5 Things to Say at the Start of an Engagement Session

hey there and welcome to another video of those today I'm really excited because I'm going to talk about the way that I start engagement sessions and this could end up being an hour-long talk that I'm going to keep it to a few minutes for the sake of Internet space um but the way you start and engage relation really matters it matters more than any other initial interaction with a client in my opinion because the engagement session is when your client is deciding if they made the right decision they're deciding if they trust you if they love you if they feel comfortable with you and so if you just rush into shooting or you don't set them up for success then that's gonna blow up in your face not just be a bad experience for them and so um pay attention to these like five different tips that I talk about because I really think that this is what helps us have successful engagement shoots where clients leave feeling really confident not only that their pictures are great but also then you as their photographer so the first thing is you want to make sure you reassure them and what I mean by that is people are coming to a shoe nervous even if they've done this before which most couples haven't done this before but even if they have they're always gonna be a little bit nervous and a lot of our couples when I first meet them we try to get there so we have a few minutes to talk and chat and get to know them and just kind of you know lower the expectations and I tell them like there's no way you can mess this up I have no expectations for you guys and I'm gonna teach you everything so what I explained that to them initially what I'm doing is I'm reassuring them that one I know you're nervous too it's okay to be nervous and three I know they say something like if you guys have never professionally modeled before that's actually the best situation for me because if you've never professionally modeled that means that I get to teach you from scratch and you're gonna do exactly what I want you to do it's gonna be great so if you are nervous that's normal but no worries I have no expectation and if you've never done it that's great that means that I'm working with a plane canvas and that's my ideal situation normally when I say that everyone's like okay good and so I always start with that so I start with you don't have to know what you're doing I'm going to tell you everything and if you want to reassure you that if you aren't professional model it's okay the second thing I explain is that I'm gonna teach them the four core poses and so if you've never heard about our four core poses basically the idea that is there's only four foundational poses that I use and then I do variations of those four poses and that's how I don't get stuck that's how I don't forget poses that's how I have variety in my poses and that the four core poses lead into the posing evolution so if you need more information about that we have a mini guide in our store about it it's really helpful and you can save it on your phone so you always have access to it but I explained to them second thing I'm going to teach you the four core poses when we get started so from the very beginning you're gonna know what to do and you're gonna know everything you need to for the rest of this shoot okay so the third thing you need to make sure that you say or at least mention when you're starting an engagement session is that you want to make sure that you're aware of any of their insecurities and now you can't just go up to a new couple that you just met five minutes in and say tell me what you're insecure about because that's not gonna go over very well but you can word it like this normally this is what I say I say um so is there anything I should be made aware of maybe you know you like your swoop side better than your nan swoop side or is there anything I should be careful to pay attention to and when I ask that my hope is that they're gonna say things like oh I just don't like my profile or I don't like my nose or oh don't make my arms look fat so let's use that as an example if I talk about this with my couple before we ever start shooting and then later on in the shoot maybe he's holding on to her and her arm is squished not till okay like loosen your arm up a little bit like that then I'm the hero because I'm taking care of her and I'm on her side whereas if I don't ever talk about it then later on the shoot and I notice her arm looks bigger than it should and I adjusted to her to pull her arm out never talked about the fact that she's insecure about that then she's gonna be so self-conscious because I did I'm not the hero anymore I just pointed out a flaw and so there are so many different examples of this when you're shooting um it could be a weight issue it could be a balding issue it could be they don't like their nose and so when you do know snows you want the bride's nose to be in front of his you need to ask these things though because if you don't talk about it then it's really awkward and your couple shuts down when you point it out later on the shoots so that's really one of the biggest points you always want to make sure you talk about when you're starting a shoot the fourth thing is and I love this one because it really sets up the expectation really well for your couple the first 20 minutes are going to be awkward I don't care how great of a photographer you are how personable you are I tend to think that I'm pretty personable but I still know that the first 20 minutes of shooting my couple is gonna feel a little awkward why because this is not normal life they don't normally go to the movies and nuzzle outside in the bushes before him like that doesn't happen so I explain that to them and I normally joke about it and I say things like what I just said it you're not gonna normally do these on a normal basis and you may go home and practice your poses after this which would be awesome but nothing and no snows and holding on to each other like I want to teach you that's just not normal part of life and so you have to recognize it the first 20 minutes you're getting used to it and you should feel a little weird you're basically validating everything that they're feeling already so when you tell them hey every normal couple feels awkward for the first 20 minutes then they feel okay with being a little stiff at first and they feel okay because Katelyn told them you're gonna feel this way so that's really important and normally throughout the shoot like say were 20 minutes in I've taught them the four core poses for getting in a rhythm I'll normally stop and say guys think about it isn't this so much better than when we ago when we started 20 or 30 minutes ago isn't that so much better so and they normally created like you have we're getting really good so the last thing is really I love this because um it's really true my couples the core poses are pretty simple okay and so but but they're not always easy but I tell people you know what if you can really get the hang of the four core poses you may move into advanced posing and it's true sometimes my couples was in the first twenty to thirty minutes they're already doing poses that are normally pretty hard to teach and so if you set that expectation up at the beginning and tell them like we may move into advance posing then they have something to work towards and when you get to that place it's exciting for everybody okay so set them up and manage your expectations in a way that makes them realize they're doing a great job you also want to make sure you're praising them the entire time you can never be too vocal in an engagement session at least that's my opinion so anyway I hope this is helpful I hope that your next engagement session you set yourself up really well at the very beginning so that your clients feel confident they know what to expect and their expectations are set in a really realistic place so I hope you enjoyed this I'll see you next time

Channel: Katelyn James

Views: 20,484

Rating: 4.9503107 out of 5

Keywords: engagement shoot, engagement shoot posing, engagement shoot video, katelyn james photography, katelyn james, behind the scenes, engagement session, what to say during an engagement session, engagement, wedding photography tips

Id: 0gKh0kLrpOc

Length: 7min 31sec (451 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 12 2015