It’s a fact of life that friends come and go, including some of our best friends, but we can always immortalize our friendship in pictures while we’re together. With access to advanced smartphone cameras that we carry in our pockets (or handbags) daily, capturing laughter and love is only one slide and tap away. Or, if you have the means, plan a professional photoshoot with your bestie(s). After all, our best friends are really like family members that we get to choose. It’s worth going the extra mile to celebrate such a friendship. To help inspire this celebration, we’ve put together 20+ best friend picture ideas to use for reference when capturing your BFF portraits.
Reasons Why You Should Do a Photoshoot with Your Best Friend
Snapping a selfie with your best bud is great and highly recommended, but you can take your friendship photos to the next level with a professional photoshoot. While you’d probably love just about any photo that captures you with your friends, opting for a professional shoot comes with a number of added benefits.
Look Your Best
Hiring a professional photographer will help ensure you and your friends look your best in these lifetime momentos. They can help coordinate a color scheme for your outfits, recommend some hairstylists and makeup artists, and direct you into poses that allow them to capture your most flattering angles. Plus, photographers will be able to compose frames that highlight your friendship, free from distracting elements in the background.
Capture Authentic Memories
A professional photoshoot does not require standing in front of a fancy backdrop and saying “cheese.” Photographers can give you tips on how to plan an on-location shoot based on your interests. For example, if you and your bestie love to hang out at the beach, playing volleyball, riding bikes, or whatever, you can coordinate with your photographer to plan the shoot around those activities and give your best friend pictures more authenticity.
Commemorate a Milestone
Has it been 10 years since you’ve begun calling each other bestie? Maybe 20? A bestie photoshoot is a great way to celebrate a friendship milestone! It adds an air of officiality, especially with professional photos. Plus, it’ll give you another chance to spend quality time together and leave the stress of capturing the moment to the photographer.
Create a Unique Keepsake
One of the greatest benefits of doing a pro-quality best friend picture shoot is being able to have your photos beautifully printed in an album or as wall art. You won’t have to worry about standing too far back to admire pixelated photos. If you make it a point to do this every year, or every five years, you can create an elegant gallery that outlines the history you have with your friends.
Best Friend Picture Ideas You Can Try
Whether they capture the simple pleasures, like enjoying a meal or taking a walk together, or they follow a more editorial direction and capture dramatic portraits worthy of a Vogue cover, your best friend pictures should convey the unique relationship you have with your best friends. That said, here are some best friend picture ideas you can try yourself or with a photographer!
1. Reenact an Older Photo
Is your bestie your childhood friend who has managed to stick around? If so, there’s a good chance you’ve been photographed together during your childhood. Why not choose an older photo and reenact it as your grown-up selves?
2. Display Your Love for Food
People bond over food. There’s no doubt about that! People also love sharing stories and reminiscing good times while enjoying a meal together. This goes beyond just eating. Why not make the meal as well? No need to go gourmet (although you can). Incorporate food into your photoshoot and create a new story to discuss during your next meal.
3. Carry Each Other Piggyback Style
Piggyback rides are downright hilarious, especially as you get older! No matter how young or old you are, however, it would no doubt prove challenging to give a friend a piggyback ride and not laugh. Capturing candid moments of laughter and fun will naturally make your photoshoot memorable and awesome.
4. Have Fun with Your Funny Faces
Quirky besties have no problem showing off their funny faces. Make the moment even more authentic while telling hilarious jokes with each other, or strike an unusual pose to complement your facial expressions.
5. Wear Something That Matches
Whether it be graphic tees, shoes, hats, or other pieces of clothing, sport something that matches to add a bit of quirkiness to your best friend pictures.
6. Blow Bubbles for a Nostalgic Feel
There’s something nostalgic about bubbles that most of us seem to love! Incorporating bubbles into your photoshoot can provide a fun way to celebrate your friendship.
7. Live in the Moment with Some Action Shots
There’s nothing more energizing than seeing best buddies send it! Go for a jog, jump, do a cartwheel, ride a bike, play sports, or do any of the activities you both enjoy. The options are limitless.
8. Include Your Pets for a Furry Experience
So long as nobody’s allergic, pets can mix it up in best friend portraits, too! Let your furry babies jump in on the fun and steal the spotlight!
9. Hit an Amusement Park
An amusement park is always a great place to go for tons of fun and laughter. Eat cotton candy, munch on a corndog, go on rides, and laugh it up, fuzzball.
10. Take It Poolside
If you’re into it, you can keep it laid-back and simple with an outdoor shoot basking poolside under the sun. Or, if you prefer, you can jump in the water to catch some unique portraits in the pool.
11. Let Your Friendship Blossom with Flowers
A walk in the middle of a blossoming field is a symbolic way of cherishing a flourishing relationship with your best friend.
12. Show Off Your Secret Handshake
Best friends are measured by the trust and love they share for each other, not to mention secret handshakes. Capture it in a series and let the secret out.
13. Walk Under the City Lights
The sights of the city lights are tantalizing to witness. Especially with your bestie. Enjoy the night lights with your bestie hand in hand for a stunning photograph.
14. Show Off Your Silhouettes
Camera-shy? That’s okay! Coordinate with your photographer for a setup that will create amazing shapes and silhouettes.
15. Go Classy with a Black-and-White Shoot
Aiming for a classic yet elegant photo? Why not try a black and white approach? Timeless photos are born out of this photographic style, so remember to keep the smiles going.
16. Get Stylish with a Lot of Bling
Fashionistas by heart? Strut your style in an ultra-glam best friend photoshoot! Such a best friend picture idea may seem cliché at first but, when executed properly, it’s undeniably flawless!
17. Capture the Season’s Colors
Make the most of the season by incorporating it with your photos. Jump in a pile of autumn leaves. Make a snow angel. Create sandcastles. Fly a kite.
18. Play a Game Together
Getting the ball going (literally) is a fun way of encouraging laughter and smiles. If you and your best friend don’t play ball games, try your hand at board games. Even computer games will do!
19. Proclaim Your Friendship with a Signboard
Shout your love to your best friend by immortalizing it in photos with a customized signboard.
20. Go Bottoms Up
Why not make your photoshoot wilder by having a glass of champagne, beer, or other drinks? Just make sure to drink responsibly!
Doing a photo shoot with your best friend is a fantastic way of celebrating and commemorating your friendship. We hope our collection of best friend picture ideas will help you make the most of your BFF photoshoot!
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