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Rangefinder Magazine
February 2004

The Engagement Portrait by Robyn Hills

Robyn Hills

So, you’ve booked the wedding—the couple now has “their” photographer; the booking fee is paid; the paperwork has been filled out with as many details as they have at this stage—what do you do between now and next year when the wedding date is? The way to get your clients familiar with being in front of a camera is to put them there.

By getting to know your clients better before the wedding, you will make them feel more relaxed with you, and you’ll be like friends on that day, rather than total strangers sharing a very personal time.

I offer my clients a complimentary engagement portrait session with the wedding booking. Explaining the benefits is easy. We get to know each other. I can check how they photograph (we rarely get professional models for brides and grooms). I can give them smiling lessons (some smile too wide, some not enough, etc.), posing lessons (few know how to make the most of their body shape for the camera), and feet lessons. It is important to have a fun session that will carry the mood over to the wedding photos. It’s also a record of them at a special time when they’ve made the commitment to each other to share their lives—a moment worth capturing.

Caption 1

When
This session should take place as soon as possible after the engagement or them booking you. Don’t leave it until just before the wedding. The couple will generally be too busy then. It also gives more lead-time to work on creative ideas together. The couple will have time to think through locations that will suit the look they want for their wedding photos. This extra time also helps with planning the time schedule for the wedding day.

Who
Generally just the couple comes for the session, but I have photographed each of their individual families at the same time. Be open to these possibilities. Sometimes the parents want a wall portrait of the family, but don’t want to hang the family one from the wedding, as they want a more casual look with their clothing. It’s nice for them to have a photograph of the original family, before the in-laws get added, since this will always remain their core unit.
Always remember that couples may have children or pets they’d like in the images as well.

Where
Most of the couples want outdoor photographs after the wedding, so I suggest their engagement photographs be created in the studio to give them a different look from the wedding images. But of course, the final decision is up to the client. I’m from the warm subtropical part of Australia on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, and we have some fabulous outdoor locations and generally great weather.

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Using a range of props like different height stools, boxes, or simply the floor, I produce a range of casual, loving images that are playful and modern. Couples want and expect the type of posing they see in fashion magazines.

Preparation is the key to great images. Yes, I know that sometimes great images just happen. But I maintain that if you don’t have the knowledge and skill, even if something great does happen right in front of you, you may not be able to capture it. Remember this session is their introduction to you and your services and their reassurance about their choice of wedding photographer.

Clothing is an important part of a good portrait—I suggest they wear either light-colored tops or both wear dark colours. They don’t need to look like twins, but they have to blend together and look like a couple.

Plain colors photograph the best—without large patterns or writing on shirts. Both should wear long sleeves or both in short sleeves. Ladies concerned about the look or size of their upper arms should avoid sleeveless or strappy tops. This is good preparation for choosing a wedding gown that compliments the bride’s shape. It’s too late when people are looking at their wedding photos and saying, “I don’t like my big arms,” when their designer gown has only straps.

Jeans and white shirts are great for a fresh, relaxed look that is timeless.

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Find out if they have a “color theme” for their wedding. If they’re having color engagement photos, you can add the theme color to the background of the images with gel filters on the background lights. Favorite colors can also add to the character and personality of your clients.

Advise them that matte foundation is very important. Cover any blemishes—on him as well as her since each of them is entitled to look great. I have a range of make-up at the studio and can touch up spots or quickly apply some powder to even out skin tone and remove shine. Suggest they stay away from glitter eyeshadow or “gold dust” brushed onto shoulders, as it can look like a white fleck rash when the flash illuminates the skin.

Be professional and have the room set up and ready to go. Nobody likes waiting. By showing them you’re on the ball, they’ll gain respect for you and will be willing to work with you to achieve the best results. This is an important key to a good relationship with the couple for the wedding day as well.

I like to start off with some easy poses to relax the couple and show them just the fun being photographed can be. Generally, the first set-up is to have him on the higher stool with her tucked between his knees on a lower stool, both bodies facing the same direction. Her eyes should be level with his mouth, making for a very pleasing composition.

For the main light, I use a softbox and the fill light is a silver umbrella. Use another softbox on an overhead boom arm for a hair light. One or two background lights can be used with gel filters. Another great background light is Broncolor Visatec’s Focusable Spot light, which lets you put different gobos and grids into the light and create a series of patterns onto the background. Use a reflector under their faces.

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This pose is useful for at least three quick, easy looks. Faces squashed close together, smiling at camera. Click. Looking at each other—turn faces, not bodies, touching noses (at this point, they generally giggle). Click. Move both main and fill light to right-hand side of camera to create strong shadows. Turn their faces into the light. Click. So now we have three totally different expressions with only one pose.

Always take a single photograph of each of them. At least one of the single ones of the lady should show her engagement ring—they just love showing it off and it’s a great record photo for their insurance policy!

