Jeremiah & Lynn: A Couple of Love Bugs.

Lynn and Jeremiah: a couple of love bugs.

I‘ve known these two for well about as long as they have been together which has been well let’s just put it this way, they’re high school sweethearts. I was setting up the poses and allowing my fellow photographer Robert Wright get the main images, I tried to get a bit of everything and be the behind the scenes photographer.  When you do a couples shoot I like to do a few things that I tend to focus on when I’m shooting any person, group or family/couple.

1.     Diffuse the situation: first and foremost when you are just starting, stay away from direct sunlight. Get under some shade! (Not a tree these will tend to have sunspots or places where the sun leaks in and hits your subject which can leave an unflattering beam of bright light)

2.     In your business: Don’t be afraid to get up close and personal! Go in close when the couple is kissing, blur our the rest of the background with your lens (f-stops) and you’ll have a great bokeh that brings the focus where its supposed to be, on the subject!  When you get close sometimes it will also bring closeness which I like to portray in all my images of couples and families, if you are taking a lot of images on their feet, and everything but the most expressive part of the person (their face!) then you lose detail and can become distracted by possibly awkward body angles or even if a person is uncomfortable with how their body looks you can get close and eliminate that worry!

3.     Fix their lives: I use this phrase when I am telling a person I’m going to adjust something that doesn’t look right for the camera for instance; if they are slouching, if there is Unwanted hair in the face, something is in their teeth, something looks wrong with their clothing, they are behind something that makes them look like they have something growing out of their head or body (you gotta check your background and make sure that its not distracting from the main subject), and many other reasons (but those are some main ones). Look for details, I try to go thru my mental list before I point and shoot: hair, teeth, clothes, background, posture (sorry I don’t have a cool acrostic for you!). Nothing’s worse then taking a great picture then noticing there’s some weirdy in the back frame making silly faces behind the couple, or there’s something in a person’s teeth, a bra is showing, or they have an awkward expression on their face. Catch these so you don’t miss a good image!

4.     Kairos moments: The money shot, the images that for a brief moment you can see the subjects are doing their own thing, they are relaxed, smiling, everything is natural, the closest thing you can get to true candid’s. These images happen as you begin to talk to your subject. Ask them questions; like what was your first impression of him/her? Any embarrassing moments together?  How did you two meet? What did he (sometimes she) do for the proposal? The couple might laugh look back at one another but keep that camera ready and get the shot!  Sometimes it’s just an interesting angle that you get, something creative that you haven’t done before. Depending on the couple you may be able to do more with them. Some may not be as comfortable in front of the camera, but the ones that are down to just have fun, take the time and get creative! I like to study lots of other photographer’s images before I start to see if I can add a similar pose in for my couple. If you like the image a photographer took try to replicate one! It’s not bad to want to have an image that was good to be one that you have done as well!

5.     Know when to break the rules!  You can have fun! These are some basic things to keep in mind, but if you noticed in this shoot I purposely broke every basic rule just to show you that this isn’t the ultimatum (leave that to Jason Bourne) but to be viewed as guidelines to help get those images that professional look!