Posing Guides

Bridal Party Posing Tips

POSING TIPS FOR YOUR FAVORITE PEOPLE

You’ve selected your bridal party for a reason, they are the people in your life you have the most fun with. We like to say “lets take a formal picture to satisfy Grandma and then lets have some fun, by taking the pictures you hired us for”

“Girls wanna look beautiful and have a little bit of sass”

“Guys wanna look cool”

Valen Studios shoots for personalities, so if you’re fun we are going to shoot extra fun. Sometimes the more inappropriate you are the funnier the picture can be! Veil shots can look fun if the veil is big enough, just make sure you can see everyone’s faces! Most of you have that one wild friend, let them have their moment. 🙂

If you lean toward being classy and more reserved we got your back.

Our goal is to make sure all the girls look great by making sure they are standing as correctly as possible. Showcasing their own individual personalities and posing comfort.

We get asked by the girls all the time, “What should we do with our hands?”

There are many options. For example, both hands on hips, one hand on hip one holding flowers, both hands holding the flowers in front of you, leaning on objects around you, holding each others hands, the list goes on and on. The biggest tip would be to not all do the same thing, it creates an awkward pattern.

Another cute idea is to have all the girls look at the bride and do a slight giggle or put love in your heart and look at the bride with all that love.

If edgy and artistic is your game, we here at Valen have all the skills needed to nail that one too. Standing on stairs above the subject and shooting down on them creates a sassy look. Just make sure all chins are up and relax your foreheads.

Walking arm in arm is always a favorite. The tip is to look at each other and be cute and fun. Keep looking at different people as you’re walking so you have more pictures to choose from.

For Groomsman formal shots make sure you’re in the C-curve pose putting all your weight on your back leg.

“What do we do with our hands?”

All hands out hanging at your side, one hand in your pocket one out (you pick), or all hands in. Although it happens, try not to ever expose just the thumb! It won’t make or break a shot, but it looks better if you don’t. As you look at the following examples, pay attention to what their hands are doing. As you will see mixing it up is the best.

Silhouette shots can look so cool. Also when you shoot upward toward the subject, it can look very powerful. When doing a silhouette shot make sure no one is overlapping, otherwise you become one large shadow and there is no distinction between you and your friends.

If you’re a motorcycle or hot rod enthusiast, bring it! Makes for an awesome prop. Notice how they are uniquely standing, this is where their personalities came in. All these poses are great for different reasons.

We call this shot “The Knights of The Round Table.” The cool optical effect is created by a specialty lens. If you like this shot make sure your photographer has a 15mm fish eye lens. This shot looks best when you lean in and have a serious face. Think “we gotta problem here?”

Here are some more pictures for inspiration.

Instead of standing in a straight line, stand in a zig zag pattern with the groom in the middle. This type of picture can look so awesome and powerful.

Look for bold colors and don’t all stand the same. Look directly at, or past the camera keeping your eyes on the horizon.

Tough guy fish eye lens shots can really bring out some fun personalities.

Lastly we want to cover the entire bridal party!

Surprisingly these pictures don’t take very long to pull off if you know what you’re doing and people cooperate.

First off shoot the formal one.

After you get the formal shots, you can mix it up! At Valen we will switch it up to boy girl boy girl placement.

Lastly, let your friends be themselves! Encourage them to change where they are standing then make a fun pose! We have been doing these types of pictures at every wedding for years and years and literally have thousands of these types of hilarious images. So many of them make it in the couples albums, make sure you get these!

Posing tips for the BRIDE

As you can see in this image we have turned the bride away from the camera, brought her shoulders back, accentuated the small of the back by pushing her bottom out slightly away from the camera. Also pay attention how her elbows are slightly off her body creating a triangle gap which is very flattering. We had her naturally hold her flowers tilted towards the camera. Her closer leg is crossing over her back leg, with all the weight on her back leg. We made her stand tall and turn her head away from the camera raising her chin slightly. From this pose you can make all kinds of subtle changes. An example of that would be: looking down at her flowers, looking down her shoulder or looking at the camera.

Here’s an exaggerated version of the S-curve. Doing it this way makes images very dramatic. The goal is to accentuate all of the curves

CLOSE UP POSING

There are many ways to do these shots but here are the basics. The camera should be higher than your eye line so you can look up towards it. The key is not to furrow your brow or wrinkle your forehead. The focus should always be on your eyes. Holding this pose when you look down at your flowers can really showcase your beautiful make up. These pictures are best done with natural lighting coming through a window without harsh sunlight.

