I’ve seen many wedding videos that are jam packed with clips of the couple doing all sorts of poses. I’ll see brides staring dramatically out a window, grooms adjusting their sleeves, couples walking in slow motion…the list goes on and on. And on one hand, I can’t deny that these poses do look pretty good. However, I don’t think that they feel good. And by that, I mean that they don’t make me feel much of anything. In this post I’m going to expand a little bit on why I’m not personally a huge fan of posing in wedding videos.
Posing in Wedding Photos vs. Wedding Videos
When it comes to wedding photography, posing is much more common and natural. While I personally am a bigger fan of more natural, candid photos, there’s no harm in doing some posed shots as well. You always want to get the classic “profile picture” shots of you and your partner. You know, the ones you can send to your friends and family on your thank-you cards. Not to mention, this is one of the few times in most people’s lives that they get to feel like a model for a day, doing a photoshoot in their fancy clothes.
Wedding videos, however, are an entirely different matter. When I see a wedding video with one posed shot after another, I can’t help but feel like I’m just seeing more photos, but with a little bit of movement in them. After all, many of the poses used by videographers are the same or similar to those used by photographers. And if a significant portion of the video is just clips of more poses, then I don’t feel like I’m seeing anything new. Rather, just more of what I already saw in the photos.
The more poses I see in a wedding video, I feel that it diminishes what makes the video unique to begin with. Photo and video are two different kinds of media, and are capable of documenting your wedding in different ways. When a wedding video is jam-packed with posed shots, it starts to feel more like a digital extension of your wedding photos, rather than a different kind of documentation of your wedding day.
The Importance of Capturing Authentic Moments
Video has a few distinct differences from photography. For one, it can capture entire moments rather than just a single frame frozen in time. It can also capture audio, which more fully immerses you in the moments you’re viewing. If you ask me, filling your wedding video with poses defeats the purpose of video altogether, and misses out on an opportunity to capture the wedding day in a very special way.
Personally, I think that video should be used to capture moments, not poses. The preparation, the vows, the first dance…these are all moments that have a certain energy to them, and sometimes that energy can only fully be captured in all of its dimensions with video. When you watch your wedding video, I want you to feel like you’re experiencing that moment all over again. You’re hearing the sounds you heard on that day, remembering the conversations you had and the people who shared those moments with you. If you only see shots of yourself posing, those shots won’t connect you to any meaningful memories; they’ll just remind you of the videographer telling you to pose for the camera.
Think about the weddings that you’ve attended yourself. Which moments stand out to you the most? I’m willing to bet it’s probably the look on the couple’s faces when they read their vows, or the smiles as their friends and family delivered their toasts, rather than the poses they did for their photos. Those are the moments I’m interested in capturing.
Posing Isn’t Always Bad
Now, I don’t want it to seem like I’m 100% anti-posing. I can’t deny that posed shots look good; that’s the whole reason to do them in the first place. There certainly is a time and place for posing in wedding videos; I just don’t like to see the poses taking up a significant amount of runtime at the expense of the more meaningful moments from the day.
When I do give poses to the couples that I work with, I always try to keep a few things in mind to make them feel a little bit more natural:
- Movement: I like to include movement in my poses, so it feels a little more dynamic and energetic.
- Interaction: Whether I’m shooting just one of them, or the couple together, I like to have them interact with their environment in some way, to make it more immersive.
- Focus: I make sure the couple are focusing all of their attention on each other, rather than looking at the camera.
- Story: I always think about what a certain pose or shot is communicating, and how that will add to the overall story of the wedding video.
Conclusion
Photo and video are two separate art styles with their own unique characteristics, so you don’t want the finished products to feel too similar to one another. And you never want your wedding video (or photos) to feel too artificial. By using poses sparingly and with intention, your wedding video can make you and your partner look your best, while also helping you relive all of the big moments from your wedding day.
