When engagement session posing comes into play, your first priority is not to get your couples comfortable in front of the camera… it’s to get them comfortable in front of you. The engagement session is your chance to show your couple that they can trust you with the task they’ve hired you for: capturing one of the biggest days of their lives. So getting them comfortable and confident with you as a photographer is mission-critical. So we’ve put together a few tips on posing techniques to try out for your next engagement shoot.
Engagement Session Posing: 8 Tips & Techniques
1. Have one of your clients stand close to the other but facing in different directions. Have the one facing you wrap their hands around the other’s arm, then have them look at each other, be serious, be silly, go forehead to forehead, kiss, laugh…endless engagement session posing options here! You can capture this from a zoomed in, zoomed out and wide, or wide and low perspective or even from the back and get multiple images from the same pose.
2. Here’s one of our more playful engagement session posing tips! Place one of the two behind the other and have him or her wrap their arms playfully around them from behind and lean in. The couple can look at you, look at each other, or have one look at you while the other looks at their partner. This can also be fun as a “piggyback”.
3. If you find yourself in a field with tall grass and wildflowers, consider posing the couple in the grass and then position yourself to include some out-of-focus greenery in the foreground of the image. This can help add visual interest and establish where you are location-wise. Or, shoot through leaves/twinkle lights! This is one of our favorite tips for engagement session posing!
4. This engagement session posing tip is great if you are somewhere with lots of tall buildings. Place your clients with their backs to a wall or a fun background and have them hold hands. Then get on the ground with a wide angle lens and shoot up at them for a new perspective. The distortion can be fun but you can also minimize the distortion by not going too wide. From here, you can have them look at you, look at each other, and look away and create three different images. You can also have them lean only their heads over until they are almost touching or kissing. This image below shows the same pose happening at a wedding, but we love this pose for weddings and engagement sessions!
ShootDotEdit customer @photography_by_orlando
5. You can also try shooting from an elevated area with your clients below — stand on a ladder, a sturdy chair, or even a rock and have them sitting close and looking up at you, and ask them to move in cheek to cheek. You can ask them to do a forehead to forehead or kissing pose from this same position and zoom in close or stay wide — the possibilities are endless! Unique perspectives rock for engagement session posing!
6. Shooting a winter engagement? You might get snow. So create poses that incorporate the snow to make it seem like a winter wonderland was all part of the plan. This could include:
- A snowball fight!
- Building a snowman
- Cuddling up in blanket
- Hot chocolate
- Catching snowflakes on their tongues
Suggested Read: A Guide To Wedding Photography Poses
7. Another great engagement session posing tips is to ask the couple to turn towards each other and get in really close. Make sure the bride-to-be’s left hand is the one you can see and ask her to raise her hand to touch her fiancé’s cheek (mini tip: make sure her thumb is tucked in close to her hand and not wildly standing out).
8. Using engagement posing tip 7 above as a building block, then have them touch foreheads and close their eyes. Get this from close close close (think ring as the focus) but also from varying angles and distances. Then, if you want a natural play off this pose, ask him to say something really silly to her to try to make her laugh, still with their eyes closed, and be ready to shoot what happens!
Further Read: Nailing Engagement Sessions: From Planning To Execution
For more information on professional wedding posing techniques, check out this blog post on posing your couples. From engagements to bridal portrait posing to bridesmaids and groomsmen posing — you want to make sure you hand back your clients the best versions of themselves in their images.
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