These are some things that me must learn for couple photographs :

• The process takes much longer than shooting candid photos of another couple. Consider splitting this project up into multiple sessions on two or three different days.

• Choose locations that you are already familiar with so that you are relaxed and don’t have to spend much time scouting out the perfect spot. Consider visiting some of your favorite places and making it a fun day trip.

Scott Taylor

Shaded spots where the lighting is fairly constant will save you from having to make exposure adjustments to your camera settings between attempts.

• Experiment with your camera’s timer options in advance so you know what setting will give you adequate time to insert yourself into the photo and look natural. A remote camera trigger is another consideration.

• If using a wide aperture and shallow depth of field, your partner will need to stand perfectly still while you position yourself, in order to keep proper focus. Selecting a greater depth of field reduces this concern.

• Practice a few poses in advance so you know where to place your hands. If you want to show off the ring, try placing the ring hand on the other person’s shoulder.

Scott Taylor

Aside from the obvious need for a sturdy tripod, here are the basic steps:

• Take a test photo of your partner using your camera’s aperture priority mode, then switch to a completely manual mode and use the shutter speed and aperture settings from previous image.

• Check your focus, set your timer, and go.

Having to pre-visualize the photo makes framing and composition tricky so be prepared for multiple attempts. Just remember to have fun and be patient




So these tips are about shooting people: the people you most care about.
1. Get physically close. George almost never uses a zoom lens. He violates personal space with his warmth and enthusiasm. Often, he holds the hand of people he's shooting. This can seem hard at first, but most people like to be photographed if they perceive it as warm, genuine personal attention.


2. Shoot the moment, not the subject. George feels photographers spend too much time composing and arranging shots, not enough feeling what's going on and flowing along with it. Life is a series of moments, not images. He shoots in-between moments as well as moments that, as with this vacation shot from a European bathroom, will be a mystery to anyone who wasn't there.



3. Move around a lot. A big mistake photographers make is to think they have the right shot and then basically take the same picture over and over again, with tiny variations. George is like a sand flee, hopping around, moving high, getting low, going back, returning to front, shooting up, shooting down. For this shot, he walked out of Stumptown coffee to shoot his brother and son within.


4. Get down to the eye level of your subject. If you're shooting babies or toddler or even chickens, get low. Get your knees dirty. They eye-to-eye vantage is powerful, while the looking-down view is often distancing.



5. Notice the details. Details tell stories. They trigger intimate memories. After you've shot the people in a room at a birthday party, or everyone at a vacation house, take time to look around for the details.



6. Play with props. Everyday things like chairs, ladders, empty boxes, baby seats: all of these serve to trigger emotions, illustrate scale or vintage, frame people in fun ways. Here, George and Steph used chocolate letters from a chocolate maker in Brussels to celebrate her second pregnancy.


7. Know the light in your house. As you wander your house with a morning coffee or after dinner or in the middle of the day, notice when and where the light is most beautiful. You can move subjects into the light, or just return to a special place and hope something is going on, as it was in this attic bathroom.


8. Get people away from bright, direct light. Often it's as simple as taking a person around the side of a summer house, for example, where indirect light is much softer and more beautiful -- as with this Jersey Shore shot.


9. Shoot everywhere, always. This serene shot of George's son Jackson was taken while Jackson was getting some medical tests (he's fine). "One morning, when I had stayed over with him," George told me, "we woke up so he could watch the sun rise over the parking lot." The picture captures a moment, a feeling, and beauty in a place where you least expect it.


10. Shoot lots. Digital "film" is virtually free, and you never really know when you're getting a good shot: the little screen on the camera -- even on the iPhone -- can't always tell in the moment. Expressions vary, heads tilt, eyes look away or into the camera: and then suddenly you have the perfect picture - -in this case a totally natural, candid shot.