First Engagement Shoot! C/C appreciated :-D

deepsixphoto · Jun 2, 2011

This was the first time I did an engagement shoot - so honestly I was nervous. Luckily, the couple was very satisfied with the results, but I know there is a lot of room for improvement. I'm just glad to have the first time under my belt! Suggestions, critique, and criticism welcome! Here are a couple of my favorite, but the actual set as 40+ photos, and many of them can be seen on my site.
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5.

RauschPhotography · Jun 2, 2011

#1 is the best in the series, however the people in the background are distracting and taking attention from the couple. #3 and #5 are identical, and sadly most of the rest are looking soft to me. Good luck!

camz · Jun 2, 2011

[FONT=&quot]From my experience with portrait shooting, it really is tough to get emotions out when you "pose" the clients. The objective really is to bring out some reality between them

Here's an example. I whispered to the soon-to-be groom here to try to kiss his future wife. Right after I whispered to the soon-to-be bride that her man is going to kiss her but she can't let him do it. I said Go...then I snapped the shot.

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She's very camera shy but she wanted to do a shoot for her groom. So it just so happens there was a picture of him to her right next to the bed and I asked her to look at it and think of him...Then I snapped the shot.

So if I were to critique your overall shoot, I think it lacks some genuine expressions. Overall for your first time I think you did very well actually, but I think you need some of that realness from your couple

. Should every shot be that way, I think not. Just a balance of it.

Edit: I also wanted to mention that I used her as a perfect example as she was sooooo scared of the camera. But it's our job as photographers to provide that environment or mentality to where they come out of their shell. Good luck =)
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deepsixphoto · Jun 3, 2011

Thanks to both of you! I agree that my focus was off - I felt like I should have manually focused, but at the same time - I was thinking about a million things (engagement shooting is hard!). Learning experience for sure.

I really appreciated the advice about getting the couple to open up. That was a problem in this shoot. They were not fond of PDA - at all. Definitely something I will keep in mind for next time!

camz · Jun 3, 2011

deepsixphoto said:
I really appreciated the advice about getting the couple to open up. That was a problem in this shoot. They were not fond of PDA - at all. Definitely something I will keep in mind for next time!

You got it!

From all the so called cliche poses we do and typical angles we shoot from, really one of the few unique things we own as portrait photographers is our clients. Bringing them out is one of the most under rated traits talked about in photography. I actually rarely see the subject matter discussed here in the forum. Probably because of the relative approaches...who knows. All I know is that it's just as important as your exposure triangle or composition methods.

But you are doing a great job so far nonetheless.