Engagement Pictures, CHEAP. How to take your own engagement photos with your own DSLR camera

Welcome back to Life Through a Lens everyone! As you can probably tell from lack of blog posts lately, it has been crazy over here in the Cooper house. With Christmas, New years, and no school oh and a week-long vacation for my parents, we haven't been on our normal routine and it has been pretty hectic.

One of the main things that is new lately is... my sister is ENGAGED! Yep, engaged! It's pretty exciting! I can't wait to be in the thick of wedding planning, I mean, who doesn't like a wedding?!


Anyway, with her wedding being so soon, we needed to take engagements, fast. My sister asked if I would want to take the pictures for her, of course I said yes! I love taking pictures of people rather than just objects, so I jumped at the opportunity. I have a DSLR camera, and I have taken a few classes here and there but, I'm not a pro. I'm a 15 year old taking engagement pictures that will be looked at for years and years! That's a lot of pressure. Here are some tips on taking your own engagement pictures.

**This post has gotten pretty popular over on Pinterest these days! I recently took another couples engagements that were a total different feel than these pictures in this post, if you want to see them and get more tips click HERE**

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#1 TIP-

    If you are wanting to save some money, and take your own engagement pictures, there is a number one tip that you should really take into consideration..

 Have a good camera   

This is crucial. These are your engagement pictures! They will be looked at by many people, you need to have a good camera. If you don't own a DSLR camera, maybe you have a neighbor that does. If you don't have a nice camera, I would say it is worth it to have a photographer come in and take the pictures for you. You want them to look good, right?

#2 TIP-

Be prepared. You wanna come prepared with poses for the couple to get into. I was lucky, I was taking pictures of my sister, so it wasn't awkward, but it could very easily be awkward telling someone you aren't that close to, to just start kissing, ha!

 Poses

This one we relied on Pinterest. We searched 'engagement pictures' and saw some cute poses. But, this tip is very important. You don't wanna get to your location and not know what poses to do. Poses (I think), make or break a picture.

#3 TIP-

Positioning is everything. Pictures look better when your main focus (the couple, flower, etc.) is off center.

Positioning

Here is a good example. They are on a bridge and on the far left. They could be in the middle and wouldn't of looked nearly as good.

 

 #4 TIP-

Candids are always way more fun to look at, agree?

Capture Candid moments

I know I said a pose could make or break a picture but really, think about how this couple is in love and they most likely will laugh.. capture it! Snap a picture!

#5 TIP-

Cropping, filtering, airbrushing, whatever you need. Editing is a huge part of a good photo. 

Editing

I use PicMonkey for most of my editing. They have a lot of great tools from, cropping, spray tan(don't use that often) and even a weight loss filter. 

One of the most common things I do to my pictures is making them Black and White. This is very classy and could really help make a great photo a fantastic photo.

#6 TIP-

Don't use a tripod, have a sister, friend, whoever come to your location and take the picture for you.

No Tripod

These pictures are a big deal. You can make the setting whatever you want, and hand the camera off. If it were me, I wouldn't want to worry about a tripod and hiding the clicker as fast as you can. Of course, if that is your only option, do it. It wont be terribly bad. I would just rather have someone there that you can tell where to stand. Have them just keep snapping when you are laughing or whatever.

That's It!

Have any questions? Leave a comment!

Thanks Madi and Josh for the opportunity to take your engagements! Even though we were all F.R.O.Z.E.N, and yes, Josh's car got stuck on the side of the road and yes, very kind people pulled over to help us get out. Never gonna forget that day! Haha!


Like always, talk to you soon!

Kal

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