Posing
Proposal photoshoot poses
There is no posing during the proposal itself. Everything below applies to the fifteen minutes afterwards.
Posing
There is no posing during the proposal itself. Everything below applies to the fifteen minutes afterwards.
In short: There is no posing during the proposal itself. Everything below applies to the fifteen minutes afterwards.
Emotion is already there. Any instruction breaks it.
Close crop, no presenting to camera.
Reliable, quiet, needs no direction.
Movement while the adrenaline is still high.
Roots the portraits to the place.
Ask what they were thinking. The answer is always worth photographing.
Start with hold each other and do nothing — the first two minutes are warm-up and the first pose should be the one that asks least of anyone. Move to hands together, ring visible and forehead to forehead once the shoulders have dropped, and keep laughing about it for the end, when self-consciousness has gone. Shoot each one in bursts through the movement rather than holding it: the usable frames sit between the instructions, not on them.
Two metres back with the lens zoomed rather than close and wide — distance is what keeps facial proportions natural. Camera at or slightly above eye level for portraits, at chest height for full length. Below eye level enlarges whatever is nearest the lens, which is rarely what you want in frame.
Asking for a re-enactment. It photographs as an re-enactment, and both people know it. If the moment was missed, shoot the reaction and the portraits instead and be honest about it.
Choosing a location with no hiding place. Not agreeing a signal. Proposing with the sun behind you, so both faces are in shadow. And booking nothing for afterwards, so the portraits happen in a car park.