A Couple Photoshoot in Paris That Actually Feels Like You
One of the things I hear most often before a couple photoshoot in Paris is: “We’re not good in front of the camera.” Usually followed by: “We have no idea how to pose.”
The good news is that you’re not supposed to.
Unless you happen to be professional models, knowing where to put your hands, how to stand or what to do when somebody points a camera at you isn’t a skill I expect you to bring to a photoshoot. Guiding you is part of my job. What I want from you is much simpler: to come as you are and give yourselves a little time to forget about the camera.
Because my goal isn’t to make you look like people who are good at posing. It’s to make photographs in which you recognise yourselves.
You don’t need to know how to pose
There is a difference between guiding a couple and arranging them into a succession of poses. I guide a lot, but I pose very little.
During your session, I might choose where we stand because I’ve noticed beautiful light, suggest that you walk towards me, bring you closer together or slightly adjust a position that isn’t working visually. I’m never going to place you somewhere beautiful and simply tell you to “act natural” — there are few things less natural than being explicitly asked to look natural in front of a camera.
Instead, I give you enough direction that you don’t have to wonder what you’re supposed to be doing, and then I leave room for something real to happen. Very often, the photograph I’m interested in comes just after the direction: when one of you laughs, when your attention shifts back to each other, when a hand moves instinctively or when you briefly forget that I’m there.
That balance between direction and observation is at the heart of the way I photograph couples.
Your relationship is the starting point
Every couple has their own way of being together. Some people are incredibly tactile, others much less so. Some tease each other constantly; others have a quieter intimacy. One person might love being photographed while their partner would happily disappear into the pavement the moment a camera appears.
None of these dynamics is more photogenic than another, and I don’t want to replace yours with one that I think will “look better” in photographs.
It’s also why I don’t rely on a catalogue of traditional couple poses. Those poses can carry a surprising number of assumptions about relationships: who leads, who follows, who holds whom, who is supposed to appear stronger or softer. This matters particularly in my work with queer couples, but it shouldn’t really be specific to queer photography. I’m not interested in assigning roles based on your gender, your clothes or what your relationship looks like from the outside.
If a certain dynamic genuinely belongs to you, of course it can appear in the photographs. The difference is that I want to photograph what already exists between you rather than decide what your relationship should look like.
What if you’re genuinely uncomfortable in photographs?
Tell me. It’s useful information, not a problem I need you to solve before the session.
If there is a side of your face you particularly dislike, if public displays of affection make you uncomfortable, if there are certain kinds of physical contact you don’t enjoy or if you’ve had a bad experience with photography before, I would rather know. The same is true if the two of you have completely different levels of confidence in front of the camera.
It means I can adapt the way I work instead of assuming that the same directions will feel right for everybody.
We also don’t need to start with the most intimate portrait of the session. Usually, we begin simply. We walk, talk and explore the location while I photograph what is happening and gradually introduce more direction. Most people need a little time before they stop being aware of the camera, and I build that time into the way I work.
You don’t need to arrive feeling confident. Comfort can develop during the session.
Paris is the setting, not the main character
Of course, if you’re booking a couple photoshoot in Paris, the city matters. The Seine, café terraces, bridges, Haussmannian architecture, quieter streets and the Eiffel Tower appearing unexpectedly between buildings give us an extraordinary playground.
But I don’t think your photographs should become a checklist of Paris landmarks.
If every decision is based on recreating images you’ve already seen on Instagram or Pinterest, it becomes very easy to make beautiful photographs of Paris with two people standing inside them. I want to do the opposite: photograph the two of you, with Paris becoming part of the story.
That might mean choosing one or two iconic locations, but it can also mean walking through a neighbourhood you like, stopping somewhere along the Seine or finding a quieter street with beautiful light. A session can be elegant and editorial, intimate and understated, playful or a mixture of all of those things.
I’m much more interested in finding the version of Paris that works for you than rushing across the city trying to reproduce somebody else’s photoshoot.
What actually happens during a couple photoshoot in Paris?
Before we meet, we talk about what you’re drawn to and what you want these photographs to feel like. From there, I can help you choose the right location and timing according to the season, the light and the atmosphere you want.
You’re also welcome to send me references. I find them useful, not because we’re going to reproduce somebody else’s photograph, but because they tell me something about your taste. Perhaps what you really love is the movement, the intimacy, the fashion influence, the composition or the cinematic feeling of an image. I can take that information and translate it into something that belongs to you.
During the session itself, my approach moves between documentary photography and something more editorial. There will be moments when I deliberately work with architecture, light or composition and give you more precise direction. Then there will be moments when I step back and simply watch.
Both belong in the same gallery.
A carefully composed portrait can sit beside the photograph of your partner making you laugh five seconds later. The wind can ruin the hair we just arranged and create a better image. A conversation between two photographs can become the photograph.
That unpredictability is part of what I love about photographing people.
You don’t have to become someone else to be photogenic
You don’t need perfect weather, an empty Paris or an elaborate wardrobe. You certainly don’t need to practise poses in front of a mirror before meeting me.
Clothes can help create a particular atmosphere, and I’m always happy to discuss outfits beforehand, but the most important thing is that you can move in them and still recognise yourself. The same principle applies to everything else about the session: the photographs should be shaped around you, not the other way around.
Because ten years from now, I don’t want the only thing you remember when looking at these images to be how beautiful Paris was.
I want you to recognise the way you looked at each other, the gestures you didn’t realise you had, the laugh that happened between two more intentional portraits and the particular way you were together at that point in your lives.
Paris deserves to look beautiful in your photographs.
But you should still be the reason they matter.
Planning a couple photoshoot in Paris?
Whether you’re visiting Paris together, celebrating an anniversary, planning a proposal or engagement, having a pre-wedding session or simply want to document this particular chapter of your life, you don’t need any experience in front of a camera.
You just need to arrive as yourselves. I’ll take care of the rest.