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!
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 🤣🫣
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.
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 👀
Touch anyway. Then just tell people the photographer is so skilled that it looks like you’re really touching!
This is the best post/thread I’ve read in such a long time. Good luck with your session, OP.
If it’s not pushing boundaries too much, you could try the “almost touch”.
- Reaching out with space between fingers as if you’re trying to hold hands, but aren’t.
- Palm to palm with air between.
- Leaning towards each other on a rail of some sort such as a bridge or something. Keep space between.
You could also use props. Since you’re thinking beach:
- Each holding one end of a conch shell or something else beachy. Or just use a simple rose. Something so you’re close enough to touch the same object and have that connection for the eye to follow, but still aren’t touching each other.
- Walking while carrying something between you, one hand on each side such as a sand bucket handle or a boat rope or something else beachy
- Lay on a beach blanket with space between you, but leaning towards each other reading a book.
- Build a sandcastle together! (Or write words like “marry me”, “just engaged”. Perhaps build a sand diamond ring?)
- Throwing a frisbee between each other. No need to catch if your eye-hand coordination is awful. The pictures won’t be able to tell you missed! ;)
- Embrace the “down on one knee” vibe, but do something unexpected like having one partner present a shell, crab, or some other natural beach object to the other.
thank you so so much!!!
I always love to have clients engage in conversation. Discover more about them, see if you can get to a point of smiles and laughs. Capture these genuine moments rather than posing them
i love that!!! thank you!!
Think of ANY activity that the two of you can do while close together without touching. Tug of war using a rubber chicken… each of you hug the family pet from the opposite side, bonus points for 3 smooshy faces in the image… be mimes and act like there’s a wall between you when there’s only empty air…. SO many ideas
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 🥲
Also, מזל טוב!
Build a sand castle on the beach. Hopefully covers what your partner wants.
Both peak over a dune and look at something in between you as a surprise and you could still touch as it wouldn’t be in the photo. Only you would both know.
omg brb adding kites to my list of things to get if possible because that’s adorable. burying is unfortunately not possible because the weather here suddenly got very cold (like one week t shirt weather and the next im in a winter coat and shivering🥲) but we’ll see how it goes!! those are all very cute ideas ☺️
What about a piece of glass between you two? Or a piece of plywood or other thin, flat item that can be viewed on-end? That said, how I would stage that would probably be far too risque for these photos (hands trying to touch, leaning in and yearning)
I really like the bookshelf idea. But for the beach, some “beach stuff” that you can do together like a beach ball and I like the sand castle idea
You’re on to something with the piece of glass! Can’t think of how exactly but that’s a good idea
Motion! Long lens with the couple walking towards you, chatting with eachother and laughing etc. Sitting at a table with cozy drinks, gazing at eachother. Throwing a ball/playing a light sport. Is whispering in ears allowed? That can be quite intimate as well. A great way to get laughs is to ask the bride whisper what she wants on her wedding list in a sexy way into the grooms ear. Once she starts describing a vaccum cleaner they should giggle a bit.
