Advice from a Photographer: How to Take Cute Photos with Your Partner

Picture this: you're in a beautiful location, maybe a romantic beach at sunset or a cute lookout spot on a hike. You want to preserve the memory with your partner but there's no one around to take the photo. You settle for a timer photo but it always seems like one of you blinked. We've all been there but I have some simple solutions to fix this common issue. Read on for some advice from a professional photographer on how to take Instagram-worthy photos with your S/O.

Setting Up Your Photo

Prop up your Phone

Find a waist-height (or even a little higher if one of you is tall) spot to prop up your phone. This could be on some rocks or even on a little pedestal that you built out of surrounding objects. You do not want your camera too low since this will create a "superhero" feel, which you can read more about here. A low angle might be good for sunset photos but not many other instances. You also do not want your camera too high for a variety of reasons. When your camera is high, it can make the photo look boring since it is at eye-level. Also, it can create a feeling on submissiveness which would take away from the whole mood of your photos.

This has to do with photographic psychology which you can read about here if you are interested. 

Take a Video

When you want to take a photo together, your first thought might be to take a timer photo. Do NOT do this. Take a video instead. This allows you to pose for a longer period of time, like you would with a photographer. After you are done taking "photos," simply watch the video, pause it and screenshot whenever you see a cute moment. With video, it also gives you the flexibility to have cute videos together as well.

Location

When picking a location to do this, lighting and composition is super important. Try to pick an area out of direct sunlight with a clean background. Avoid any trashcans, power lines or any other distracting feature. You don't want flies swarming around garbage to take away from the mood of your photo.

Less is More

Posing is definitely a daunting task, don't get me wrong. When scrolling through Pinterest, there are so many poses that are too complex to try and can lead to unnatural results. My advice is to keep them simple. Often times, prompts and movement create natural reactions, even with people who are camera shy. Below, I will discuss my favorite photo prompts for couples that I work with and give examples of what each one looks like.

Poses and Prompt Ideas

Human Bumper Cars

This is my favorite pose to start with since it's super fun. To do this pose, stand 20 feet away from your phone and hold hands with your partner. Start walking towards your phone and bump your hips together. The goal of this pose is to try to knock your partner off balance. You can create some super cute smiling photos like this.

Photo By: Kelly shea

Sexy Cereal

This is definitely another one that can create some cute smiles. Ideally for this one, one person does not know what is going to happen. To set this pose up, face each other and put your arms around one another. When one person is ready, they should whisper their favorite cereal in the other person's ear in their sexiest voice. This can create some genuine laughs or confused faces.

Photo By: Kelly Shea

Photo By: Kelly Shea

Kissing Game

This is by far my favorite pose to do with couples. For this one, one person is assigned the role of "kisser" and the other person is the "defender." The kisser must kiss the other person's whole face while the defender tries to block them. This is another pose that can create some super cute reactions and smiles.

Photo By: Kelly Shea

Other Resources

A ton of other photographers give similar advice as I do so here are some other resources. for example, Part Time Tourists, from parttimetourists.com, take all of their own photos when they travel. They have an extensive blog post that talks about how they manage to create some amazing photos. You can view this blog post here.

In the video below, YouTuber CupofTJ talks about how she creates all of her travel photos. Her guide is a little more extensive and talks a lot about color so be sure to watch the video!