How To Photograph The Groomsmen Portraits: Groomsmen Poses

Let’s chat about how to photograph the groomsmen portraits on a wedding day! Last week I shared my approach to posing the bridal party on a wedding day and how to get the most out of the bridal party portraits in a short amount of time. This week I am going to talk about how I work with the groom and the groomsmen to ensure that I create images that my clients will love.

My approach is really simple. I create each pose based on the previous pose. You might want to call this a posing evolution if you will, but  this system works great for me and I am excited to share it with everyone out there that is struggling with having a consistent posing system.

1. The first thing I do is have the groom and groomsmen stand in a straight line while holding their hands left over right. The groom is in the middle.

2. From pose #1 I have the groomsmen turn slightly towards the groom and look at the camera. They can hold their hands left over right or put them in their pockets.

3. From pose #2 I’ll ask the groom to make a few steps towards me while the groomsmen will create a V behind the groom. I call this the “Flying V” pose.

4. From pose #3 I’ll ask the groomsmen to form a staggered line and give me a “model/serious look”. At this point they can unbutton their jackets to make this pose look more relaxed.

5. Next, I’ll ask the groom to make a few steps forward while the guys remain in the background. This shot is going to focus on the groom while the groomsmen are going to be blurred in the background.

6. From pose #5 I’ll ask the groomsmen to come up around the groom and make him laugh. The groom is going to look at the groomsmen and the groomsmen are going to look back at the groom.

7. This pose is what I call the “walking pose”. That’s right, I’ll just ask the gentlemen to slowly walk towards the camera while looking at each other.

8. This last pose is simply individual portraits of the groom with each groomsman.

And there you have it: how to photograph the groomsmen portraits! These are my 8 core poses to photographing the groom and the groomsmen. By having this system in place, I no longer have to worry about what I am going to ask the guys to do next, or what poses I should try.

If you read my blog post about how to shoot the bridal party portraits, you already know that I shoot each pose both horizontally and vertically and also have my second shooter take photos of the same poses from a different angle. So, in the end, I’ll easily have around 24 photos of the groom+groomsmen to deliver to my clients.

I hope this helped and feel free to let me know in the comment box below if you’d like for me to share my core poses for shooting the bride+bridesmaids.

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