So, I guess I'm fairly excited and possibly a little nervous at my friend's request to take some photo's of him and his fiance for their wedding invitations. Excited because I get to help out some friends of mine with something I really like to do (photography). But nervous at the same time because I don't really know too much regarding posed portraits (I usually have shot landscape or candid shots at best).

I'm wondering if anyone would be able to give me some tips for shooting posed portraits? Perhaps some ideas for interesting poses, props or backdrops (we'll be in the mountains for the shoot)?

Any help/tips would be greatly appreciated!

Dont be nervous...here, let me help: Photoshop can fix almost EVERYTHING! Incuding DOF, FOV (to an extent), exposure, color, wrinkles, tones, etc.

And...er...use your imagination? Fill flash. Shoot raw. Format your card (through the camera) before you go out shooting.

whilst you can fix many things in photoshop - DOF isnt one of them - so use a tight aperture like between F4-F8, keep it all pretty natural looking as far as the pose goes and remember to use as low an ISO setting as your lighting will allow.

Remember they need not always be standing - they can be seated, holding hands, being together looking at a view (or each other) for example which are pleasant to look back on. A bit of fun, or a singsong can loosen things up a bit! As Phil says, as low an ISO as poss is good, allowing for cropping and/or resizing afterwards can also help - and props such as a shawl/scarf for example or something to sit on (rug)? Backdrops need to be close in my opinion! A tree, a wall, a stretch of water - then the rest out of focus, so colour in the distance preferable (fuzzy colour being better than fuzzy white or pale).
You've got to relax so that they will! Plenty batteries, flashcards of course!!

Thanks for the tips! I'll be sure to remember them, especially regarding ISO (I sometimes forget about it!). I'm set for batteries (got three) and memory (2Gb card), but I don't have a flash (aside from the built in one).

I've always shied away from shooting in RAW because I don't really understand what's involved in its post processing (all that I know is that it requires alot more than a jpeg). What's involved in RAW's post processing? Also, what are the advantages to shooting in RAW?

Er, RAW has better quality, you can change the WB settings, exposure (to a certain extent) better than jpg, you can attempt HDR with 1 RAW photo, it also makes you sound like a WWF actor or something. =P

..but on the other hand, JPG is about has same quality and 2x quicker to work with. In the end, you'll probably convert the RAW to jpg anyways.

Doh! - RAW holds more pixel data than JPEG and so is consequently better quality - primarily in the smoothness of colour and gradients - process your RAW files as tiffs and avoid any compression to maintain that quality.

If you'll take photos outside, with sun, don't hesitate to take photos twice, one with the flash and one without. You'll be estonished by the result...
This tip is very important for black people or people with hats. Built-in flash is enough.

Good luck :-)

ahh, I understand now! Thanks!

hmm, I just checked the weather for the day of the shoot and it looks like it may be cold (especially if the wind whips up). Is there anything that I should consider for specifically shooting inside?

err...avoid slow shutter speeds? Try to use as much natural light as possible (as in dont completely rely on the flash for your light).

I understand that, I was more curious regarding shooting inside and capturing in RAW...like shooting under certain types of light (tungsten, fluorscent) etc?

Some cameras have specific modes for shooting in different types of artificial light... I usually don't think of using mine but I recall once I tried it when I was shooting a lit garden at night. Without changing the settings the photo was very yellow looking. So check to see if you have settings for different light sources.

My only other advice is to take as many shots as you can in as many different locations and poses as you can. Try to get a few shots with each "combination" of people (for example, bride and groom with grooms family; groom with grooms family; groom with parents; groom with mother; groom with father etc). Obviously the most important shots are of the happy couple, but try to get a few of them by themselves. too. You will probably end up with a few really great shots if you just take enough on the day.

I would just recommend shooting RAW and changing the WB on your computer to see what looks good. (another reason RAW is good).

