when a brides hair is not falling right (or covering her face). Eventually you’ll begin to notice the little things like when a baby is drooling or there is a small hair is laying on a grooms lapel.

All of these elements will help to ensure that your final image is clean and organized, which will ultimately make your bride and groom happy with their wedding photography and keep your couple or family happy with their lifestyle portraiture.

Using Lighting in your Posing

While this isn’t typically included in posing guides it is none-the-less and important aspect, as is lighting in all of photography! Quite honestly, if you’re not paying attention to lighting in your posing and in your photography it can look flat and/or washed out.

For instance, when photographing “getting ready” portraits during a wedding, placing a bride or groom near an open window ignorer to use the ambient light to cast shadows on one side of the face and body while illuminating the other side can create beautifully dramatic contrast. Additionally, setting the natural light of the sun or the artificial light of a speed light behind your couple or family will cast a beautiful backlit glow during their first dance or out in a field during their engagement session.

If you’d like to learn more, Lovelee Photography teaches a master class on portrait photography, wedding photography, studio photography, and more HERE!