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!!
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!
Can you both be holding something, like could your partner be handing you a flower bouquet? For the book idea, what about sitting close to each other on a park bench reading the same book, or one of you holding a book and the other turning the page for them? Sitting at a picnic blanket and handing each other a sandwich?
omg that would be actually amazing because one of our first dates when i really became sure that he is the guy i want was a picnic in a park😂
You can make a half heart with your hand and have a photo of you two putting your hands together (not touching) to make a whole heart. Maybe use a stuffed heart and hold it together (cliche but it might look cute). If both of you have a common hobby or favorite character or tv show you can use a plushy or themed items. Maybe use a small tree and have one of you on each side, and hands on the center of the trunk at face level (so you get faces and the ring in the photo). If your shadows are allowed to touch I think you could create some interesting photos.
ooo cute!!! thank you!!! i love the shadow idea especially
Why not take a mix of photos? You can get some that make you happy and some that you can post.
that’s the plan!!!
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 🥲
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 😂😂
How about one of you sitting on a chair and the other behind the chair with on hand on the back of the chair?
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 🤣🫣
Have them hold the same thing. Same book, same piece of clothing; maybe putting her coat on, handing him his gloves, etc… Hands on the back of the same chair. Eye contact and body language brings people together without being physically intimate
Oh, yes, like those Victorian family portraits where everybody looks super serious, one sits on the chair, other stands stiff, holding on the backrest.
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 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!!!
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.
Touch anyway. Then just tell people the photographer is so skilled that it looks like you’re really touching!