Thanks for the tips Sam (I totally agree with taking as many shots as possible), I'll have to check my camera (Digital Rebel XT) when I get home for the light settings. Although, I think you're a little confused, this shoot is just for my friends wedding invitation and not the actual wedding. I don't think I'm quite ready yet for that kind of responsibility!

Hmm, sounds like I'll have to give this RAW business a try, thanks for the tips Noah! I'll take some test shots in RAW before the shoot and play around with them.

Another thing you might consider if your going to be inside is going down to the camerastore (im assuming you are in Calgary, as I've got that impression from past threads) and rent a flash. If it were me doing this i would definitely use my flash and bounce it off something like the roof or a wall or something nice depending on your room. It gives you very natural looking light that avoids shadows and red eye. If you do happen to give that a try i would recommend getting it a little early and doing alittle bit of practice before hand. You seem pretty competent so i would think you would be able to handle it.

RAW isn't necessarily better than JPEG format. It's the non-format in which the image is stored before it's made into a viewable format. It is the raw data right off the light sensor, and with it you have ALL the data that your sensor captured. You see when an image is made into a JPG, GIF, TIFF, etc. some data are lost in the conversion process. JPG is specially bad about this. By storing the RAW data you leave your options open. You can push your exposure, contrast, light temperature, etc. - then make the JPG. This way your final jpg looks better than if you'd lost some data in the conversion process - then adjusted your image. There's a freeware package called Pixmantec Rawshooter that's very good for viewing and adjusting RAW images, then converting them into the format of your choice.

Thanks for the tip on renting a flash Milo, I never would have thought of that/realized the camera store does rentals! The rental doesn't even cost too much, only $15 compared to buying the equivalent model for $510! All though I just remembered I have a flash from my old (really really really old) film slr. But I don't think it's positional. I'll have to check out the store.

hmm, that makes sense regarding RAW and it's adjustability, I'll have to give it some practice!

...I've always been a fan of large lightboxes...those things do amazing things to portraits....anyways.. <-- ignore what i said.

ah, a lightbox would be fun to use, but I don't really have the cash to fork out to make one at the moment... :(

same here...that's why i stick with...err....paper if i ever use a flash. >_>

..which is never.

Well, I think my first go at portraits turned out alright! Some shots look good as portraits, but aren't really suitable for the invitation. I'll have to tweak some of them for contrast and WB.

Thanks for all your tips and support I really appreciate it!

With permission of the faces in the pictures you should post (here or some other webspace) a couple so we can see how they turned out.

...you could always photoshop a huge dot over the faces...

that would kinda ruin a portrait if you ask me :S

...ah, good point. Kindof, er, forgot about that...

hmm, yeah, I'll ask them if I can post a couple pictures of them

My friend finally got back to me and he said it was fine to share some of the photos with you guys.

These are some of the ones that turned out. Unfortunately the lighting wasn't the greatest though. The place I wanted to use was already being used by the wedding photographer! We actually walked into their shoot by accident, oops! :)

050

047

044

008

074

Let me know what you think, critiques are greatly appreciated!

Great shots. I think you did great. The lighting looks fine to me (that's me), and the DOF is good too.

....but, i think you aimed a little high. ;-)

IMO the last photo is the best. I was wondering up to that point why they were all profile shots. The background in the first isn't the best (namely the red fence) and the bubble gum doesn't appeal to me but maybe there is some personal significance there.

Thanks for the comments! Yeah, I realize I was aiming kind of high for some of them, not exactly sure why I did that :S. I have some more shots that aren't profiles but the suns light was coming from the side and cast sever shadows on their faces (was wishing I could take photos around the corner). The bubble gum was more just for fun, the couple wanted to keep it super relaxed and casual. Plus they're really a fun couple, I thought it might fit. But I was hoping for bigger bubbles (was thinking it would be neat to get a shot of them with the bubbles so big you could only see their eyes), however 7-11 didn't have any decent bubble gum (only had 1 kind!).

Thanks again for the comments and critiques, they are greatly appreciated!