How to Photograph Couples

hey everyone today i'm going to show you how to photograph couples hi my name is jerry gionis i'm a wedding portrait and fashion photographer i've been photographing for 27 years and teaching for 20. i'm going to share some of that experience with you right now and share with you how to photograph couples and how to go from this to this by the way i have this amazing course the portrait quick start make sure you click on the link below or right up here and download it and enjoy it for free okay so you're going to photograph a couple where do you begin where do you start what do you do now if you're inexperienced you've just started perhaps maybe you haven't been taught in a way that's maybe a little bit easier a bit more efficient you may simply just want to go to the best location and the lighting is what it is because you might have a handsome couple and you think great they're a handsome couple let's pick that nice tree let's pick that nice wall and guess what the lighting is really bad we're going to simplify this for you and give you a common denominator in which to work from for me i i will always pick beautiful lighting above a great location and you might even ask what is beautiful lighting look like what does a good location look like can we harmonize them together how do we do it first we're going to go outside and show you what a beautiful couple can look like with bad lighting okay so you see a nice little piece of wall there we've got nice little concrete we've got some rock um but you know your first instinct might be to simply just photograph them against that wall so let's see what that looks like so guys i don't know just stand there see with couples photography it's funny because couples are not going to always be that graceful they're not always going to sink in nicely they might just get together in a poor way but you have to add that little bit of finesse if you want to look above and beyond an everyday iphone photographer and that's okay you can get great shots with an iphone but if you want to take that next step and next level you want to add a little bit of finesse and that's really got to do with mainly lighting choosing the location that's complementary finessing their pose in a certain way and bringing out the best of them as a couple so now if you guys sort of get together just to hug each other normally just like you know nothing to finessed and now let's photograph you guys and what i love about this shot turn this way a little bit good just there is we have a decent location and we have a really handsome couple but this is what a a handsome couple looks like with really bad lighting and uh rainy i've been photographing for years and i love it when she looks unattractive and right now she does not look that attractive but we have a nice location we have to get that out of our minds guys this is just not going to work so remember always look for better lighting than a location so why doesn't this work well if you look at the photograph we've got the light hitting on rainey's hair it's really not hitting her face except for her nose so now her nose looks a little bit more pronounced the lighting is split lighting um uh jacob and even though that's okay you can light him from one side and have shade on the other he's squinting he sort of can't really handle lighting a little bit too the location looks really good but they don't look good at all so what we have to do sorry about that that was a little bit harsh but we have to remember that lighting and that's well here's what's happening the sun's coming from up above heading down low and the golden rule with lighting is you just want to turn the nose or the chin whichever way you want to remember it turn the nose and the chin towards the light it's always going to be more fruitful in this case like i said if you were just bringing out a couple and you well photographing for the first time you'll be tempted to shoot for just the location and i'm saying this is not what i call a low-hanging fruit this is not an easy way to photograph someone even though the location might be nice here's another way of actually photographing them so here we see the sun bouncing off the ground and then coming up here's what's going to happen so you might say okay well i know not to photograph them in full sun and not that that's an issue you can photograph in full sun and make it look really good but we'll cover that in another episode let's get you guys actually in the in the shade there of the garage door okay so just there come a little bit this way good close the gap actually you know what i'm going to get you a bit more this way sorry guys a bit more that way a bit more that way and then turn so that you're about over here like this okay so i'm not worried about the pose for the moment i just want to prove my point when it comes to lighting okay okay close the gap okay chin's up a little bit looking at me hold it there hold it isaac good now if you look at this you might be thinking well jerry that's pretty good um it's okay it's certainly better than it was before in full sun coming from the side what's happening here is the sun is hitting the ground and coming up now probably not so obvious on rainy but i find on jacob we're getting those unflattering shadows on the upper cheek bones and also he's actually squinting quite a bit now if you do want to photograph someone in full sun or in a place where they're looking off into the sun what you want to do is you want to close the eyes try to relax the forehead say to your subjects hey just don't anticipate the sun because you'll already be squinting just relax on the count of three open up your eyes one two three click and then they can squint all day long all they want all you want is a fraction of a second but still i'm not completely happy with that kind of lighting okay now you may have heard of back lighting let's come this way so we have a nice location so logically we would just put them in front of those trees the bush whatever just nice and close switch sides there guys good all right so we have a nice location nice little graduation portrait high