The topics of losing weight before your wedding, wanting to look slimmer in photos, and the general self-consciousness that some people feel when a photography session looms are all normal things to think about and discuss. Since I photograph a lot of online dating portraits, I hear these topics come up quite a bit. I emailed one of my previous brides, Sarah, and asked her permission to post a quote from the shotlist questionnaire she answered for her wedding.
One other really important thing that I want to be honest about it that to me my weight is a very big issue. I try not to let it effect me and I want to try and not let it bother me on my wedding day. However, I’ve been trying to struggle to lose weight for the wedding day and didn’t really succeed. My biggest fear is that I’m going to get all my pictures back and hate the way I look in them because they will catch all my bad features or something. So use whatever camera tricks you can to get my “good side”. We recently had a friend take some informal shots of us and the one that looked the best of us what when she was sort of standing above us because it really hid my chin which I’m mainly self conscious about. I’m also pretty self conscious about profile shots because I think I look thinner from the front. I know this may sound ridiculous as I type it and I know you can’t work miracles, but I just wanted you to know about it and wanted to be honest with you. Thanks for understanding in advance.
When I received this email, I was both impressed by her courage in expressing her self-consciousness, and in awe of how proactive she was being. I believe many women and men get ready for this one big day of photographs with a great deal of worry, and I want to do all that I can to ease this. As I said to Sarah in a recent email, “photographers work with so many different people, and how it’s our job to make you look goooood.”
Many photographers (myself included) have either gone to school for photography or taken classes and workshops on posing people. Beyond this, we have tools at our disposal (cough cough Photoshop) to work with images after we take them. But the thing I want to emphasize the most is that photographers have experience. I have no idea how many people I’ve photographed, but I can easily tell you that the non-models vastly outnumber the models. I regularly work with individuals who have never had a professional photo taken, who hate the photos that others take of them, and who are generally unimpressed by what photographers do. And guess what? They love the photos I take of them.
When I asked Sarah if I could post her quote, she replied, “OF COURSE you can share that with people… My pictures turned out so amazing and you did such a good job of making me feel nothing but 100% beautiful on my big day!” So if you’re starting to get nervous about how you’ll look on your wedding day, then you can read tips on what you can do, and study America’s Next Top Model, but most importantly – talk to me. I can answer your questions and help calm your nerves. And you know what? You’re going to look great in your pictures. Promise.
by Lara
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