Thursday, April 15, 2010

Capturing Emotional Engagement Photos.

Spring is in the air, and it is starting to smell like Wedding Season.

Part of getting ready for wedding season, means looking through last years photos and examining what I love, and what I can improve on for next year.

One of the things I love most about wedding photography is capturing "emotion".  On the wedding day, this is usually easy because the event itself is so meaningful.  But during an engagement session, capturing emotional photos is often more challenging.  I believe this is because the purpose of the get together is only to take photos, and this leaves everyone a little more awkward.

There are ways around this, which reminds me a lovely couple we photographed last fall.  We found a creative solution to the awkwardness of a first time shoot, is to do fun stuff with the couple.  For this shoot we went to a park that had a special meaning for the couple, and really just hung out for a while.

Here are some of our favorite photos from last fall:

The combination of the fall colors, the natural and relaxed smiles, and perfect sunset lighting made for one of my favorite engagement photos.


I liked this photo because their is no attention to the camera.  It is not that the couple is simply not looking at the camera, it is that their attention is really on each other, and I believe that this feeling comes through in the photo.  It is the real emotion of a special moment that creates an emotional photo, not only some special lighting or compositional technique.


However, creative composition can be used to enhance the emotion of a photo.  I like this photo because the couple is out of focus.  It gives some privacy and romance to the moment.


While not as emotional as the other photos, the composition and colors alone make this a portrait that I felt was worthy for our Blog.

I hope you enjoyed, more soon.

David