school sweethearts not really but let's have a look okay so we're gonna photograph them accordingly let's have a look okay one two open okay now why is this bad we have a great location we have some nice highlights falling on the on the bushes and the trees but when they were together if we look closely um we've got the sunlight hitting the back of her hair because she's blonde that's going to be a problem because we're never going to get the exposure right for her face as in what how we want the face to look to match the hair and then they're standing um slightly apart with him up a little bit and half of his face or even a third of his face is in sun and we don't get a great exposure it just doesn't look that great so what we have to understand guys is that it's it's probably going to take you a little bit of experience to be able to photograph and make these locations that were in actually work for you my advice is if you were asked to photograph a couple whether it's with an iphone whether it's with a dslr or you're just starting out as a professional my advice is warm up to a couple shots with a lighting and a location is a little bit more predictable that'll be easier as you master that you can keep on going and then have some fun in sunlight open shade things like that so what we're going to do now we're going to emulate shooting with window light by simply using the garage door that's open and i'm going to basically be in the garage shooting against a non-descript background and let's see uh let's see us get some really cool shots with a couple okay guys come over here okay so what is it perhaps an easier way or a good place to start when you're in an environment like this so i'm in my driveway right now and we mentioned if we look over there again even from this perspective you can sort of see how the sun is behind the house here it's reflecting off the ground and it is causing quite a beautiful glow up against the garage door now the problem is the lighting is coming from down low now what we could do is actually get our couple to lean forward towards the light to correct that light so we don't have those very unflattering shadows in the upper cheekbones now that being said we can use the light a bit more effectively the sun's coming from behind the house here it's actually bouncing off that rv and then coming back this way therefore because we've got a bit of a deeper shadow and the direction of light is coming from more eye level i feel that we're actually going to get a better quality of light and it's again like what i call a lower common denominator in terms of making it a little bit easier for us so although this is what we call open shade as it's a shade of a building and it's open we're not going to be shooting in sunlight we're going to be shooting in shade what i want to do is have that beautiful direction of light light bouncing off that rv coming back here and now once we've chosen that particular location now we can actually photograph our couple which we'll do i'm going to get you to lean on here mate that's it and now just angle this way a little bit perfect and i want you to just basically go in front of him you're going to cuddle from behind just a few little cobwebs there perfect all right let's have a look so give it a little cuddle from behind your hands on his hands now really important whenever you are photographing a couple do you sort of see how long her hair is if i bring their faces together the hair is interrupting the moment okay so what we're going to do is this w we could easily just flip the hair over and possibly even get it behind her ears exactly and i want you to sink your face right on her face just there beautiful okay good guys fantastic turn your face into hers so guys whenever i photograph a couple i like to think of their faces their bodies almost like two pieces of a puzzle fitting in together so if you've never understood posing or read a start simply ask yourself what is what does a couple do well they cuddle from behind like that they cuddle from the front they kiss they do all these different things so liken it to your own relationship and that gives you a great starting point now you can very clearly see let's see if i can compose this and show you that the direction of light is really cool here so let me go nice and close so don't forget we're photographing it literally at a garage door and i want to show you okay so now you'll start to see the shadows as i get a better exposure let me come a little bit closer here okay i'm cropping into his hair which i quite like i'm cropping just underneath her chin and i'm actually using the the brown edges of the particular garage to frame them and to keep yourself contained but it's nice and close nice and intimate now here's the cool thing if you're looking closely at what i'm seeing right now you're very clearly seeing that i'm shooting on the shadow side of her face which is really really cool gives it a beautiful depth and dimension nice intimacy and so on so what we'll do all right guys just relax the eyes there a little bit close your eyes just for a second to give yourself a bit of a breather eyes at me beautiful eyes will be mate perfect now so you can do a safe shot looking in the camera fantastic but let's just add a bit more intimacy so same thing again now all i want you to do mate is just overlap her face a little bit and turn your face into hers bit more good chin up a little bit look like a turtle chin forward a bit more and turn your face more left one more more good top of your head away from me so look at me so like this yeah and turn your face that way and then bring your face a little bit more forward one second ready you're fine that's it and then close the gap good now jacob turn your face this way good don't move now why did i make those micro adjustments i don't want his nose coming right into his into her eye that's going to look a little bit weird and also i always get my couples to mirror what i'm doing so even though i try to describe what i wanted so i turned like the top of your head away from me he didn't quite understand it so i looked at him and i said i want you