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After that, take some half-length and full-length poses. Give them a variety of looks. It makes it fun for them and for you. Get them used to being gently directed to stand “up tall” in the tummy, shoulders back, stretching faces forward to eliminate double chins, slide the toe forward, etc.

Some couples will prefer the more classical looks while others will love the more creative shots. Do stuff that suits their personalities.

Equipment
I use film, then get digital proofs scanned onto CD. After the couple has chosen, I email the order to the lab for printing. Whether shooting film or digital, keep up to date with technology. Make sure you project your images for clients to choose from. There are several ways to do this—either project paper or slide proofs or data projection. It gives the best view of your work, and the larger size makes the images so much easier for them to see.

Also, clients often choose larger sizes when that’s what they see, rather than small proofs they have to squint at. People can’t always visualize what the portrait will look like in a larger size unless you show them. This is one way of being of service to your client.

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The lighting equipment that I use is Broncolor Visatec. It’s simple to use and very reliable. I use a Bronica 6x6cm with a 150mm lens or a Canon A2 with a 28–135mm lens, both with a professional lens hood. Lens hoods are vital to keeping any light spill off the front of the lens and keeping the colors and tones clean and saturated.

What They Choose
Even though the session is complimentary, it is totally up to the clients if they’d like to purchase any of the images created at this session. As a gift to the couple, I arrange for photo thank you cards to be placed on the reception tables. This is a nice way for everyone to get a lovely photograph of the couple and to take a souvenir home of the day. Some brides even go to the effort of putting the photos into miniature frames.

Most couples will then want to order some of the images for themselves—which is great because that’s how we earn our income. Depending on the style of album they choose, they can have an engagement section in the start of it. These albums have a guest list, which is taken to the reception for everyone to sign. This list serves as a nice memento—giving them a permanent record of their guests and their good luck wishes on the day. When choosing images for the album, make sure that poses on opposite pages compliment each other.

The single images are often purchased as gifts for each other, for office desks, bedside tables, etc. They also make the perfect gift for the bride and groom to give to each of their parents at the wedding reception as thank you gifts.
Mostly the couple won’t order any wall portraits—they like to wait until they see the wedding images for that excitement.

On average, I will take 12 images—just make sure you have 12 totally different images in look, poses and expressions. Of these, the couple will choose between four to 10 for various uses.

As a lover of art and people, Robyn Hills thinks photography was invented just for her. One of Australia’s top award-winning photographers, she has, over the years, won the Australian Professional Photographer of the Year, been awarded a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Professional Photography and has just received her second Gold Bar designating triple Master of Photography. Robyn has two studio locations in Queensland, Australia, where she specializes in people photography. She also lectures nationally on photography, business management and marketing, writes for various magazines and flies helicopters in her spare time.

Captions:

1. I asked the couple to walk off down the beach chatting. This gives a very natural, unposed feel to the image. I directed the bride to take small steps, with feet placed one directly in front of the other to give a flattering body and leg shape. The exposure was for the brilliant Australian sun to keep the water and sky blue. The couple has gone a little dark, but it just adds to the pictorial style of the image. My belief is that if you or your clients have chosen an outdoor location, use it and show it off.

2. This couple chose to be photographed so that the purple flowers of the Jacaranda tree was in the background of the images. These trees are a prominent fixture in Brisbane in November, so by including them in the images, it places the time of year to these special images for the couple.

3. When photographing a session, I like to give my clients as much variety as possible. From the garden setting, we moved into the sandstone cottage in the park and created this more structured look, while still keeping the expressions fun to reflect the personalities of the couple.

4. I used a two-step ladder for a cheeky shoulders-forward, head tilted on the side look. Note that this shows the engagement ring without being flashy. This pose tells us a lot about Le-anne as it shows off her great muscle tone in her arms and the strength in her legs.

5. This couple had bubbly personalities so I wanted to portray it in the images. They were hamming up a practice of the bridal waltz so I used flat lighting (that’s where the main and the fill lights are quite even in exposure so they don’t make too many extra shadows). Framing the image off-center gives the feeling of movement that they loved and this turned out to be their favorite image.

6. Try to get people’s characters into the portraits. This couple are both triathletes, so I got them to wear casual/training gear plus bring in one of their bikes. It was heaps of fun to be able to use totally different props than I normally have. Another bonus is that it keeps your photography fresh because each set of clients are bringing in different props and you don’t have to go searching for something new all of the time— your own clients supply them. Getting Le-anne to balance in this image was part of the fun and I just had to make sure I captured those fabulous full smiles. I even left the sunglasses in his hair to add to their everyday look.

7. I positioned Brett on a bar stool and placed Victoria just behind his shoulder. Depending on the height of the lady, you may have to use a wood block or a small box to elevate her. The hand placement is not so important, yet still check that it looks flattering. A great pose to again show off the ring. Make sure that you get their faces really close together just before taking the image.

8. The couple are relaxed and casual—with the strong sun behind them and a reflector used at the front to soften the shadows. Cute things like asking them to intertwine their feet makes the image fun and intimate.