How To Pose For Photos: Preparing For Your Engagement Photos

It’s so common for couples to tell me, “You have your work cut out for you. We’ve never done this before, and we need someone to tell us how to pose for photos.” This can be stressful, and sometimes it even deters couples from getting engagement photos. But the truth is that your engagement session can help you prepare for wedding photos and these photos make excellent gifts and decor.

However, I often observe couples being overly nervous or over-posing. So in an effort to help you create the most natural photos of you and your love, I’m going to share with you some of my favourite tips for couples posing for engagement photos. These tips will help you go from that stiff smile staring at the camera to natural photos that look like the two of you feel.

Look At Each Other

This is the first step to beautiful engagement photos! While the tradition in photography has been to smile at the camera, the result is often unnatural smiles. Instead, I am always asking my couples to look at each other.

There are a few common responses to this request. Sometimes couples blush and giggle. Other times they laugh hysterically. Sometimes they even cry. Whatever the case may be, the results are more natural. Even when their eyes widen and they look at each other in total, awkward shock. Because however they look at each other, their natural personalities show through.

Looking at each other will guarantee that you wind up with natural photos rather than uncomfortably smiling at the camera.

Hold Hands

If you feel a bit awkward getting all wrapped up with each other in front of a camera, start by holding hands. Stand right next to each other facing the camera and intertwine your fingers. Turn towards each other and start chatting. Keep your free hands in a pocket, or brush the hair off your partner’s cheek.

Snuggle

This is a word I use regularly when directing couples. “Snuggle.” Sometimes they naturally embrace each other, and other times they both look at me like they don’t know what I’m talking about.

Truthfully there is no correct way to snuggle in photos. What you want to do is do exactly what you would do when showing each other affection. If that is putting one arm around your partner and pulling them close, or wrapping both arms around each other, that is exactly what you should.

Once you are snuggled in close, you can start moving your hands around. Put one hand in a pocket, then move that hand to your partner’s arm, and then to the back of their neck. Slide your hand down their arm, place it on their back, or intertwine your fingers again. All of these small adjustments will give you a lot of variety in your photos.

Go For A Walk

This is one of my favourite ways to help couples loosen up. Go for a walk. But don’t look at the camera. Instead, look at each other. And if you can’t do that because you’re afraid of tripping over your own two feet (like a certain redhead I know), look ahead of yourself.

Ofthen when couples start walking, they start laughing. Our dialogue usually sounds something like, “Oh yeah… we do this all the time… walk around for no reason with a camera pointed at us…” Inevitably someone cracks up out of pure discomfort, and that is exactly what we want.

Don’t Pose

Ultimately, all of this advice adds up to this: don’t pose for photos. Instead, be yourselves. Interact the way you normally would. This is the best way to ensure that your engagement photos turn out totally natural. Rather than posing, have a conversation, tell jokes, smooch, and snuggle. Talk to each other the way you normally would, and your photos will remind you of how you feel about each other.