Engagement photo shoots are an essential part of the wedding photography experience. Not only do these sessions provide an opportunity to capture the couple’s love and joy, but they also allow the photographer to build a relationship with the couple before the big day. However, posing for engagement photos can be a daunting task, especially for those who are not used to being in front of the camera. In this article, we will provide a photographer’s guide to engagement poses, offering tips and tricks to help photographers create stunning and natural-looking images that capture the couple’s unique personalities and love story. From traditional poses to candid shots and everything in between, this guide will help photographers create engagement photos that their clients will cherish for a lifetime.

Video: Simple Posing Framework for Engagement Poses

With so many ways to take couple’s portraits, how do you decide on the right poses? Photographers will usually run through a memorized list of poses during the session. However, in this video, I’ll be showing you a simple guide for stress-free engagement poses.

Capturing the right poses can be a stressful part of couple’s and engagement photography. There are just so many to go through. Rather than a list of poses, I’ve created a simple posing framework for a stress free couple’s shoot in 4 easy steps. Let’s jump right in.

Step #1: Foundation Posing

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The 5 Foundation Poses

Begin each session by teaching clients the Foundation Poses. Foundation Posing consists of the 5 basic feet positions that serve as bases for the majority of engagement poses. From here, directing and guiding my clients becomes incredibly easy and simple.

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For our example, we begin building our final look by starting our couple off with the Closed Pose.

Related Reading: The First 5 Poses Every Photographer Should Learn

Step #2: Set The Intention

Are you looking at a romantic scene with the beautiful sunset, or a silly and playful moment between the couple? For this step, describe to your client the image as you imagine it. Doing this will set the vibe and help bring your clients into the right moment and mindset.  Sometimes the best engagement poses are the poses that the clients interpret themselves.

Step #3: Micro-Posing

Rather than big changes in between each image, focus on small and simple engagement posing adjustments. For this, we want to keep in mind:

  1. The eyes and where they’re looking.
  2. The hands and what they’re touching.
  3. The distance between the couple.
  4. The emotion of the photograph.

Changing each of these small nuances can drastically shift the feel of each engagement pose. Check out this sequence of photos as well as the simple directions I’d give as we move from shot to shot. We began with a closed pose from our foundation posing.

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Use micro-poses to capture small intimate details.

Engagement Posing Cues:

  1. Pull each other close, look at her, and look at me.
  2. Pull back a bit and look at each other.
  3. Then touch foreheads.

The basic closed pose is still the same, yet we get a series of natural photos with simple engagement posing directions and changes.

Step #4: Wide, Medium, Tight

We want to capture a variety of images to create a collage. Keeping the same foundation pose, simply move away to capture a wide shot, then move in closer to capture the details. No need for drastic changes or a crazy list of shots.

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed this article/video. A simple engagement posing framework is incredibly important to keep the energy and flow positive and stress-free throughout the photoshoot. For a full guide on posing, check out the Complete Posing Workshop on SLR Lounge Premium. There, you can also find Incredible Engagements to learn how to capture stunning couple’s and engagement portraits.