Here are some examples of brides outside in the shade and pretty pictures of the bride looking down.

The train is a very important part of the dress, as well as the details of the back. The train should be photographed from the back, not wrapped around to be seen from the front. We have seen photographers mess this shot up like crazy! Face away from the photographer then turn your body and head slightly towards the camera like in this example makes for a stunning image.

General Posing Tips

We here at Valen Studios decided to do some research and I came across this study that mentioned that close to 40% of brides had regrets when it came to their wedding photos. “Wow!” we thought to ourselves. We couldn’t believe that percentage was so high! We found the following statements from brides online.

“You know… I honestly didn’t know at the time… but really thinking about it, I just didn’t like the way our photographer posed me for the portraits. I just don’t think I look very flattering or beautiful in those poses at all.”

What a disappointment.

To have that one day in your life in the most beautiful dress, but to not be happy with the way you are posed in the portraits. From that day on, I made sure it was the mission of Valen Studios to be masters in the art of posing brides and couples. Sadly, a lot of photographers don’t understand that it’s not just about the the beautiful compositions, backdrops, and even moments. Although those are all important, it is an absolute necessity to be a master in the art of posing to ensure the bride and the groom look absolutely dazzling one of the most important days of their life.

We started digging deeper to really see the reasons why these brides were unhappy, and this is what we found…

1. “Our photographer got drunk, and you can see the photos in the gallery getting blurrier and blurrier as you scroll through.”

2. “He just really didn’t seem to know what he was doing! He didn’t guide us during the portrait session and we we’re just standing. there awkwardly!”

3. “Our photographer had no personality, which lead to no personal connection, this made the experience no fun at all.”

I take pride in my work, and after seeing almost half of the brides out there are extremely unhappy with the results they were getting from other so called “professional photographers”, I couldn’t help but be extremely proud of what every single one of my couples have said about me. Like Steph and Kyle who said, “As we look back at our pictures, we couldn’t help but laugh and cry again from reliving all the beautiful memories they vividly captured. We were able to see moments of the day from a whole new perspective. Valen Studios is worth every dime, Steve and his team put their combined creativity and passion into their photography as if it was their own wedding. We looked amazing in our pictures!”

Having said all that, I’m going to share with you as much value in my expertise in posing wedding couples so you can ensure you look your best and have no regrets for on special day.

BASIC TIPS FOR POSING THE BRIDE

When posing the Bride for the close up shot you always want their elbows off their body, make sure you accentuate the curve of her back, chin up, eyes off to the distance, head slightly turned to expose their neck lines. Delicately holding the bouquet with the flowers facing the camera gives their hands a natural looking position. You can also have them look at the camera as well, for a 2^nd beautiful image.

Brides invest heavily in their wedding gown, a once in a lifetime garment that showcases their personality, When posing for this beautiful image, make sure the gown is not “balled up” and is laying properly. Slightly pulling your shoulders back about an inch and make sure you are standing tall. Be aware of the feminine curves and the small of the back, show it off, really accentuate it.

BASIC TIPS FOR POSING THE GROOM

Women are posed using the “S-curve” (Click here for S-curve tips blog). We pose men with the C-curve. You should turn slightly away from the camera, feet approximately shoulder width apart, lean into the hip that’s farthest away from the camera and put all the weight on the back leg. The C-curve makes men look more masculine, as apposed to straight on to the camera which looks like a mug shot. “What do I do with my hands?” (click here for tips on posing men)

Never shoot with the body straight on to the camera, always turn the body slightly to the right or left. Get a picture looking away as well as looking at the camera.

TIPS FOR POSING THE COUPLE TOGETHER

The biggest tip I can give you right away is, act like you like each other! 🙂 Engage! What does that mean? Come together, connect at the far hip, slightly open your bodies to the camera, create a slight “V” with your hips. Groom, put one hand on her hip and one on the small of her back.

Bride, put your hand on his arm, chest, muscles, whatever feels comfortable in the moment. Take a picture looking at the camera and one looking at each other. For more natural (not cheesy) looking pictures, click here!

Walking pictures are also very fun. Hold hands creating a slight V. look at each other, think happy thoughts, smile and laugh away!

If any of this is overwhelming to you, make sure you do an engagement session with your wedding photographer to practice these techniques, so on your wedding day you are way more prepared.

Valen Studios offers complimentary engagement sessions with every wedding package for this very reason.