Photography: Engagement Photos

When it came time to take engagement photos of my daughter and her fiance, I wanted to take the photos. We have a lovely wedding photographer but I really wanted to try my hand at their photos. I love to take candid photos of the family and truly believed if I didn't get a good photo, I had plenty of time to rectify it. Besides, my daughter and her finance are very handsome and couldn't take a bad picture if they tried. But how could I capture the sweetness of their relationship when I have a tough time capturing good Beef Stroganoff pictures?

So several weeks ago we had the loveliest snow fall, what a beautiful backdrop the snow would make for those two lovebirds. With the snow freshly fallen, I set the camera up and we took some beautiful pictures.

Thankfully, my neighbor had his flag out!!!

No matter how beautiful the background is and the subjects are, the photos could always use some weaking.
 


Pretty in color..

but I transformed it into black and white, added some softness around the edges and punched up the shadows. Much more dramatic and sweeter.

The color photos, I added more shadow, punched up the intensity of the color and sharpened them to make them more dramatic.

Before:

After:

A smiling photo.....

We tried a snow ball fight....

And I had them make snow angels.

A black and white to show off the ring.....

A picture of them after the snow fight.... but sadly, the car is in the background.

 So I cropped it and intensified the color.... much better.

Playing with the dog....

And a Mr. Darcy Sandwich...

All in all, I think the photos turned out very pretty. I am happy with them and I truly think they are happy with them too.

Wait until spring, we will take some photos tip toeing through the tulips!