When is comes to getting your photo taken, it’s easy to imagine amazing, natural, carefree images, but it’s another thing when it’s photo shoot day and the camera is aimed at you. It’s really hard to feel “natural” in such a performative moment. You want them to come out feeling natural, but that’s the opposite of how you feel.
So, what do most of do to deal? We just smile our same, old, generic “photo smiles” we have since picture day at school and figure, “Well, hopefully these will just look decent.” We give up mentally thinking these photos will ever come out as more than photographically pretty forced looking portraits.
The thing is, even as a photographer, I feel that awkwardness too. I can tell when a couple just isn’t warmed up. But as the session goes on, the natural smiles flash for a split second, here and there. It’s my job as a photographer to catch them.
But here’s the thing: Most of us want a mix of posed, intentional shots and natural, candid looking “real” shots. That way, we have the feelings and memories captured, but we also have the portrait to hang, or the picture for the holiday card, invitation, or thank you cards.
Take a look at the smiles in these two photographs; one from the beginning of the engagement session, before we’re “warmed up” and one at the end. The second photographs has much more relaxed and natural smiles.
So aside from warming up, one of the other things I do as a photographer to make sure my couples feel like their whole gallery feels like them, is to “catch “ them being themselves. No these are sometimes not the images they’ll but on the thank you card, but they will laugh when they see them. They will make more memories with themselves and family and friends looking though the whole collection and pointing at these images saying, “Oh that is EXACTLY how you look at me when…”
So, they have these “real” images, but also have all the options of great, card or wall art material too.
