Hurter - Master Posing Guide for Wedding Photographers

Sometimes the bridal portrait is reduced to a mere gesture, as was done here by Ryan Schembri. The dance of the veil is evocative and full of life-exactly what todays brides crave.

In the earliest days of photography, weddings were photographed in styles that captured the bride and groom in stuffy, overly formal poses. Even with the emergence of the wedding album, which incorporated group portraits of the wedding party and the bride and groom with family members, posing remained stiff and lifeless-no doubt a by-product of the required length of early exposures. As the style and variety of wedding photography progressed, posing techniques closely mimicked the classical arts; accordingly, there remain many flawless wedding portraits from those early years.

In todays wedding coverage, a photojournalistic approach is the state of the art. As a result, posing is not high on the priority list of the contemporary wedding photographer. This does not, however, mean that posing is absent from wedding photography. While todays top wedding photographers may not rigidly control each pose, their considerable posing input is obvious in each elegantly crafted image. Is it chance that the brides hands are so graceful and feminine? Did luck produce the flowing S-shaped curve of the body? Was it the photographers exceptional timing that created such a stunningly beautiful gaze in the eyes of the bride? I hardly think so. It is posing, direction, and prompting. However subtly or explicitly, the photographer is controlling the way the subject presents himself or herself, which is the essence of posing.

Rather than completely losing sight of the posing rules, the great portrait and wedding photographers of today have simply chosen to incorporate them into a less formal framework. That is to say, they havent necessarily lost the understanding of fundamental posing, but instead have chosen to interpret those rules less rigidly. The new breed of wedding photographer has no problem directing a shot, as long as the results look spontaneous and are emotion-filled. Also evident is a move towards fine-art imagery, complete with the elements of abstraction, symbolism, and the finer points of design. Filmmaking techniques have even begun to make their way into the contemporary wedding album as the world embraces the panoramic/letterbox format as a normal view of the world.

Whether the photographer loosely poses the bride or formally does so, it is the expression and the nuances that make a great image. Here, Yervant captured his bride in full stride with the instruction given to look back at the camera.

Here is a modern-day bridal portrait done in the time-honored tradition of the great wedding poses. The formal archway and splendid cross lighting add to the beautiful pose. It is reminiscent of another time, even down to the longer exposure time, which was 1/8 second at f/5.6. Photograph by David Worthington.

This free-and-easy style is exemplified by the working habits of Australian photographer Yervant Zana-zanian, who is widely regarded as the foremost wedding photographer in the world. Even though I know how to pose traditionally, I choose to break the rules, because if I pose traditionally [the couple] will be totally bored. I dont want them to be bored, I want them to interact the whole time. Put them into a position and let them come naturally into the pose, he says.