Shooting a couple in a way that looks genuinely intimate can sometimes be a challenge. Those in a relationship can, at times, get “giggly” during the photo shoot and two models who are effectively strangers can be a little hit-and-miss, depending on their acting abilities.
That said, it does present an opportunity to deliver photographs with a lot more story and emotion than solo shots often can and every now and then I get a request to shoot a couple. Normally, it’s accompanied with either a few “Calvin Klein-esque” shots as a reference point or a request for standard “boudoir photography”, but last month I got a request that was a little different.
On a cold Sunday morning, I was photographing Alex Wilcox (an established model) in some product shots for a company in Greece – and a short while before the shoot itself got a request to extend the time and capture a series of “couple” images for his portfolio.
For a model, such images are really powerful in a portfolio as it shows not only acting ability but also clear proof that they can work well with others “on-set”.
Calling on a local model, Rebecca Bone, and after finishing the product photography we set up 5 different looks throughout the afternoon. Despite shooting a wide range including wet-look photos, classic underwear shots and some nice wintery-clothing commercial images, at the end of the day this series was by far the most convincing and unique.
Bearing in mind neither model had med before the shoot itself, you have to give them credit for working so well together – and they definitely ticked the box of not delivering a “standard” (cheesy!) couples or boudoir photography shoot.
Using the black wall as a background really worked along with the hard light making their skin “pop” on-screen. From the selection in this post, the idea was to present a storyboard of images which suggest the two are really intimate with each other. Hopefully that worked… 🙂