Portray the ‘character of the couple’ in Portraits…!

I generally prefer to shoot the couples informally in my studio after the wedding. In this process I instruct them to be of their own and try to capture them as they interact with each other. The very purpose of this post wedding portrait sessions is to get few good shots carrying the character and expression of the couples. But this is generally very difficult with Indian couples as they are usually very stiff and timid in front of a camera. Some of them even give a very stale and standard expression in all the shots

It happened recently, when my assistants were re arranging the main lights after I just finished few formal portrait shots of a couple in their wedding dress. As I was looking at the completed shots in my laptop, and waiting to go in for the next set of posses, I find the couple was casually talking to each other. In fact the bride was facing away from the camera as I just took a couple of shots where my front lights were not firing as they are plugged out by my assistants.

But still I liked the shots with an effect of a semi silhouette with just only a background light. Though the faces of the couples were not clearly visible, I found a different mood in this shot which of course the couple too had liked a lot.

Most of my post wedding portrait session will contain shots like this and they can be very effectively included in the wedding photography album or photo book. This picture is a very good example of getting the location mood in the studio portraits.

- KL.Raja