A 35mm Film Engagement Photoshoot in Rome
Aditi booked this photoshoot months before coming to Rome because she already knew she wanted the photographs taken on 35mm film. She and her fiancé had recently become engaged and were visiting from Brooklyn before returning to the United States, where they were preparing for their wedding.
That made the starting point very simple. We did not need an elaborate concept or a strict list of locations. We met in the morning and started walking through Rome, talking along the way and stopping whenever the light, a street or something happening between them caught my attention. What began as an engagement photoshoot gradually became something closer to spending a morning together while I photographed what unfolded.
Aditi and her fiancé were playful from the beginning. They laughed easily, moved constantly and seemed very comfortable around each other, so there was little reason for me to direct them too much. I could concentrate on observing rather than trying to manufacture moments.
A Morning Walking Through Rome
We started around the Colosseum, which appears in some of the first black and white photographs, but I did not want the monument to dominate the story. Rome offers much more once you stop treating it as a collection of landmarks and simply begin walking through it.
As we moved into smaller streets, the photographs became more personal. We stopped near old walls, greenery and the kind of slightly imperfect corners of Rome that I usually find more interesting than polished locations. At one point Aditi almost disappeared into a wall covered with plants and pink flowers. Her lace scarf also became a recurring detail throughout the morning, sometimes tied around her head, sometimes loose, sometimes moving as she turned toward her fiancé.
Some photographs were more intentional, while others came from whatever was already happening. I might choose where we stopped or suggest that they stay somewhere for a moment, but I prefer not to control what comes after that. Once people have enough space to behave naturally, small gestures usually give me much more than complicated posing ever could. That was especially true with these two.
Why I Photographed the Session on 35mm Film
Aditi had specifically looked for a photographer who worked with film, so analogue photography was not simply an extra element added to the session. It was one of the reasons she had booked me in the first place.
For me, working as a 35mm film photographer in Rome changes the pace of a photoshoot in a very useful way. A roll has a limited number of frames, there is no screen to check after every photograph, and there is less temptation to repeat the same moment until everything looks technically perfect. I photograph what I see, advance the film and continue walking.
That slower rhythm suited Aditi and her fiancé. Their photographs did not need to be overly polished because their energy was already enough. In some frames one of them moves slightly out of focus. In another, her engagement ring becomes more important than their faces. There are photographs where they overlap, move unexpectedly or laugh in the middle of whatever I had originally imagined for the frame. Those are often the photographs I remember most.
I used both colour and black and white film during the morning. The colour photographs hold onto the details of the city and their clothes, the greenery, the warm Roman walls, Aditi’s red nails and the soft colours of summer. The black and white frames feel quieter and concentrate more on expressions, movement and the way they interact with each other. Using both gave the same morning two slightly different voices without changing the way we were working.
Coffee, Playing Cards and a Break From the Photoshoot
After walking for a while, we sat down at an outdoor table. I like allowing time for things like this during couple sessions because the photoshoot immediately becomes less performative. Nobody has to wonder what to do with their hands when there is coffee on the table or a conversation already happening.
Aditi and her fiancé had brought a deck of cards with them, so they started playing. That small decision ended up becoming one of my favourite parts of the session. Their attention moved away from the camera almost immediately. Cards travelled across the table, expressions changed, hands overlapped and the game gave them something completely normal to concentrate on.
We had coffee, and later there was some wine. Aditi used a little mirror to put on lipstick while the cards were still scattered across the table. There are photographs of espresso cups, glasses, hands, cards and the small objects that surrounded them during that part of the morning.
None of those details were planned, but together they say a lot about what the day actually felt like. That is something I particularly enjoy about film photography. It can make a small, ordinary detail feel important without turning it into something dramatic. Years later, the photograph of a coffee cup or a deck of cards might bring back just as much as the photograph with the Colosseum behind you.
An Engagement Photoshoot That Still Felt Like Them
This was technically an engagement photoshoot in Rome. Aditi and her fiancé were newly engaged, her ring appears throughout the series, and they were heading back to the United States to continue preparing for their wedding. But I do not think engagement photography needs to constantly remind you that it is engagement photography.
The ring can be part of the story without appearing in every frame. Rome can be visible without every photograph needing a famous monument. The session can mark an important moment in your life without becoming a performance of what an engaged couple is supposed to look like.
What interested me more was how these two were together. The way Aditi laughed when her fiancé said something to her, the way they walked, the game they played, the little breaks between photographs, and the moments when they seemed to forget about the camera completely. Those things are harder to plan, which is exactly why I want to leave room for them.
Aditi had also chosen film because she already loved the look and feeling of analogue photography. That meant there was no need to imitate film afterwards or try to reproduce its imperfections digitally. We simply photographed the morning on actual film and waited to see what came back from the lab.
There is something very appropriate about that uncertainty, especially for photographs documenting a period of life that is itself about moving toward something new.
35mm Film Photography for Couples in Rome
I photograph engagements, proposals, elopements and couple sessions in Rome using both digital cameras and analogue film. Some couples prefer to combine the two, while others contact me specifically because they want their story photographed mostly or entirely on 35mm film.
The approach itself remains quite simple. I do not think a good couple photoshoot needs to feel like a production. Rome already gives us enough to work with, from quiet streets and old façades to cafés, plants, traffic, shadows and all the slightly chaotic details that make the city what it is.
We can walk, talk and stop when something feels right. We can sit down for coffee halfway through. You can bring something that is part of your relationship, even if it is only a deck of cards.
The photographs usually become more personal when the photoshoot stops feeling like one.
How Does It Work?
- Contact me and then let’s schedule a call so we get to know each other by talking about your needs and my services in detail.
- Once we agree on terms I send you a confirmation email and ask you to pay the first half of the total agreed amount so I fix the date.
- You have fun and I take care of the rest with my camera.
