Creating Natural Engagement Photography

I believe that creating natural engagement photography is a million times harder than the traditional highly posed and highly staged photography. When you have control of literally every aspect of a scene and a couple it’s quite easy to work towards “perfection”. However, perfection is lame. As human beings were not perfect so why even bother striving for it? It’s our imperfections and individuality that makes us who we are. By creating natural engagement photography we allow our couples to be who they truly are without judgment. We let their stories and personalities shine without insinuating it’s not enough and has to been tweaked and controlled. Let’s dive into my tips on how you can create the most natural engagement photos possible for your amazing clients.

Communication

The first step to booking clients that want candid style images is to have photos in your portfolio that shows them you consistently produce that type of work. If you don’t showcase natural images you simply won’t book those clients. You’ll probably even end up booking people who are not ok with anything less than “perfect”. Once you have the portfolio next comes communicating your style and approach. This information needs to be clear on your website and reiterated with the client when they inquire. Be very clear that you are laid back, only slightly direct, use prompts instead of posing, and are focused on capturing their personalities. Tell them that perfection and looking as hot as possible is not the goal.

Questionnaires

Once a client has booked a session with you I recommend sending them a questionnaire 2 weeks before the session if possible. The point of this questionnaire is to learn the basics about them so you can cut to the deeper stuff in person. Read through these answers multiple times before the session so that it’s set in your brain and you can you the information to start conversations and establish commonalities.

These questions can include:

• How did you meet?
• When did you know your partner was the one?
• What do you like to do together for fun?
• What are three things you love to do when having a “Me Day”?
• What has defined who you are today?

Meaningful Storytelling

Don’t get me wrong, I am a sucker for a stunning natural landscape. However, the photoshoot meant to immortalize a big moment in your couple’s lives should be given more than just a pretty park. Encourage your clients to brainstorm locations that are sentimental to them. You can add the questions below to your correspondence or questionnaire. Shooting at a meaningful location establishes comfort and more of an emotional connection to the photos easily. It also stops the mission for perfection by forcing you to shoot somewhere that might not have perfect light or be picturesque. Remember we’re on the quest for authenticity and storytelling instead. Next work with your couple to brainstorm activities they could do during the shoot.

Is their favourite place the cottage? What do they love doing most at the cottage? Boating, swimming, campfires, etc. This gives your couple a way to interact with each other that is completely real and also tells their story.

Questions:

• Where do you love to spend time together?
• What’s one of your favourite places to go on a date?
• Is there somewhere that holds many memories for you both?
• What can we incorporate into your shoot to make it unique to you?
• What about your relationship and personalities would you like portrayed in the photos?

Trust

As you may already know, having your clients trust you is a massive deal. They need to feel comfortable being themselves around you and also have confidence in your creative abilities. The more trust you earn the better your photos will be. In order to build as much trust as possible here are a few things you can do. Schedule a video call about a week before the shoot. This is meant for you all to become more familiar with each other. Guess what, familiarity builds trust. You can start this call by talking about how you’ve all been and what you’ve all been getting up to. Preface the call by saying you’d like to go over again the details, what they can expect from you and what you expect from them. This doesn’t have to be a long call just spend some time getting to know each other. When it comes to shoot day don’t jump right into taking photos when you meet up. Instead, spend 10 – 15 minutes with your couple just walking around and building a relationship. This will put everyone at ease, in a good headspace, and give you more things to bond over during photo time. Before I start taking any photos I also recommend giving them a little speech reminding them how the shoot will go and what to expect.

I touch on the following:

• You don’t have to fake smile or look at the camera
• Movement is everything! It adds emotion and energy. Try to be slightly moving at all times whether it’s rocking back and forth or readjusting your hands.
• Connection is better portrayed when there are no hanging limbs. Instead of having a gap between bodies or hands dangling by your side get close and connect everywhere.
• If I go quiet it means you are doing amazing and I’m letting the awesome moment and interaction play out without disturbance

Music

As well as trust, music adds a ton of comfort and ease. Everyone gets a least a little awkward when things go super quiet. Music completely stops that from happening and also adds lots of fun. There are also selfish reasons to have music playing at your shoots. Personally, I feel way less anxiety when it’s on. There’s no doubt that my clients feel the same. It also prompts fun and upbeat energy. I bring along a small BlueTooth speaker and a downloaded custom playlist. Keep in mind you may also have to speak a bit louder.

Ask your clients:

• Do you have a favourite music album/artist?
• Do you have a favourite playlist you could share with me?
• Any songs that are particularly meaningful to you both?
• Have you picked a first dance song?

Prompts vs Posing

Let go of control and let the magic happen! As you probably already deduced strict posing doesn’t bring out lots of emotion. That’s where prompts come in. Prompts are directions given regarding body positioning, actions for movement, and talking points. Yes, this is staging to a degree. The difference is that you’re being vague and hands-off. Instead of saying: “Ok… get behind her, wrap your arm around this way, put your other hand here, look over there, tilt your head and smile!” You’re saying this: “Go give her a hug from behind. Awesome! Now melt into him and whisper what you love most about him” Do you see the difference? When you say give her a hug from behind they understand what you mean. However, each person will do this slightly differently which gets you closer to the genuineness you’re striving to achieve.

