Photographing a wedding is no walk in the park. The day is often very tightly scheduled. There is usually not much room for experiments – that’s why you have to fit in well with your photos and the bridal couple shoot. There are often only 30 minutes or less available for the complete bridal shoot.
At the same time, you want to take really vivid photos that give your photos and portfolio a special dynamic.
Under this pressure, I often had sleepless nights at the beginning of my career 8 years ago and was also a bit »scared« of what could possibly go wrong. This is because self-confidence is not yet very high at the beginning of wedding or portrait photography due to a lack of experience.
Do you find yourself in these situations?
- What do I say at the bridal couple shoot?
- How do I get my bridal couple to adopt natural poses?
- What do people think of me if I give the wrong instructions?
- The bride and groom sense my insecurity and become insecure themselves as well
- Instead of giving targeted instructions, I constantly take photos of the same pose out of nervousness
Does this sound familiar to you? Instead, it can simply be like this:
- I can give confident instructions at any wedding or portrait photo shoot
- I am no longer afraid to tell them something »stupid« with an uncertain result
- The dynamic posing creates great photos with a natural look
- I use these photos to build up a portfolio that clients love to book me for
- Even with very short shoots, I deliver a lot of good photos with targeted instructions
- The bride and groom feel well instructed and therefore feel more confident in front of the camera
To achieve this, I’ll start now and show you some of our wedding posing cards, which I’ll come to in more detail in a moment. Firstly, let’s take a look at a few basics for better posing in wedding photography.
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1. Dance in the sunset
You don’t always have to wait until the evening before you can capture the bride and groom dancing. Asking the bride and groom to »practise the dance« is super helpful during a portrait photo shoot.
The advantage: This creates a dynamic situation with movement. The two engage with each other and the posing runs on autopilot. While they do that, you go into the background and capture the best moments. This will result in super vivid photos.
2. Let them walk free
Precise instructions on the angle at which each person should turn their head? Not only does this sound strict, it will also set your bridal couple in stone.
As in the first example, create a framework for movement: Give the instruction that the two take each other by the hand and walk across a meadow or along a path. You walk alongside with the camera and capture the scene with the continuous shooting function and AF-C focus.
3. Follow the light
Light and posing always go hand in hand. One way to use the light is to have people look in the direction of the light. Otherwise, unsightly shadows would appear on the face.
In the simplest scenario, as in this card, the light is very soft and thus ensures homogeneous illumination. This scene is captured at it’s best with simple window light.
4. Show small details in a big way
Two thoughts on your picture story of the bride and groom:
- Why is a movie exctiting to watch? Right, by alternating between exciting and relaxed scenes. Your calm scenes are photos of details. These can even trigger some emotions!
- Your bridal couple paid a lot of money – even for the little things!
With that being said: keep the details in mind! And also capture them in special camera angles. Like the bride’s shoes in this example. But don’t block your creativity – because you can also photograph these details in movement.
5. Showing intimacy and emotion
The instruction to come closer until their foreheads touch is already a very good step towards more romance. Usually both of them should close their eyes and enjoy the moment.
However, you can also add variety to the photo series by having the two of them look at each other instead. But beware: the situation can quickly feel a little strange. So make sure they smile or even laugh naturally by creating a funny atmosphere.
As you can see, with the right instructions, it’s not really difficult to instruct the bride and groom. But I’ve had to learn all that over the last eight years.
The good news: these were just five of our new posing cards. We have filled 67 of these cards in total. All with helpful instructions based on our experience over the last few years.
Our new wedding posing cards are out now!
You have already seen 5 of the new posing cards. They help you to create lively poses with short and concise instructions and corresponding sample images!
This will make your photos look very dynamic and you will build up a great wedding portfolio. We ourselves are often booked by bridal couples who want exactly this natural style!
You will let your wedding photos come to life with the new Authentic Wedding Posing cards. With these, you’ll not only learn from scratch what to say to your bridal couple for cool photos. You can also always have the cards with you on your smartphone. How to stay on top of things even at stressful weddings. You can also show the photos to the bride and groom for illustration purposes.
