After months of planning and hours on the morning of the wedding day getting ready, every bride desires to look stunning on her special day. As her photographer, it is necessary for you to create images that showcase the bride at her best. An effective way to do this is to use bride poses that flatter her body and allow her to feel feminine and beautiful.
Bride Poses
In our Online Training: The Art of Posing Women, photographer Jen Rozenbaum shared the foundations of posing all women, no matter their shape or size. We’ve put together our top 5 favorite bride poses ideas from Jen’s Online Training for you to use on your next shoot.
1. Know the keys to successful posing
As a company that specializes in post production for wedding photographers, we understand the importance of providing your clients with unforgettable images. One of the ways to create those images for your clients is to understand successful posing.
Do you know what makes a successful pose, and can you portray the right message in your images? Your job as the bride’s wedding photographer is to make her look as good, or better, than she does in real life. The poses you create for the bridal photos must flatter her body and show off her features.
As you pose the bride, you also want to set a tone that accurately represents the wedding day. Whether you are shooting her standing up, sitting, or laying down, your poses should always draw the eye to the bride.
2. Determine Neck and Shoulder Placement
During your shoot, if the bride’s chin is pointed upwards, her neck may look unnaturally long. If she looks down too far, she has the potential to create a double chin or no chin at all in the image. Jen advises her clients to put their chin out and slightly down to create definition in the face and neck.
The bride’s shoulders can be challenging to photograph if the right poses are not in place. Have your bride push back her shoulders to change her posture and to create better body language for the image. If your client has larger or broad shoulders, turn them slightly away from the camera – you want to make sure that she looks beautiful and feminine.
“I believe every woman in the world must celebrate her unique femininity, shamelessly.” – Jen Rozenbaum
3. Use flattering positions for her elbows and arms
Brides love their arms to look slim and flattering, so the placement of them are in important in every pose you put her in. Try bridal portrait poses that use her arms to mimic the shape of her body – this prevents her arm looking larger in the shot. She can also pull her arms slightly away from her body to achieve a slimmer look.
Another important aspect to keep in mind is to avoid cutting off the arm in the image. If only the bride’s shoulder is visible in the image, it could create confusion and may not be as strong. The arms can create interest and will provide lines that accentuate the bride’s body shape.[ninja-inline id=14011]
Related: Are you prepping your bride to be comfortable in front of the camera before her portraits?
4. Give her hands something to do
It can be challenging to know how to properly place wrists and hands when it comes to posing. Positioning the bride’s hands in the wrong spot could cause an unflattering image. You can also change the position of the hands so that they are not the center of the image.
Be sure to remind your bride to relax her hands and fingers. Try wedding poses for bride that give her something to do with her hands. Provide her with a prop or have her hold the sides of her wedding dress. When the hands are doing something, they will assist in creating an interesting pose.
Related: How are you capturing the unique details for the bride and her bridesmaids?
5. Position her waist and hips
It is easy to tell a bride to place her hands on her hips, but did you know that there is a better place to tell her to position her hands to make her look even more flattering? Rather than the hips, have her raise her hands up to her waist – this will help accentuate her figure. Angles can be really important when it comes to wedding poses bride use, so creating a certain pose that flatters her waist will make the rest of her body look good.
The position of the bride’s hips is important to master in order to create curves to help her feel feminine. Have her push her hips away from the camera to make them look smaller, and to define her stomach and lengthen her torso. Keep in mind that as she pushes her hips back, she should also raise her chin to keep her body in proportion.
When you understand the rules of posing, you become comfortable to lead the bride to look her best in every image. To gain more knowledge about posing for the wedding day, download our Posing for the Wedding Photographer Guide by clicking on the banner below!
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– love them all, the ceremony ones came out great reegldrass of the restriction! Question, when you shoot the speeches, the light coming from behind is that something you setup or is that flash or ?? thanks!!