Wedding Posing Guide: How to get the Best Facial Expression for Your Wedding Photos.
Learning to pose is the best preparation you can do to get the most out of your photoshoot. Posing for wedding takes practice, and posing for a photographer is a specific skill set. It’s very different from taking selfies with your friends! Use these suggestions to improve your posing for your wedding or any photoshoot to capture the stunning look you’re going for.
Know your angles
Knowing your best angles is key to posing for wedding photography. The truth is, everyone has uniquely flattering angles, so you can’t learn to do this from copying how other people pose. It requires trial and error, as well as the ability to judge wedding photos of yourself objectively. It’s easy to fixate on certain facial features that we may not like about ourselves, but, chances are, those are not the features that are most obvious to other people. To be great at posing for wedding or portrait, people need to know how to see themselves from an outside perspective and don’t get caught up in obsessing over what they consider to be their flaws. Emphasizing our best features is much more important than trying to hide our less-than-perfect features. Everyone has good angles and you’ll want to learn how to leverage that to get the best possible result for your wedding day.
Unless you’re a robot or a cartoon, the two sides of your face are asymmetrical. However, one side of your face is likely more well-proportioned than the other. Orient your ‘good side’ to the camera for the most flattering look. Play around with different angles of your chin to capture slightly different orientations of your face. Very small adjustments go a long way in changing how your features look. Experiment with different angles to find the most flattering one for your face. Turn your head slightly to the left or right and see which side you prefer. Tilting your chin slightly up or down can also alter the look of your face. Again, this takes trial and error, so be patient in finding what works best for you. A good photographer will coach you through subtle adjustments in your use of angles to find the most flattering ones. You can also look through photos of yourself that you like and try to determine whether there are any similarities between the angles you used in those photos. Ask for opinions from a few different people about photos of yourself that you like. This way, you can get an idea of how other people perceive your photos. Don’t worry if you get mixed opinions; at the end of the day they are your wedding photos and you get to make the final call on which photos you prefer. Everyone has different aesthetic preferences. Remember that the goal is to end up with a stunning wedding photos and portraits that you like for the years to come.
Relaxation is key for a beautiful portrait
It can be intimidating to have your photo taken professionally. Even the best models have to learn how to stay relaxed and comfortable in front of the camera. Getting caught up in self-consciousness can make it difficult to capture your best looks. Relax your whole body, even if it’s not in the frame. Tension in the rest of your body will show up in your face, so make sure you’re in a comfortable position and prioritize feeling relaxed. Relax your jaw and mouth: Tension in your jaw or a forced smile can make your expression appear unnatural. Maintain a relaxed mouth to achieve a more natural and inviting expression. A quick trick for this is to exhale when the shot is being taken. You may not notice that your breathing gets tense when you’re self-conscious or uncomfortable, so check in with a full exhale periodically. It’s so obvious that it’s easy to forget, but breathing freely is the simplest way to keep yourself relaxed. A relaxed and genuine look is what you are going for your wedding photos
When the photographer clicks the camera, keep on a very slim gap between your upper and lower lip, and keep breathing very slowly through this gap between your lips. This has nothing to do with the notorious “duck face”. It simply helps you relax your mouth and make it look more natural. When smiling, unless it is a dentist’s office commercial, have a beautiful genuine 75% smile, making it believable and not fake. From time to time take a quick break, breathe in, hold the air and breath out fast letting your lips vibrate, as this will give the necessary “reset” and relaxed look to your face.
It’s all in the eyes
Your eyes are the focal point of your portrait. A really stunning shot that you can’t look away from is a product of the use of eye contact to draw the observer into the personality of the person. Use your eyes to communicate who you are and what you want to portray in your wedding photos. A piercing look, a soft gaze, a humorous twinkle, deep contemplation - all are beautiful looks. Know what emotion you want to communicate and use your eyes to express it. Once you know your angles, play with different expressions in your eyes with the same orientation of your face towards the camera. This can give a variety of looks within the parameter of similarly framed photos. Don’t underestimate subtly here - the eyes are very expressive and we are visually calibrated to pay attention to them. Unself-conscious eye contact is the best look for any type of portrait. Ask the photographer to count until 3, when at the same time you who kept your eyes shut, will open them, and the photographer will make a shoot. This helps to keep your eyes expression fresh and alert.
