A Quick Word About Confidence and Being Photographed

How to love hav­ing your pic­ture taken!

If you’re not look­ing for­ward to hav­ing your pic­ture taken on your wed­ding day, then I really hope this arti­cle will help you embrace the prospect and enjoy the expe­ri­ence of being pho­tographed at your wedding.

As I type (this post was sched­uled a lit­tle in advance!) I’ve just come back from a pho­to­shoot at the sea­side with my lovely friends Chris and Claire Han­ley (www.ChrisHanleyPhotography.com). It’s the third shoot Chris has done for me — and this time while I was ner­vous I was also really excited about hav­ing my pic­ture taken.

I loved it. Every sin­gle sec­ond… splash­ing in the freez­ing cold Irish Sea in the mid­dle of Octo­ber. Look­ing up and down, walk­ing towards the cam­era when asked, bal­anc­ing on rocks… and it was the first time I’ve felt so happy and relaxed while being pho­tographed. It doesn’t mat­ter that my face is a bit weird, or that I’m apple-shaped — I loved it.

So what’s the secret? How does a per­son go from being shy and self-conscious in front of the cam­era to being relaxed and enjoy­ing being in front of the cam­era? Trust me — I’m very much a girl who’s com­fort­able behind a com­puter screen! (“Face for radio”, as they used to say!)

1. Get used to being pho­tographed. Prac­tice. Smile!

With my friends and fam­ily I’ve always been “the one behind the cam­era”. I snap away when I’m out, on hol­i­day or in the coun­try­side. Peo­ple very rarely take my pic­ture — and when they do I have a habit of pulling funny faces. Can’t help it.

This was my third photo shoot and it was eas­ier because I’ve prac­ticed smil­ing at a cam­era now. I know it’s not a scary thing to look into a lens and grin, or gaze into the dis­tance, or to carry on as nor­mal while I know there’s a lens pointed at me.

So start being in pho­tos. Have a day out with your fiancée or fiancé and take each oth­ers’ pic­tures. Pose. Smile. Laugh. Enjoy it.

2. Have a prac­tice shoot with a photographer

It can be dif­fer­ent being pho­tographed by some­one you don’t know as well. So try that too! Ide­ally, have a pre-wedding or engage­ment shoot with your wed­ding pho­tog­ra­pher. It will help you all to pre­pare for the wed­ding day. You’ll see how your pho­tog­ra­pher works: will they direct you, crack jokes to make you smile, talk you through pic­tures for example.

Your wed­ding pho­tog­ra­pher will also learn about you, get to know your per­son­al­i­ties and if you’re ner­vous they’ll help you get used to the cam­era. Trust me — your first pro­fes­sional shoot can be daunt­ing, so if you have a pre-wedding shoot in a relaxed loca­tion with only the two of you and your pho­tog­ra­pher, it will help your con­fi­dence so much!

3. Choose your wed­ding pho­tog­ra­pher wisely

It’s so impor­tant to find a pho­tog­ra­pher who you’ll enjoy hav­ing around on your wed­ding day. The very best (like Chris) will make you feel on top of the world. Friendly words, direc­tions if you need them, and always a smile… that’s what I think you should look for.

Choos­ing a wed­ding pho­tog­ra­pher should be about far more than just price and port­fo­lio. Look for some­one who’ll make you smile even with­out their cam­era handy! Your pho­tog­ra­pher will be there through­out your wed­ding day so you really need to find some­one you can relax and laugh with.

4. Con­sider doc­u­men­tary wed­ding photography

If you’re very ner­vous about hav­ing your pho­to­graph taken, then con­sider reportage pho­tog­ra­phy for your wed­ding day. (Or doc­u­men­tary pho­tog­ra­phy, or pho­to­jour­nal­ism — the photographer’s per­spec­tive will be the same.)

Pho­tog­ra­phers who shoot in an unob­tru­sive style will cap­ture the emo­tions and mem­o­ries of your wed­ding day as they unfold. Doc­u­men­tary wed­ding pho­tog­ra­phy often includes more images of your wed­ding guests as they enjoy your day, as well as relaxed pho­tos of you both which you may not even know are being taken! Look for feed­back on your wed­ding photographer’s web­site that says “We hardly even knew you were there!”

5. Or look for a pho­tog­ra­pher who’ll make time for you both

If you’re wor­ried that your wed­ding pho­tos will come back full of blinks and weird gri­maces (this would be me!) then approach it another way: choose a pho­tog­ra­pher who will take you, as a cou­ple, away for a quiet walk or a roman­tic shoot as your guests mix and mingle.

Brides and grooms often tell me they really enjoyed hav­ing half an hour to enjoy each other’s com­pany away from the gen­eral rush of the wed­ding day. While it’s just the two of you with your pho­tog­ra­pher, he or she can con­cen­trate on get­ting some stun­ning shots of you — with no dis­trac­tions and a more relaxed atmosphere.

These images can be the most roman­tic and beau­ti­ful shots of your day, the ones you’ll have printed on can­vas or framed as well as in your wed­ding album. It’s this time, when you’re relaxed in each other’s com­pany and with the expert direc­tion of your wed­ding pho­tog­ra­pher, when you’ll get some of the most stun­ning images of the two of you as bride and groom.

…and enjoy the experience!

Most of all though, remind your­self that being pho­tographed can be amaz­ing fun. Whether it’s your pre-wedding shoot or your wed­ding day, you’ll be look­ing your best and you’ll be as happy as you could pos­si­bly be. Your smiles will be radi­ant. The cam­era loves happy, con­fi­dent people.

If there’s a bit of shy­ness in the way, then I hope these tips will help you over­come it. I hope they’ll put your mind at rest about being pho­tographed on your wed­ding day.

I’m going to end this post with my favorite words from Chris Han­ley — because this is what it’s all about. Remem­ber this, and you’ll be fine!

“Love being pho­tographed. Love the pho­tographs you are in.”

Chris Han­ley
www.ChrisHanleyPhotography.com