Who doesn’t love when a couple walks into one of your sessions and totally nails every pose effortlessly? I know I do! Some people can just fall into each other’s arms in perfect sync without much direction and guidance from the photographer. And then you have some couples – like my husband and I – who are just plain awkward in front of the camera! We have never been comfortable with PDA (aka public displays of affection) and when we are taking pictures together, it clearly shows! But every couple has their own way of showing their love and it’s our job as photographers to capture their unique love language. If you do happen to encounter a couple that’s a little on the “awkward” side, don’t panic! Here are a few tricks you can use to make their love appear just effortless on camera, as it is when the shutter is not clicking.
• Keep it fun. I’ve found that my “awkward” couples tend to do poorly with romantic poses and expressions, but do really well when it comes to the laughing/ silly ones! Probably because they find the whole idea of those romantic poses to be a little cheesy – and that’s ok! Once I get the feeling that intimate poses are not their thing, I skip them altogether and think of ways to get genuine laughs and smiles that are more suited to their personality as a couple.
• Encourage and compliment. Even if some of your poses are simply not working for a particular couple, never let them in on that secret! It will just make them more self-conscious and increase their feeling of awkwardness. Instead, praise them generously when they do something that is working and compliment them genuinely on the things you do like. For example: their smile or their hand placement on their partner. “I love where your hand is right now. Keep it there and look at me and smile.” And if something is not working, simply wrap up and move on to the next pose.
• Give clear directions. Directing your clients into poses is a skill that needs to be practiced and perfected over time. It’s especially important when you don’t have a professional model in front of your camera, which I can safely say is most people you’ll encounter. For example: when I first started posing, to get a “candid” shot I would give a general instruction like “look away from the camera”. Sometimes I would get the oddest expressions with absolutely no connection to the camera or often times, they’d look down at the floor. Now I say something like: “look down your right shoulder line and smile.” The instructions are very clear and give me the exact expression I’m going for every single time.
• Ask them to do something. People just feel tend to feel comfortable when they are given a task to do. For example: even though I’m not always a fan of kissing photos, I will often instruct my clients to kiss during a pose so I can get the “before kiss” expression and the “after kiss” reaction. It always makes for awesome candids! Giving them an action to perform, like walk while holding hands or twirl your partner, will take their minds off the fact that there’s a camera pointed at them and will set the ground work for some fun motion shots.
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