Clients with bad cheesy smiles

[TheMoons678]

I'll be taking my first engagement photos this saturday.I looked them up on facebook, saw pictures of them posing together, and noticed that their smiles come out very unnatural and cheesy. I will try to make them super comfortable to bring out some natural smiles and laughter, but am not very experienced with this.

1. Any tips on bringing out great smiles?

2. If it doesn't work, what do I do? Do i bring my wife's makeup mirror and do some smile coaching? Am I just over reacting?

[sybren]

Be quick. If they have to wait for you, they'll get unnatural and cheesy smiles. If you have to make them wait, let them know that you'll be tweaking some settings or something, and that they can chat a bit. They'll probably joke around, so shoot a few frames of them before asking for their attention again.

Don't force people to smile. It doesn't work.

[Benji]

My absolute favorite line to get an engaged couple to smile is to ask them, "so what did you two do last night that you wouldn't want mom and dad to know?" They will usually not say anything but they will get a huge smile. RESIST the temptation to shoot right then as most people look bad with a huge toothy grin. After the huge toothy grin has vanished say, " Oh really!" SHOOT then. This was the ice breaker. After that you should get natural smiles. If they say "we have never done anything that we cannot tell our parents" say "good, you two are the kind of people the world needs more of" then engage them in a conversation about what they aspire to be. They will appreciate your honoring their morality.

Benji

[TheMoons678]

Originally Posted by Benji

My absolute favorite line to get an engaged couple to smile is to ask them, "so what did you two do last night that you wouldn't want mom and dad to know?" They will usually not say anything but they will get a huge smile. RESIST the temptation to shoot right then as most people look bad with a huge toothy grin. After the huge toothy grin has vanished say, " Oh really!" SHOOT then. This was the ice breaker. After that you should get natural smiles. If they say "we have never done anything that we cannot tell our parents" say "good, you two are the kind of people the world needs more of" then engage them in a conversation about what they aspire to be. They will appreciate your honoring their morality.

Benji

Ha thanks benji. You're awesome. They, along with myself, are mormon students at Brigham Young University in Utah, so I'm not sure if that question will come off well...but I will try to come up with some ice breakers!

Good point sybren on the not keeping them waiting.

[SusanH1970]

Ask them how they met...and how they fell in love. Conversation like that always brings out smiles.

[ditch_azeroth]

i guess it's something different for everybody, but i did a prenup last weekend and found the couple smiling as wide as the chesire cat when i whipped out some achmed the dead terrorist lines. thank you jeff dunham.

[TheMoons678]

My first engagement pics were an epic fail.

I took about 300 shots, most ruined by her awkwardly/nervously looking away from the camera, or doing anything but smiling. In just about every shot the guy was looking great smiling at the camera, but she has some look on her face like "who farted?"

I tried jokes, tried to take breaks and have them tell us stories of them dating, their first kiss, him proposing, share embarrassing stories... nothing. I even resulted to having him tickle her during some shots. A few not-so-bad ones, but the only reason I did this shoot was to build a portfolio and I will definitely not include any.

I learned a lot and I know I could have helped the situation if I had made her feel more comfortable. I think I'll ask a few photographer friends if I can accompany them on some engagement shoots. Thanks everyone for their advice.