Know when to look at the camera when your headshot is being taken
This trick combines the ‘use your eyes’ and ‘relax’ principles: look away from the camera and then look straight at it right when the photo is being taken. Pretend someone you really like just walked into the room and you automatically look up to greet them. This prevents you from trying to maintain unnatural and rigid eye contact with the camera the whole time. Trying to sustain full eye contact for too long doesn’t look natural and will leave the expression in your eyes looking too sharp or vacant. Get used to the timing of when the photo is about to be taken and look straight at the camera just long enough for the photo to be captured. You can look away from the camera in between shots or just keep your gaze very soft. Your “working area” is 45 degrees left and 45 degrees right from the center. Never turn away from the camera during the shooting process and don’t make unnatural poses. Keep it real. Sometimes, if you need a reset, communicate it with the photographer, then turn away, close your eyes, and think of a beautiful place you want to be now or all the amazing deals you will sign after attracting new business with new headshots. Like in the previous point about our eyes, you can refresh the pose by turning to the camera on the count of 3, or even stepping into the shot. It’s like walking back and forth, just one step, tilting your head down stepping away and looking straight into the camera when returning to your spot as if you just ran into your best friend, warm look, positive, reassuring.
Use your whole body, even for a headshot
This principle helps with staying relaxed and comfortable. Keep an awareness of your whole body, even when only posing for a close up portrait. Sit or stand in a way that feels natural to you, some position you assume automatically on a regular basis. Pretend you’re sitting across from a friend at a cafe. Pretend you’re waiting in line and are taking the opportunity to check in with your posture. Like the suggestion for finding the best angles for your face, don’t try to ‘strike a pose’ that you’ve seen in somebody else’s photos. Organize your body in a way that feels the most comfortable for you. Make you feel confident, and remember the sound of your heels walking the streets on the way to success. Pay attention to your neck. For men, it looks confident when the neck is strong and showing. To stress it – adjust your head o the back and neck to the front. For women it’s the complete opposite – “swan neck” makes a great impression. Shoulders go back, adjust them with a quick shoulder roll, keeping your neck straight and neutral in the back, and move your chin straight forward until you feel your neck stretching. Don’t forget to use your hips, shift weight from one leg to the other, and stay in the “Z” shape, angles are good, even if we only see your upper body - the position of your legs gives you confidence and good angles for the upper body.
Capture moments of movement
Photos that look the most natural are captured in the moments of movement. Think about posing as brief pauses in a continuous flow of movement, rather than rigid stances that you assume and hold. The key here is to move slowly and make small adjustments. Move your shoulder, the orientation of your chin, and tip your head up and down, but much slower than you think. Your photographer will give you feedback on what looks best. Play with your hair, use your hands to lightly touch your shoulders, neck or face. This doesn’t have to look ‘pose-y’, just the slight movements you would do naturally with your hands. If your hands are in the frame, remember to keep them soft and relaxed. Tension in the hands comes across easily on camera. Before using your hands in the shot – make fists and open them 10 times holding your arms up to let the blood move away from the fingers to make them look neutral and relaxed. You can also just shake your hands from time to time for a fresh impression. When folding your hands – watch the pinkie finger side of it – it can look very wrinkled and just a slight release of the tension in the hand can fix the whole look in a second. Keep in mind – don’t transform your hands into claws!
Genuine expression
There are somethings that we do every day, like smiling, sitting and standing. So we should be able to do these naturally under any situation, correct? Unfortunately, that’s far from the truth. When in front of a camera, most people are struggling with on thing: genuine expression. What we end up getting are fake smiles and awkward poses. They make us looks inexperienced and even worse, less trustworthy. There are many types of fake smiles. From saying “cheese”, to an embarrassed smile, to even an evil grin. They are the reasons that many people hate their headshots, together with bad lighting and bad editing and unnatural pose.
First, don’t hold your smile. Holding your smile will make you feel awkward and tired. This feeling will easily transfer to your expression. When you smile do it for just one or two seconds. A good photographer knows how to capture the right moment and go with the pace of their clients.
Second, if you feel nervous or tired, take a break by closing your eyes and taking a deep breath. This will reset your expression. Open your eyes, look at the camera, and smile. Again only for one or two seconds. This brief moment is golden. Your smile is relaxed, genuine and natural. This is also a good trick for people who have sleepy eyes. Your eyes naturally open a bit bigger the first moment you open your eyes.
Third, Smile in your own way. Some people smile with their lips closed, some people smile showing their teeth. Some people squint their eyes a lot when smiling, some people not so much. Do it your way so it’ll look natural.
Ever wonder why your photos don't look like you? You're smiling in a different way when you in front of the camera.
Conclusion
Improving your posing for photo shoot does take some practice, but it doesn’t have to be complicated or require a lot of effort. Remember that you are aiming to capture a photo of YOU and being yourself requires no additional work. It’s a bit counter-intuitive, but all you have to do is to drop all of the things that are preventing you from simply showing up and portraying the look you wish to convey in your photos. Experiment with different poses, expressions, and angles to find what works best for you while staying true to your intended image. Keep in mind that you only need a handful of photos that the rest of the world will see, so if there are 100 silly photos of you and 3 good ones, you’ve accomplished what you set out to do. Don’t worry about looking ridiculous, you can always just ask your photographer to delete any of your photos that you really don’t like. While you work on improving your posing, remember to play and have fun!