We don't usually book a photo session for no reason. We photograph ourselves to celebrate a moment in our lives, remember an accomplishment, document our family as it is right now, or create images for a particular purpose.
An engagement session is no different.
Before thinking about locations, outfits, or poses, I think there is a more interesting question: what does being engaged mean to you, and what do you want to remember about this moment in your life?
I have photographed many couples over the years, and I understand why some people wonder whether engagement photos are necessary beyond having something beautiful to post on social media.
They aren't necessary. But there are some very practical reasons why an engagement session can be valuable.
1. You get to know your photographer
If your engagement photographer will also photograph your wedding, the session allows you to experience what it is actually like to work together.
How easily can you communicate what you want? Do you feel comfortable being guided? Does your photographer understand what matters to you and translate it into photographs?
By the wedding day, you already know how the photographer works, and the photographer knows much more about you.
2. Natural-looking photographs usually involve direction
Something I have always found interesting about engagement photography is that photographs can look completely spontaneous even though there was quite a lot of direction behind them.
I guide couples throughout a session, but the objective isn't to make everyone perform the same poses.
You have your own way of holding hands, hugging, walking together, or making each other laugh. I can create the situation, but eventually you make it yours.
That is where the photographs begin to feel like you.
3. I learn how you naturally interact
Most of us don't spend our normal days walking through beautiful streets while being romantic with each other every minute.
An engagement session isn't completely spontaneous, and it doesn't need to pretend to be. What matters is what happens inside the direction.
I may suggest where to stand or how to move, but every couple interprets that differently. Those little differences tell me a lot about how you naturally interact.
If I am also photographing your wedding, that knowledge becomes particularly useful. There will be moments on the wedding day when I cannot direct anything. Knowing how you move and respond to each other helps me anticipate those moments.
4. You can create portraits that may be difficult on the wedding day
A wedding day has a schedule. An engagement session has much more freedom.
We can choose a location because you love it, photograph at a particular time for the light, walk farther than would be practical during a wedding, or simply spend more time creating portraits without thinking about what needs to happen next.
It gives us possibilities that may not exist on the wedding day.
5. The photographs can have a life beyond the session
Of course, you can use your engagement photographs on social media. But they can also become Save the Dates, wedding stationery, photographs for your wedding website, a guest book, your seating plan, an album or artwork for your home. And sometimes they don't need a practical use at all.
Years later, their purpose may simply be to bring you back to the period when you were engaged and preparing for everything that came afterwards.
Think about where you want the photographs to live
This is something I still find useful when planning any photography session.
If you already know that you want a large photograph for a particular wall in your home, for example, that can influence the location, light, clothing, composition, and even whether we create something horizontal or vertical.
If you want a collection for an album, I will think differently about variety and storytelling.
The purpose of the photographs can influence the photographs themselves.
And all of this starts with a conversation.
Joanna Pantigoso
Amsterdam photographer
