How To Pose Brides For Stunning Bridal Photos

Brides want to feel three things in front of the camera: beautiful, graceful and comfortable. As a photographer, it’s your responsibility to make sure that happens. And you do that by providing a bride with encouraging words and a relaxed environment, as well as modifying poses to bring out her best features for her bridal pictures.

Any wedding photographer will tell you there is no one you want to properly pose and please more than brides. More than likely, the brides you’ll be shooting aren’t trained models. They may be selfie queens, but they’ll need help posing for their bridal photos. To help ensure your bridal clients are happy during and after your photo shoot, here are some tips on posing brides, along with a few poses that will help even the most camera shy bride feel comfortable and confident.

Mind your camera angles and her body angles

It’s best not to take a picture of a bride straight on. Bodies look best, and more slimming, when they’re turned at a 45-degree angle from the camera. Maybe telling the bride to strike a red carpet pose will help her understand. Snap some photos of the bride facing her groom (if he’s present), as this pose puts her depth rather than her width on display. Try also shooting from above and having the bride look up at you. If she’s unsure of your higher position, tell her that she’ll look taller, her jawline will appear slimmer and even under her eyes will be lifted from this angle.

Compliment her face.

Every woman knows which side is her “best side”, so ask the bride which side she prefers and then pose her with her best face forward. You also want to create slimming faces and elongated necks, which you can do by having her lower her shoulders toward the camera and slightly lift her chin up to prevent the dreaded double chin. For someone with a more round or oval-shaped face, ask her to angle her chin down just a little bit to make her face look slimmer.

No matter a bride’s face shape or size, tell her to push her face somewhat forward in the pictures. What’s closest to the camera looks the biggest, so remind her to push her face forward and keep her stomach and hips pushed back to make her body appear slimmer.

Keep her arms from resting on her body.

If a bride wants her arms to look thinner, make sure there are small spaces between her arms and her body. When arms are smashed against the body, they photograph wider than they really are. Have the bride keep her arms slightly lifted off her torso, as natural looking and feeling as possible. She can also put her arm that’s closest to the camera on her hip, which will slim her arm and accentuate her waist, or do some poses with her arm behind her groom’s back to hide it.

Give her hands something to do.

When it comes to getting our picture taken, oftentimes we all struggle with what to do with our hands.

Brides have enough to worry about, so take the stress away of not knowing what to do with her hands by keeping them occupied. Tell her to hold her bouquet, her dress or onto her groom or a prop.

Keep bouquets placed around her belly button.

Proper wedding bouquet placement may seem insignificant, but it’s one key to shooting stunning bridal pictures. So when taking pictures with her bouquet, have her hold the flowers near her belly button with her arms slightly curved away from her body. Doing so helps hide her stomach and visually trims her waist, which most women appreciate, and ensures her face and pretty necklace aren’t hidden.Don’t forget about her legs.

Don’t forget about her legs.

Most wedding gowns are long so some photographers and brides forget about the legs. Never let a bride stand with her weight balanced between her two legs. The most flattering, and also natural looking, stance for a bride is having one of her legs slightly bent with more weight on it and the other straight, causing her hips to gently pop. If she’s wearing a shorter dress, also consider having her bend one knee into the other knee or position one of her legs in front of the other one for a more slimming effect.

Have her use a range of facial expressions.

A bride should be glowing and smiling from ear to ear—but that doesn’t mean she has to be smiling in all her wedding photos. Different poses call for different facial expressions. From the biggest, toothiest grin she has to subtle, toothless smiles to serene expressions, make sure your planned and candid poses capture a variety of the bride’s emotions.

Keep it simple.

Bridal photos are meant to highlight the bride, so don’t get crazy with the setting or props. Use the location she chooses, and any props she wants, but pose her in ways that highlight her and not just the location or props.

Suggest poses that help her feel comfortable.

Some brides have no problem being in front of the camera, while others have zero confidence when a camera is in their face. If you’ve got a camera shy bride, start your photo shoot off with poses where she isn’t staring into the camera to help her relax. Here are a few pose ideas:

• Looking at her shoes. Ask the bride to look slightly over her shoulder down at her shoes. This is a natural and pretty shot that really showcases her profile (make sure to photograph her good side). Some brides may look down naturally, so be ready to capture the candid moment.

• Looking off to the side. For a camera shy bride, your best trick trick to get a natural, effortless shot is having her look away from the camera, either looking to the side over her shoulder or slightly to the side staring off into the distance. This pose could be when you get her best smile, most relaxed look or even a fun candid laughing picture.

• Spinning in her dress. If she’s wearing a flowy-style wedding dress, use it. Slow down your shutter speed and ask the bride to spin a few times. She’ll feel like a little girl spinning in a princess dress, and you’ll get a beautiful shot of the dress and sweet childlike facial expressions on the bride with this pose.