A Solution to the Challenge of Short Brides and Tall Grooms

Out of all of Mother Nature’s portrait challenges Don Blair and I did in Body Parts, my favorite was the short bride with tall groom sequence.  You can be as “PJ” as you want, but the reality is sooner or later you’re going to have a 6′ 2″ plus groom who fell in love with a 4′10” cheerleader.   You’ll have a choice to make – do the minimum and get the shot or take it to a much higher level and capture/create an image your clients will never forget.    The challenge is the obvious – how do you get a decent portrait of the couple without him looking like the Hunchback of Notre Dame?

 Most photographers just shoot it as they see it.  The end result is no better than Uncle Harry would get!  The big mistake is capturing the image straight on.

Look at what happens with a little extra effort.  We’re going to switch gears…he’s going to be seated and she’s more to the background, leaning in, her hand on his shoulders.

 And what if there’s no place to sit down?  Concentrate on getting the shot from the waist up.  Move in and tighten up the frame.  Then, bring the groom in from behind the bride, bringing his arms around her and have him lean slightly into her.

But one of my most favorite images in the entire book was the pose Don used to really beat the challenge!  He had them sit down on the floor.  The groom is sitting behind her with one knee up.  Now, you’ve got more flexibility and you’ve brought the two heads closer together, narrowing the gap in height.

I know somewhere out there somebody is rolling their eyes because I’m suggesting you create a traditional formal portrait of the bride and groom.   If we were together you’d tell me your clients don’t like posing or the contemporary bride isn’t into the formal look or better yet, you’ll say it’s a cheesy pose.   Well, get over it!  The truth is, beauty is in the eye of the checkbook holder and you need to always have lots of tricks up your sleeve so you can deal with every situation.

In Joe Buissink’s new book, Wedding Photography From the Heart, he said the following:

“…Learn to remember who your client really is, and don’t listen to everything they tell you.  Inevitably, even though the bride, for example, will tell you she doesn’t want any posed images, somebody else (typically her mother) does want them.  I shot a wedding once and did exactly what the bride told me: not one portrait from the entire wedding.  All was fine until the mother, who was paying me, came back and asked, “Where are the portraits?”  So, get to know your clients, all of them, not just the bride and groom, but expecially whoever is paying the bills.”