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top 5 tips on shooting engagement photo sessions

March 28, 2012

my top 5 tips on shooting engagement photo sessions

I love doing engagement photo sessions because this allows me the opportunity to connect with my clients before their big day. Even more so, in that there’s much less pressure and haste during this photo session than there’d be during the wedding day.

The engagement photo session is also a good opportunity to impress your clients with your photography. They did sign with you because they liked your style, but it’s even better when they love the photos you took of them. Time to shine.

Their friends and family will also be impressed – and this helps me when I walk into the bride’s house on the wedding day. Instead of being “the photographer”, and a rather anonymous one, I now get this response from the bridesmaids when I start: “Oh, you’re the photographer that took those photos! We love them! They are amazing!” With that then, I’ve already won over a large part of the bridal party, and I’ll have their friendly cooperation.

Also, on the wedding day, there is a great chance that things will start to run late. However, the wedding reception will start on time. So the time that gets compressed, will inevitably be the time you have as a photographer. It just makes your life easier then, if the couple has already spent time with you and have a feel for how to work with you during the romantic portrait session, and photographs of the bridal party.

There are so many advantages to doing the engagement photo session. Here are my top 5 tips for a successful photo session with your clients …

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the flow of a photo session

November 28, 2011

the flow of a photo session

Laura and Todd is a couple whose wedding I’m photographing next year. We met up last weekend in Manhattan for the engagement photo session. I really like doing these because it gives the photographer a chance to connect with the couple before the wedding, and get an idea of what kind of rhythm would be possible in photographing them.

In the recent article, turning day into night, I described the thought-process of a photo sequence. Starting with an idea, we worked up to a photo that looked impressive. So that entails a few test shots, including one to show the couple what we’re trying to achieve. Then we finesse it.

That’s the usual process when coming up with ideas – it’s a succession of photos, changing things up a bit until we have a few images that look really good and show the couple at their best.

But sometimes, the idea doesn’t work …

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the next step – going beyond just posing people

May 31, 2011

the next step – going beyond just posing people

With the recent post on a few guidelines on posing people, I wanted to add the reminder that when photographing people, our final destination isn’t just the posed photograph, but that we should try and capture something about our subject. Something about their personality, or showing some facet of who they are and their lives.

When photographing couples in particular, my accent is on photographing their relationship as well. In addition to the portraits of the couple, I want to show how they interact with each other – playfulness and intimacy. We need to create images which have emotional impact – images that have some resonance with their friends and family when they view them.

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photo sessions – Shawna

March 7, 2011

photo sessions  - Shawna – using a variety of photographic lighting options

Shawna is the delightful model I used while I was in Las Vegas a few weeks ago. She helped us out during the mini-workshops I offered, as well as some photos of my own.  I’ve posted a few photos from these already, but thought it might be interesting to show a further selection of images and discuss them …

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looking for the light

July 31, 2010

photography technique – looking for great light

This afternoon I walked around the Princeton campus with a couple, Renee and David, looking for cool spots to photograph them.  I noticed the spread of light on a wall coming through an entrance way …
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