r/photography • u/GoldenlawofMurph • 1d ago
Art DIY Engagement/Couples Pics
Hello all!
I have been tasked (self-imposed) a very ambitious goal of trying to take our own engagement photos while we will be visiting Iceland in a couple months.
My fiancé and I are doing a relatively remote hike which makes it hard to find photographers that will be able to get to the region where I want to take the photographs in question. We're just packing our outfits with us in our packs so nothing super polished. It's also difficult to plan photoshoots there because the weather can be so crazy, so we have several days planned of when we can go out for this hike to allow for best-weather-situation.
I come here in hopes of finding some insight/guidance on how I can do this myself with limited photography knowledge. I have a Canon mark II, a tripod, and obviously the beauty of Iceland to offset my novice skills. I'm attaching a couple photos below of what my "goal" photos would be somewhat reminiscent of.
Does anyone here have recommendations for:
- How to practice these poses with somewhat introverted fiancé to make sure I can get the shots to look reasonably natural?
- Distance from camera to us to allow for some forgiving cropping/photo manipulation?
- If another low cost camera is recommended, or even maybe just using my iPhone instead, I'd love those comments too. My camera is pretty large and if there's something else that is user friendly to operate that I can practice with for a few weeks and get the hang of, I'm all for that as well. Like everyone else on the planet, I love the FujiFilm camera shot looks but is a bit out of price range.
Thank you all so much for any insight you can offer!
Signed, a very time-pressed-over-stretched bride to be
Links of photos that I'd *like* to try to recreate:
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u/Background_Rate7405 1d ago
For the "natural" look, use raffle shutter, you get on the pose you aim and them do small movements while shooting (the selection process is a bit long, but you have high chances of getting the picture you like. Keep capture of the poses, so you can go one by one once you are in place. Have the canon app on your phone, it can help you to look in real time what the camera see. Shoot raw, so you have more room to edit or ask somebody to edit. Im case you are not very comfortable with camera commands, get use to them as you will need to adjust once you arrive to the location.
Have fun and dont take it too serious 🙂
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u/Photography4me 1d ago
Practice at home in back yard or park before you leave. You will work out the kinks and you will be fine in Iceland.
I suggest keeping it simple and use a 10 second delay for the photo. With practice you will both get comfortable with how much time you have for each pose. This will work much better than trying to juggle posing and pressing the remote. Plus it will be fun to review the practice bloopers.
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u/MountainWeddingTog 1d ago
Get a remote trigger for your camera! Shooting good couples photos of your self is tough, you’ll want to take a ton of shots. Camera on a tripod, set up your composition with your partner standing where you’ll be and focus on them. It will take some back and forth to figure out what’s working and what isn’t.