to do this so he quickly understood it so now overlap her a little bit more the same position so more of a turtle there mate that's perfect do you see how the bridge of his nose frames her eyes perfectly i love that now i want to move a little bit this way because i had a little bit of her um earring on him which i don't want so look into her lips there mate and rainy eyes at me beautiful hold it gorgeous eyes all the way down now perfect hold it beautiful and if we want to get rid of some distraction you can sort of see some strands of hair there always watch that finesse guys watch that little bit of finesse that might interrupt that moment okay go again perfect yeah that's looking better beautiful hold it there for me hold it let me go a little bit closer top of your head away from me mate there you go see now you know you know so once you get it right once it's sort of like it's easy to understand for the rest of time all right for the rest of humankind time all right good hold it therefore you hold it eyes down again beautiful very nice so i love that we've got a very beautiful shot in a very simple environment this is just open shade of a building um and again remember whenever you're looking at the sun hitting a building look the opposite way chances are there's going to be a direction of light what i want you to do is this i always want you to look at your hand okay so if you look at my hand here do you see the iridescence of my hand the saturation it's there's a glow here all right so now what happens is watch what happens when i turn this way now it's hitting in full sun it's quite flat watch what happens when i turn my hand you see how you're seeing the creases in my hand and the texture and now you're seeing more shadow that means it's going to be bad lighting unless i was to tilt the face upwards and as i turn it's only backlit but do you see how it's looking a little bit flatter but when i turn this way then i get more of a glow and guess what that is where rainey's face was actually turning into perfect okay let's do a couple more shots of our beautiful couple here all right so how about we do something um let's switch sides so randy i want your back on the wall there and then turn your body towards me perfect bring all your hair on this side and i want you to go around and face her properly that's it and i want you to bring your face sort of right over here next to her ear as if basically you're whispering in her ear and she's doing the same with you so run your chin up for me turn your face this way bury your head more inmate and if what i want you to do mate is i actually want you to part your feet so you can get a little bit shorter perfect okay so rainy chin up you can close your eyes and bring your arm right underneath his armpit that's it right underneath right underneath up the back keep my going beautiful and that left hand on the back of his head now why are we doing this because we're suggesting intimacy how do you hug your partner well you would be you would hug like that often you you may whisper in the ear like that you might kiss on the cheek like that remember draw inspiration from what you do with your partner and if you have no partner look at the movies look at romantic movies how do they hug how do they kiss look at the notebook look at how they're kissing in the rain like there's endless ideas with what we have all around us do you like the notebook the movie i've never watched you've never seen the notebook oh that's just terrible that is um i don't know what to say i can't even look at you right now all right okay so now what we're going to be doing is we're going to frame them um now i'm actually gonna frame them in a bit of a slightly different way remember guys we're shooting in a garage door um i quite like my frame being parallel there perfect now chin up rainy turn your face a touch to the left beautiful it's gorgeous those hands are very really beautiful now do me a favor there for me jacob i want you to slide your hand a little bit closer to me as in so off off her waist so what i'm doing there guys is i want to expose the thinnest part of her waist i actually want to see that little bit of a gap now she's standing very flat-footed what i wanted to do she's going to actually bend the knee that's closest to the camera that's going to work and then and that adds a bit more of a hip and more of a curve which is really beautiful because i'm just basically seeing a suggestion of that towards the bottom perfect and now turn your face more left there for me brainy that's it good now she looks like she's about to either kiss or whisper in her in his ear um if i putt her lips it's going to look like that's actually happening so part the lips there gorgeous hold it beautiful and then he might want to say something really funny and then she starts giggling beautiful very nice it's funny how as soon as you actually get them in a shot don't waste it don't waste a shot i want you to take the the shot that you were going for as in being single laser focus on that first one but then ask yourself what could accompany this photograph it could just be that you're actually getting a variety for some friends on your iphone it could be that you're working with a dslr and you want to produce a an album or some wall art for them that's okay but remember just take that extra shot have some fun with them don't waste the pose that you basically did okay so now i'm going to get him to turn his face towards me so same position exactly same position turn your face towards me mate so half your face is hidden there we go just like that perfect good i love that that's awesome i love it because it's sort of almost it's almost voyeuristic right so i want your eyes down there mate and then rainy your eyes at me perfect hold it there good let me just come back a little bit okay oh there we go again i'm just basically composing so that i'm chopping into his the suit there okay you're looking into her eyes at me there for me reigning turn your face a little bit to the left and what i want to do now too there's just a little bit of a strand that's coming here you've got your superman