Golden Hour Maternity Portraits At The Elizabeth Gamble Garden

Golden Hour Maternity Portraits At The Elizabeth Gamble Garden – How to Take Natural Looking, Candid Maternity Portraits

I believe that maternity portraits should look and feel natural, candid and feel unposed. In my experience, people enjoy taking these types of portraits rather than ones that are overly posed or staged. Along with poses, the time of day the portraits are taken is also important. Golden hour is the 60 minute window of time before the sun sets. At this time of the day, the lighting is soft and flattering and the colors of the sun are bright and vibrant. Many people consider golden hour to be the best time to take outdoor portraits. Here are some recent golden hour maternity portraits at The Elizabeth Gamble Garden. As well as four useful tips to take candid and naturally looking maternity portraits.

Focus On You And Your Partner, Not The Camera

One way that you can pose naturally and candidly is by keeping your primary focus on your partner. Rather than looking right at the camera, I LOVE to capture portraits of you and your partner interacting. To do this, I will often times keep the poses conversational. I will either ask a question or have you give a response to a question about your partner. The responses to these conversations are typically very fun and candid and your smile appears more natural than a prompted smile.

Make Use of One or Two Props

Another great way to capture candid and natural looking portraits is by incorporating one or two props. Some of the most common props that couples use for maternity portraits are a pair of baby shoes or a sonogram. While props are a really nice addition to maternity portraits, I recommend using props in a limited amount of portraits. I typically will pose you and your partner with props in 3-5 poses. The rest of the session can be focused on poses without them.

Incorporate Movement

Another way that I take candid and naturally looking portraits is by incorporating movement. One of the most common ways that I do this is by taking “walking shots.” For these poses, I will position myself in the distance and capture you and your partner walking. This gives a candid “walk in the park” kind of feel to the images.

Signal What Is Important With Your Eyes And Hands

Last but not least, a subtle way that your portraits can appear natural and candid is by what you do with your eyes and your hands. The viewer of the images can understand what is important in the picture by these two things. This is why most of the pictures will have hands and your baby bump. Looking at your baby bump can also accomplish this. Along these same lines, looking off in the distance can also signal you are in deep thought – perhaps thinking of the moments your baby arrives 🙂

Hopefully these golden hour maternity portraits at The Elizabeth Gamble Garden have given you some ideas for your own maternity session. Thanks!