If you’ve built quite a rapport with the couple you may not need prompts in which you encourage them to talk about certain things. Try to be naturally engaging in fun convo already. You can keep a couple of your favourite talking prompts in the back of your mind to pull out when the moment is right. You want it to feel like you’ve naturally just thought it in that moment, not that you have a list you’re running through that you’ve memorized.

If you’re looking for ideas of prompts I recommend checking out Super Feel. I love that they go from laughing and silly prompts to deeply personal and emotional ones.

Examples:

“Posing” Prompts:

• Give each other a hug like your not going to see each other for 3 months
• I’m going to get you both sitting on the ground. I want you to get in close between his legs and he’s going to give you a squeeze
• I’m going to get you both laying on the ground cuddling as if you’re at home in bed

Movement Prompts:

• Run towards me pulling her behind you
• Wrap up behind her and swing her back and forth
• Kiss her in as many different places as possible in the next 5 seconds

Emotion Prompts:

• Reminisce about that one time they did that super embarrassing thing
• What is the weirdest thing you love about them?
• Tell them about a time you were most proud of them

Movement + Energy

Movement truly changes everything. You can tell when someone is standing still vs moving in a photo. Also, when someone is swaying or bouncing around it adds a sense of energy and life. That’s why if your client does something as simple as playing with the other’s hair you can go from looking staged to creating natural engagement photography. The movement doesn’t need to be a lot and it doesn’t mean motion blur. Believe it or not, when your couple is moving around it will probably make them giggle and smile more! I challenge you to get someone to take a phone photo of you stilling still and then one of you slightly bouncing and rocking. You’ll see what I mean!

How to encourage movement:

• Sway back and forth
• Holding hands, step away from each other and come back to meet in the middle
• Play with each other’s hands
• Walk towards me bumping your hips

Be Patient

One of my biggest problems at a photoshoot is getting nervous and rushing. By some miracle, I still manage to create good photos in this hyper style of shooting. If you experience this as well you know it’s the opposite of helpful. Photography is a creative endeavour therefore it requires our focus, deep thought, and attention to detail. This is where the next tip, be patient, comes in. The more time you give yourself to breathe, interact, and observe what’s going on the better images you will make. When you have this calm, relaxed energy it transfers to your couple. It’s also important to be patient when seeking a great moment or emotion. These amazing things need time. So set your client in a spot, get them connecting, interacting, moving until the magic happens. It’ll take time but it’s better to create one truly amazing photo than many average ones. Shoot through it all until you’re sure you couldn’t get a better moment. Not to mention the more time you give the couple to relax into the spot and “pose” the better photo you will get because they become more comfortable. When you’re always moving quickly and bouncing from one spot to the other it doesn’t give them the opportunity to take a breath or a break.

Tips for slowing down:

• Meditate before a shoot
• Spend more time connecting and talking with your clients than taking photos
• Give your clients a break midway through the shoot to take in the setting. This also gives you a break
• At a new spot give yourself at least 5 seconds to think and breath before you instruct your client on what to do next
• Look at the back of the camera, take 3 deep breaths and consider how to make the composition/lighting/etc better

Be Yourself

I know this is super cliche but it’s important. As photographers we expect clients to turn up and bare all. We want them to do all the things they’d do by themselves and open up emotionally. However, if we want others to do this it’s only fair that we do it ourselves. This couple hired you because they connected with you and your work. They see talent and value in you. Trust that you’re doing your best and they’re going to love your work. I encourage you to be your silly, caring, energetic, thoughtful, creative self. They will appreciate so much that you were open and vulnerable with them. If you can do this your clients will reward you in spades.

Compliment, Compliment, Compliment

Everyone loves a great compliment! When you shower your couple with heartfelt and genuine compliments they smile and feel more confident. The more confident they feel the more comfortable they are being themselves. Obviously, if you’re kind and make them feel awesome they’ll like you more which helps develop trust. This keeps their energy up and adds to your customer’s great experience with you.

Compliments:

• “Amazing! I love how you just did that!”
• “Omg! Yes! You guys are sooo cute!”
• “Holy! Pro models or what over here!”

Practice

Like any creative endeavour practice is super important for building skill and expertise. Remember when you tried using manual for the first time? Wasn’t so great, was it? For me, my camera is now an extension of my body. I don’t have to use any brainpower to think about what settings are the right ones for a situation. That came to me by practice of course. This also goes for learning about light, composition and you got it… creating natural engagement photography! The more you practice making people comfortable, using prompts, and keeping up the energy the sooner it will become like second nature to you. Set up a shoot with friends!

Thank you so much for checking out this article! I hope you learned something and found it helpful. I’m sure with this new knowledge you will get out there and start creating natural engagement photography the way you’ve been wanting to. Remember to be yourself, build a relationship with your client, and give yourself the time to compose a great shot and wait for the decisive moment. You’ve got this!

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