little curl going on there good hold it there good oh we moved slightly i'll just fix that a little bit good how did they hold it eyes into her lips mate good and then rainy looking down and again i love the fact that the bridge of his nose is framing her eyes a bit of a giggle there guys nice and happy beautiful very nice fantastic i love that they look great so it's amazing how we can quickly get some beautiful lighting again being reflected off a building rather than always bringing out a speed light like a little a little flash um or whether it's a big strobe or whatever it may be but this is going to be one of your lowest hanging fruits here as well let's just try a couple of full length poses before we wrap up today's episode and tutorial okay so what we'll do i'm going to get your back side right on the on the wall there for me mate okay so what i want you to do is bring the back side on the wall but then bring your feet further and i don't want you to lean back what happens when he leans back um so ronnie if you just come on the side there for a second a few steps this way so we can see when he leans back it just makes the gut look a bit bigger when we does this now he's a young guy he's a handsome guy he hasn't had those problems but we have to be careful of that now if you're going to bend a leg you want to bend the leg that's closest to the camera so let's do that and then rainy come around this side and come nice and close this way rainey in fact apart your feet mate something gets rainy sort of to step right in between that's it um in fact rainy come put both feet in between that's it and pat your feet mate that's it come back now this is a good way to actually even up the height difference as well in this particular position and now close the gap for me what i want you to do here is put your hand out of your pocket and just relax that down a little bit good you can see how she's putting all her weight on her back leg and then if we want to suggest a romantic sort of pose and if his hand's in his pocket then the hand is saying i don't really love you but it but he does right so we need to work something out so now we're going to bring the faces close together i um i want you to bring your hand on her face as if you're just about to guide a kiss for example good and now this hand again i want this hand on his wrist to almost say i love where that hand is beautiful okay hold it there now stay there ronnie turn your face into hers mate stop too much come back that's it i'll adjust it accordingly i'm going to shoot fuller length again i'm only shooting on the on the side of a house i want to make sure that my frame is going to work in this scenario so let me i'm going to have to drop this down a little bit hold on okay perfect all right so we've got some more lighting what i want you to do there rainy just bend that knee a little bit more perfect close the gap together okay good chin um a bit of a turtle there you go when i say turtle guys i'm basically saying this if we go back too much too much with our chins we get this a turtle means we bring it out and you can make the sound it's more fun all right good hold it there hold it eyes into her into her chin there mate good hold it perfect give her a cute little kiss on the forehead good very nice nice and close now forward touching again they're rainy with a beautiful little look at me chin forward mate again good hold it there for me hold it stunning hold it beautiful so now you can very clearly see there's a direction of light now i'm shooting her on what we call the broad side of the face as in the side of the face where the light's coming from and she's turning her face in this way causing a shadow on this side it really works for her but it was a nice way of doing a full length shot but again you sort of see how we're isolating the beauty within this location so remember guys always pick the best lighting rather than the best location it's the lowest hanging fruit make it make your life easier until you get a bit more experience on how to shoot in sunlight and how to shoot with backlight and how to shoot with reflector and different things the fact is that when you're photographing a couple they're arguably in love they're arguably well that's why they're a couple right they're together so you want to give them a little bit of room to breathe and a room to play so my advice is to go into open shade at least to start off with until you get more experienced or it can actually even be into shooting actually uh in window light in a home where there's a strong direction of light it's a big light source like we have here it becomes a nice and easy way to photograph now i was photographing at a speed of 320 which is a a very safe handheld speed let alone the fact i'm on a tripod f4 is going to give me a bit of depth of field in other words how many things are going to be in focus which allows them to move a little bit and i was shooting at 200 iso but remember you have to start somewhere my suggestion start with some easier light until you get more experience have some fun with your couple and if you're losing inspiration for posing and what to do simply ask them to do what you would do with your partner hug them how do you kiss how do you hold all these different things enjoy and remember repetition experience and practice will be your best teacher hey everyone thank you so much for watching i hope you enjoyed that video also do me a favor give me a thumbs up please subscribe and don't forget to click on that bell for notifications of future episodes also leave me a comment i'd love to hear from you answer any of your questions and stay connected and remember you don't have to be the best you just got to be better than last week you

Channel: Jerry Ghionis

Views: 238,395

Rating: 4.9349942 out of 5

Keywords: posing, photography, nikon, nikon ambassador, jerry ghionis, how to shoot a couple, wedding photography, portrait, lighting, natural light, tutorial, tips, better photos, ideas, camera settings, how to pose a couple, couple photography, wedding day shots

Id: AGEBnq3eSg4

Length: 24min 6sec (1446 seconds)

Published: Mon May 10 2021