8 tips on how to avoid feeling awkward and enjoy having your photos taken
Worried about feeling self-consciousness and awkward in your wedding photos? You’re not alone. Most of the couples we work with have worried about this. We have many years of experience creating natural, authentic wedding photography. Here’s some of what we’ve learned along the way.
1. Enjoy your time together
So simple, but true. Think of your couple photos on your wedding day as time you’re spending together rather than time you’re spending away from your wedding, friends and family. This is your time. It sounds so silly but often couples don’t actually get to spend much time together on their wedding day, so this is your chance.
Often couples tell us that the time spent together having their photos taken was their favourite part of the day. It was certainly true for us on our wedding day too, we had the most amazing time and makes us love our photos together even more.
I really can’t express how thankful we are for having you and Sam there on the wedding day! Some of my favourite moments are getting away with you both and spending some quiet time together.
Nikki & David
2. Stay positive
Starting to think now about your wedding couple photos being the time you set aside to be together on the day. Rather than time having your photos taken. It really helps to ease those nerves. So in the lead up to the wedding you’ll be starting to think more positively about this time and looking forward to it.
Make some time for you both and think about places you might like to go. Wether that’s a location nearby or jumping in a car to escape for a short while. It all helps to keep you thinking more about the experience and less about the actual photos, the more you enjoy it, the better the photos will be.
Click to see more from their Austrian-Scottish Barn Wedding.
3. Embrace the awkwardness
Whenever we start a session we always have one piece of advice. Embrace the awkwardness. It’s true, having your photo taken can be awkward. But quicker you embrace the awkwardness, and try to forget about the camera, the more you’ll enjoy the session and the better your photos will be.
We work very hard to put you at ease and help you forget you’re having your photo taken. This is the key really. To try and forget you’re having your photo taken in the first place. So try hard to ignore those feelings of self-consciousness. Pretend it’s just you two. The more you focus on each-other the less you’ll think about everything else.
We were worried that we would find the shoot awkward as it would just be us and you (how wrong we were!) We shouldn’t have had any concern, you made us feel totally at ease and helped us pose naturally when we didn’t have a clue what to do.
Yazmyn & Graeme
4. Get to know your photographer
Letting a stranger into such a personal moment in your lives is a big ask. When choosing your photographer remember, you’re going to be spending quite a lot of time with them on the day! So make sure you’re going to get along!
Schedule in a video call to chat before booking and see if you’re a good fit. Trust me, your photographer wants to get along with you too so if you don’t feel you’re a good fit, don’t book. Follow on social media too, this may help you to get a feel for their personality and get to know them more before the day.
We really love to get to know our couples before-hand and on the day, not only does it help put the couples at ease but it makes for much better pictures.
5. Choose a photographer with a natural documentary style
Choosing a photographer with a relaxed, documentary approach means a lot of your photographs may not need to be posed. You can choose how long you spend having your photos taken together. Depending on how comfortable you feel. With the rest of your coverage being captured as it happened.
There are plenty of opportunities on the day for beautiful non-staged photographs. Your couple session doesn’t have to be long to get great pictures. Of course the more you invest time-wise to your photography the better your couple photos will be. But a you’d be surprised what a great photographer can achieve with a few minutes and some amazing light!
6. Have an Engagement/Couple Shoot
The best way to get to know your photographer is to organise to have a photoshoot before your wedding day. Commonly known as engagement shoots, pre wedding or couple sessions. These photoshoots are a brilliant opportunity to get to know your photographer and get used to the camera.
You can use the images taken on the day for your wedding invites, website and decor for the day. But most importantly if you’re like most couples there won’t be that many of the two of you together, and what could be better than marking this exciting time together.
Spending a day walking round the woods before the wedding was so lovely both to get to know you but also to experience nerves around cameras and learn to relax.
Jess & John
Our engagements sessions are relaxed walks through woodlands, along beaches, up hills or exploring the city, taking in your surroundings helps to distract you and make you forget about feeling awkward. You can even organise an adventure session. Heading out on an adventure together is an even better way to know your photographer, have an incredible experience with your partner and have beautiful photos to boot. How about hiking to a viewpoint or a big munro? sailing across a Scottish Loch or exploring hidden forests and waterfalls?
7. Trust us – It’s not the awkward bits we’re looking for
The beauty of modern wedding photography is that you can take a lot of photos, 1000’s in fact and not all of them have to be keepers. We can focus on getting the absolute best photo for you, and ditch the ones that nobody wants to see.
Our experience means that we’re often looking for the best possible moment to take the photo. Often these moments are the little, in-between ones, a giggle, a glance, a sneaky look when you think nobody is looking. We’re not looking for the awkward bits and even if them make it on the camera, they will flash up on our screen to be swiftly rejected and never to be seen again.
8. Enjoy yourself
Want to know the best way to avoid feeling awkward? Have fun! If you’re too busy enjoying yourself you won’t have time to think about how you’re looking in your photos.
Plan to have fun, to do things together that you enjoy, wether that’s going on an adventure, dancing the night away, running through clouds of confetti or simply taking in the sunset together. Immerse yourselves in your love, and just take a moment to celebrate being together.
Click to see more from their epic Autumnal Cambo Estate Wedding.
I guarantee that if you focus on making the time together on the day, having fun and enjoying one-another, you won’t find it awkward at all. In fact your photos will be all the more memorable. They’ll be real experiences, real moments of laughter, real butterfly moments and memories that will last a lifetime. Each photo will take you right back to that time and will hold so much more meaning for you than simply being posed somewhere pretty.
