Asking from the perspective of both the model and the photographer!
For context, in my community couples don’t touch before marriage. As a result, engagement photos can be…stiff. Either photographers try to make it look like they’re touching by placing the woman a few steps in front of the man, or they just awkwardly hang out next to each other/separated by a flower vase.
My partner and I are about to be engaged. Now, we do touch, but we need photos that we can post publicly for more religious family and friends to see😂 The photographer taking the pics has a lot of really pretty photos (think snapshots from a movie vibe) but from her website I only see couples who touch.
I thought about maybe some props or doing it some place like a bookstore (because we are total nerds haha) although I know my partner envisioned it more like on a beach or something like that.
Any tips for all of us?
Thank you!!
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I would do something that would cause you both to smile / laugh. Play a game, toss a ball. How about Tug-a-war? One of you push the other on a swing? Goto a park with those really tall swings. One you can swing really high on. Have your partner, hands on the swing :) push you hard enough that they can run under you. Make sure you’re both looking at the camera. Click click.
Never thought of that, that is great advice!
How about one of you sitting on a chair and the other behind the chair with on hand on the back of the chair?
I love this challenge! I would definitely suggest playing a game together. Tag, tug of war, build something together. Flirty looks over your shoulder while shyly tucking a strand of hair behind an ear. Pretending to whisper a secret to one another. Seeing who can jump higher. There’s SO much you can do here!
thank you!!! oo i’m gonna be competitive with the jumping 😂😂
Your bookstore idea is a great start. Give yourselves places to be and things to do.
thank you!! i’m trying to figure out options for if the day gets too cold or rainy to be outside😂 i was gonna also offer a museum but honestly i’d forget about the photographer and get too interested in the displays 🤣🫣
How “risky” may the pictures be as long as they are no touches?
I’m tinking of Disney’s Lady and the Tramp and Spaghetti or some other form of feeding each other
ooo good question, i’ll actually ask my mom what she thinks. we have a holiday coming up very soon where donuts are a very traditional food and i’m already seeing them pop up everywhere so maybe splitting one or finding a heart shaped one to share could be cute 👀
Not sure if there is a taboo here, but my first thought was the couple walking together and holding either end of a rope with a knot tied in it. Like, you know tying the knot? I think that would be cute
oh that could look cute!! although i’m not sure, i’d have to ask my mom. because i know that in many families at the wedding the bride dances with her father in law by holding one end of a special kind of cloth belt/rope type thing while he holds the other.
Put a dog between them?
👀see if i didn’t have to travel 2.5 hours by train to get to my partner (he lives 5 hours away so it’s middle ground for us haha) i would absolutely bring my pupper. but the little guy is 16 years old with arthritis so too old for long trips 🥲
Charismatic vocal and humorous photographers do best here. You gotta get people to let their guard down through laughter or conversation they are interested in.
Starts with basic ice breakers like “what you guys been up to today?” “What’s your plans for the weekend?”. If they are siblings you have lots of potential material, “who got in trouble more?” “Who eats more?” Etc.
You want to see if you can get people in a place where they aren’t thinking as much about being photographed. You want them thinking more about feelings and emotions. It takes practice though.
I would have them physically separated, like a few feet and maybe they just make eachother laugh or enjoy each others company.
You could also do the moments leading up to touch, similarly to how the engagement is the time of anticipation for the wedding. Maybe they are approaching eachother in a book store or a coffee shop. Maybe you capture photos of each one looking at the other so you can show the excitement.
thank you!!
I think a bookstore like an old/antique style one would be a fun setting. You could do a bunch of fun shots at the end of a book shelf, looking through the shelf at each other, peeking around, maybe passing a book to one another or trying to take the same book off the shelf, reading over a shoulder etc.
I thought of these:
- They hold their hands up like they would if their palms would touch but there’s a tiny gap about to close but still open, like their marriage about to happen.
- Guy a few steps up the stairs, lowering an apple/flower/engagement ring tied on a rope, girl stands on ground floor, smiling tries to catch it. Most of photo grey, only the rope and dangling object in bright colour.
- Beautiful landscape in the background, sunset or something, and their profiles as silhouettes from each side, eyes, nose, mouth all level to level, like those pictures you have to see either 2 people or 1 vase in the middle.
- Open really big umbrella (called golf umbrella), both hold the handle, either standing looking in each other’s eyes or walking towards camera, not touching each other. Spray some “rain” in between them and camera.
- Door. One comes in the other opens the door in a welcoming manner. Or just the opposite, jokingly tries to close the door on the other.
- He holds open the car door for her, she looks at him with love in her eyes. One foot out about to touch the ground, Princess Diana or Jacky Kennedy style.
- Beach, sea in the background, both run towards each other, hands stretched out for a hug.
thank you for the detailed comment!!!
Also, מזל טוב!
This is the best post/thread I’ve read in such a long time. Good luck with your session, OP.
Check out x.joshuafernandez on Instagram. He does fantastic work with couples. He’ll mix in shots of them not touching in a lot of his shoots.
thank you!!!
