With the group shots out of the way, now is a nice time to take the couple away for a while to take some more intimate portraits of the newlyweds. It’s important to remember that most people don’t particularly like their portrait being taken, so it’s your job to make sure that the couple feel as relaxed as possible while you are taking photos of them.
Keep a conversation going throughout your time with them and keep things relatively low tempo – take a few shots, then change location and have a chat in-between, before taking a few more shots. It’s common for couples to feel slightly awkward and rigid to start with, so to ease them in to the process – start off with some full-length shots, perhaps with the church or wedding venue in the background. Once they start to relax, then you can ask them to get closer for some tightly cropped headshots.
Although inevitably the couple will be relying on you to instruct them on how to pose, it’s vital that you don’t ask them to do anything that would make them feel uneasy or uncomfortable.
Every couple will have different comfort zones, so building a relationship is key.