When I first started taking clients, I’d go into the session with a laundry list of shots in mind to capture.
Halfway through the session, I’d have forgotten half of them, the kids were starting to fall apart, and I wasn’t sure if I had captured anything I would feel good about delivering. Needless to say, I quickly learned this wasn’t the best approach.
Now my approach to shooting clients is much different; one that is designed with fewer poses in mind. This results in much shorter sessions, happier clients, and lots of variety in my galleries. With time, I’ve fine-tuned these strategies to get as much variety as possible before asking my clients to move.
1. Give lots of direction
When you’re starting out with a session, people tend to be a little more nervous. Giving them a little extra direction at the beginning can help set them at ease, as well as remind them you’re the professional. Build that trust, and pose them exactly as you want them. If you’re working with a family, you might even consider posing the parents first, and bringing the kids in after.
2. Change your perspective
Once you have your subjects posed, think beyond the standard portrait perspective. Change your perspective and angles as much as possible. If you’re shooting with a prime lens this is especially important — you need to move! Position yourself closer and further from your subjects, move in to focus on one individual or detail, and then run back for a wider view of the scene. Move side to side, up and down, and back and forth. Shoot from above, below, and everywhere in between.
3. Focus on the individuals
Once you’ve captured the entire group of subjects, move onto the individuals. Using the rest of your subjects as “props” is a great way to capture unique and natural portraits within the group. You can get nice and close and capture a child in dad’s lap, a groom’s hands on his wife’s back, or one sibling amongst all the rest.
4. Let them loosen up
Once you’ve captured a variety of angles within the pose, encourage them to interact with each other. I’ll often tell clients to “Just pretend I’m not here and talk amongst yourselves.” If they need a little more encouragement, you can provide more direction. You might ask a bride to whisper something in her husband’s ear that will make him laugh, or encourage an older sibling to gently start tickling her brother.
5. Make subtle changes
Before moving on from the pose entirely, make sure you’ve exhausted all other possibilities. If you have a family standing together, you might ask one of the children to hide behind dad and peek around when you ask him to. You might ask a bride and groom to start dancing where you had them standing, or ask a high school senior to change her position ever so slightly.
By simplifying the process and shooting in fewer locations, you’ll save yourself so much time in post processing. It’s much easier to batch edit images in the same location, so by maximizing a single pose you’ll not only make your clients happy but save yourself time as well.
This is one of the best tips! I always have a mental list of ideas going into a session, too & then get frazzled when I get lost in the moment and don’t get any of those poses. I’m really bad at coming up with new poses, so I love the concept of capturing a bunch of shots from one pose! Thank you for sharing!