How To Take A Perfect Wedding Picture

You look damned good! Your hair is just right, your beard is trimmed (or you just went to the bar­ber for your first—and cer­tain­ly not last—professional shave). You got your coif on. But when it comes time to take a pic­ture, you end up look­ing like a half-wit­ted mar­mot on the way to a funer­al.

Remem­ber Chandler’s engage­ment pho­tos from Friends? Don’t be a Chan­dler. Here are top tips from Pix­il Studio’s Bryan Grant, a pro­fes­sion­al wed­ding pho­tog­ra­ph­er that’s shot over 300 wed­dings.

THE BRIDE COMES FIRST

Men come second—if at all—when it comes to the wed­ding pick. If she looks good, you’ll look good. Make her feel beau­ti­ful, sexy, gor­geous on the day of the shoot. The gen­er­al “you look amaz­ing” some­times isn’t enough – after all, she’s gonna hear that like 20 times in the next two hours. Think specifics, ask ques­tions, be inter­est­ed. “Wow, your hair looks great. Who did it? You should wear it like that more often.” “I love the way your shoul­ders look in that dress.” Think Austin Pow­ers with­out the randi­ness. Her smile will make all the dif­fer­ence. A lit­tle sug­ar boost before the shoot–especially nat­ur­al sug­ars like fruit or cham­pagne and straw­ber­ries will lend a healthy glow to her skin.

TIME THE SHOT

You are actu­al­ly taller and skin­nier in the morn­ing. So if you are an ear­ly bird, con­sid­er a shoot some­time in the AM. Some guys are a lit­tle puffy-faced in the morning–a cool com­press can get the bags out from your eyes. Through­out the day, your body gets heav­ier (and puffi­er) from salt intake. Lim­it the salt for after­noon ses­sions and get your body mov­ing with a brisk walk–don’t run, you don’t want to sweat through your killer threads.

POSE IT RIGHT

Make love to the cam­era. But do your best to relax and be your­self. The clas­sic pos­ture puts one foot for­ward with your shoul­ders turned slight­ly. Avoid­ing hav­ing your shoul­ders and hips square to the camera–unless you want to look like a Sun­day morn­ing line­backer. Instead, turn them up to 45 degrees, and look right into the cam­era. The cam­era should always be slight­ly high­er than you or even to avoid the dread­ed dou­ble-chin (known in the biz as the Jab­ba the Hutt or Vince Vaughn).

CAN I WEAR MAKEUP?

Absolute­ly not—unless your name is Robert Smith or you’re doing a Kiss-themed wed­ding. Trust that the pho­tog­ra­ph­er will cor­rect out the lit­tle blem­ish­es using the wiz­ard-like smudge tool in Pho­to­shop.

TAKE IT SERIOUS – BUT NOT TOO SERIOUS

Don’t chew gum and don’t talk while you’re tak­ing pho­tos. Bryan Grant assures us that you will look like an idiot if you do. You can play with “give me big eyes, lit­tle lips, work it, work it!” between shots to light­en the mood. Con­sid­er at least a hand­ful of fun­ny shots to high­light your unique sense of humor.

LIGHTING MATTERS

Avoid sidelight–it can cast cru­el shad­ows and has been known to cre­ate the dread­ed Kar­dashi­an effect. Instead either back­light the shot (and use a pro­fes­sion­al flash) or front light it. If you’re espe­cial­ly squin­ty, con­sid­er a back­lit shot with fill flash.

CONSIDER MULTIPLE LOOKS

You are a nuanced man. A man of the world. A man with deep thoughts, real feel­ings and plen­ty of expe­ri­ence. The kind of guy that has way more than just one look. Cre­ate a sophis­ti­cat­ed “Bond­sian” look for the rehearsal din­ner shots with a vel­vet din­ner jack­et, take it for­mal on the wed­ding day with a black notch lapel tux, and air your cool sophis­ti­ca­tion for the recep­tion in a trimmed-down shark­skin suit. Also, take a few seri­ous heart­felt shots and a few play­ful ones. These mul­ti­ple looks will give your wed­ding pho­tos a sophis­ti­ca­tion and chic that will tran­scend time. After all, you don’t fol­low trends, you set them.

Look­ing great cer­tain­ly helps when it comes to tak­ing your wed­ding pic­tures. Gen­er­a­tion Tux lets you cus­tomize your look and sam­ple your cloth­ing before the big day, so you’re sure to stun them all when the time comes.