Posing can be very difficult for some brides. However, an experienced photographer can coach you to look your best. At Sterling Photography, we know that many brides have no idea what it’s like to have a photographer follow them around all day.
Unless you are a performer, the idea of looking good for a whole day of pictures might intimidate you.
Posing can be fun, natural and relaxed.
Your wedding day is the one day of your life when the camera will be with you, almost constantly. As the bride, you are the star of the show!
Not only will your professional photographer be taking pictures, but at a today’s weddings, every guest with a phone thinks they can take incredible photographs—and some of them can.
So, Sterling thought this might be a good time to share some hints about looking your best on the most special day of your life. That day is your wedding day. Of course you do not have to be a bride to want to look good in photos. These tips could help anyone who wants to utilize confident body language and make the most of their appearance.
Posing: Our Number One Tip: This blog is especially dedicated to the glamorous Tyra Banks. We learned this tip in a photography class from one of her photographers, Mathew Jordan Smith.
Likewise, any of you who happened to watch America’s Top Model might know she made up a great word, when she coined the word “smize.”
Posing Your Prettiest Face
The Tyra Banks word, “smize” means “smile with your eyes.” Basically, the word “smize” is a pleasant, warm expression, but not a forced, full dazzle smile.
The “smize” can bring a new dimension to your bridal portraits.
You see, your heart might smile all day on your wedding day, but if you smile all day with your whole face, one of three things could happen:
- Your cheeks will get very tired.
- Your smile will look frozen and fake in some photographs or phone-snaps. This could possibly happen because of the tired cheeks.
- Your constant effort to “look” happy will begin to grate on your nerves. You might even get a touch annoyed and irritated. It seems impossible, but you might even unconsciously “snap” at a friend, guest, or a (cringe) photographer.
Head shot and executive photographer, Scott R. Kline defines the “Smize” this way: “Your mouth will be relaxed and either closed or only partly open, with lips barely stretched. The secret is in the eyes themselves, which appear to be “smiling,” without the rest of the face joining in.”
Posing Your Expression: The ABC’s of How to “Smize”
You will find it much easier to smize your way through a wedding day, or even a wedding week than to smile your way through it.
Posing: The gently smiling portrait–A bridal tradition.
Over the years, from both wedding and portfolio photography, J. R. Sterling has created the Bride’s Survival Smize. Here is the Sterling
Photography summary of the technique:
- Tilt your head a little to the left or to the right.
- Narrow your eyes. Do not narrow them very much, just a bit. Some people imagine they are tightening their lower eyelids.
- Turn your nose away from the camera—again, just a bit.
- Let your lips curl up, or partly up, if it feels natural to do so. However, your mouth should feel relaxed.
- Keep your chin down, but move your face toward the camera, ever so slightly. .
- Try to avoid rounding your shoulders.
Posing With a Squinch!
We weren’t surprised to discover that many movie stars have mastered this “look.” It has also been named the “squinch.”
The “one trick” Hollywood version is to tighten up your eyes like you are going to squint in late afternoon sunshine, but relax the top lids and make the bottom ones “pinch” the lower eye, just a little.
Now, we know it sounds strange, but it actually works. Use your phone camera or your mirror, and practice it a few times.
“Tighten your eyes as if you were going to squint. But slightly relax your top lids and let the lower ones do more of the work (This is where the “pinching,” part of the word “Squinch” comes into play).”
Posing 101-From the Shoulders up: No Cheese Please!
When friends and guests are all shouting “cheese,” we hope you remember a gentle, glowing “smize” or a soft “squinch” to ease your aching cheeks.
Both formal smiles and full on dazzling , candid smiles are part of your bridal memories.
Likewise, this little modeling technique will keep you from having one constant, repetitive, large toothy smile in every single photo.
A little tilt, a little turn, a little angle to your shoulders are the tools of a model, but they can be yours, too!
Warm, friendly, confident brides look beautiful in photographs, no matter when the camera catches them. When the full-on “Dazzle” smile hits at a candid moment, it stops time with its spontaneous joy.
As a professional, J.R. Sterling relishes these casual moments just as much as the more formal moments. The happy, unposed style of the photo at right is called “Photojournalism.” Your wedding day deserves both kinds of photography: the traditional “posed” images and the “photojournalistic,” candid images.
Patience and good camera technique can catch the fastest smiles!
We hope these few professional Sterling tips will help you achieve photos that capture the best possible versions of “you” on your special day.
Thank you for reading the Sterling Photography blog. For more photogenic hints, you could visit this helpful online resource, We also invite you to return next week to this blog for more posing tips for your Big Day, in Part Two of Posing All Day.
