Ideas for Photographing Groomsmen

by | Aug 24, 2017 | Tips & Tricks | 6 comments

Had a lot of fun editing photos from Cole & Nawon’s wedding today!

Here are some of my favorite shots from the time spent with the groomsmen. I don’t know about you, but when it comes to setting up people creatively for a photo, I rely heavily on inspiration from great photos I’ve seen taken by other photographers. Hope some of these photos will be an inspiration for the next wedding you shoot. Will look forward to adding these photos to the wedding section of the PRO Posing database soon!

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Usually for men you want to shoot up at them to make them look more manly, but sometimes it works to mix things up a bit. Perhaps this is too wide angle, but in general I was going for a more fun than traditional approach at this wedding.

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While waiting for the last groomsmen to arrive, we did shots like this, where it wasn’t integral for everyone to be there.

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Of course, you always want to get a good traditional picture of each groomsmen with the groom, but if you have the time, initiate and capture fun interaction between them as it fits their personalities.

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Hadn’t ever tried this perspective before. Definitely needed wide angle on a full frame (this was 17mm).

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I like to arrange everyone in a “prayer pose” and then ask one of the groomsmen to lead in an actual time of prayer to get less canned and more candid expressions.

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Very traditional shot. Try to find a symmetrical background when you have symmetrical setups.

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Saw this pose online, and though the groomsmen doesn’t appear to be the most comfortable, at least that fact is overshadowed by the cuteness of the mimicking ring-bearer.

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I try to hit at least two different locations with each group on the wedding day. A rise on the event center grounds right next to the parking lot was enough to get an awesome perspective without background distraction.

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This jump is hard to coordinate, to get everyone at the same distance above the ground. In this situation, it worked well to ask the groom to coordinate the jump, the groomsmen jumping when he did the counting. It didn’t work when I did the counting.

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If I have a good set of poses to draw from and time to review them before the wedding, than it generally doesn’t take much time to run through them all and pursue a few others off the cuff. 30min is usually what I like to allot for each group, though the longer the better as you have more time to tweak more, go to more places, or experiment with different ideas.

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6 Comments

  1. Mary

    Great shots! 🙂 I’m sure everyone enjoyed themselves

    Reply
    • James Staddon

      Oh yeah, we had a blast! I was so grateful for the wholesomeness surrounding the entire event.

      Reply
  2. Abbie

    Those are the best groomsmen pictures I have ever seen!! Lots of creativity.

    Reply
    • James Staddon

      Seeing and “remixing” the work of others is a huge part of succeeding in photography.

      Reply
  3. Holly Ciampi

    Wow! These are awesome! I like how you mixed things up and thank you for explaining each shot!

    Reply
    • James Staddon

      Within the bounds of wholesomeness is a world of creativity we have yet to fathom

      Reply

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