Shooting Bridal Portraits can be really stressful. Usually done at some point throughout the wedding day, you almost never have enough time, and whatever amount of time you think you had, can shrink quickly.
Jasmine Star recently shared this great (and short!) video, in which she discusses three tips for shooting better bridal portraits, and it all starts with using your time wisely. As I mentioned above, the time you thought you had may be less, and you will always want more time, so using the time you do have wisely is key.
1. Always shoot each pose with three variations; Full Body, Waist Up, and Chest Up. This  will give you a lot of variety with your images, even if you only have time to go through a couple poses before the bride is whisked away.
2. The second thing you should do is to make sure and relax your bride. They will have a metric ton of stress by the time they are in front of your camera, thinking about the wedding, this and that. It is important to remind them, or at the very least do your best, to put them at ease for those few minutes they are in front of your camera. They will be more comfortable and your pictures will look better for it.
3. Lastly, and this is hard for a lot of photographers, give a lot of feedback. Stay positive and upbeat, tell the bride she is doing great, or that the pictures are looking amazing. If you just sulk behind your camera snapping photos it gives your bride too much time to think in her head. Constant feedback will not only keep her from doing that, but will raise her spirits and result in more natural expressions and more raw emotion in your images.
[RELATED: SLR Lounge Natural Light Couples Portraiture Workshop]
[Via Jasmine Star on Youtube]
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GREAT
Jasmine is a life saver, watch her short videos on youtube, full of great information. A few more tools for the toolbag here, important ones too, good to know.
This is a very good tip because it is easy to get so focused on making sure you get those signature shots while balancing time.
Great tips. Sometimes things are happening so fast, you just forget. The best advice… slow down. Have an assistant with your shot list in their hand to help you.. guide you and be your memory.
Great Tips
yeah I agree totally. I was basically just talking about getting 3 shots with each pose. The full body waist up then chest up. I don’t normally get all three of those shots with the same pose.
Communication is the key to produce great bridal portraits.
Never really thought about it but it makes sense. I just shot and go with the flow but i see how it could be real helpful in almost any situation as well as long as its portraits.
When you start posing your bride and helping her getting the best poses is going to greatly improve your work. You should make them feel amazing and beautiful because that is what wedding photography is all about!