DIYPhotography.net

Laya Gerlock is no stranger to the blog and has been one of the most prolific guest writers we ever had, always coming up with crazy ideas - 4 feet Ring light, CF carbon lens hood, putting stars in the model's eyes. Today he shares something that is between the realm of DIY and romance - how to make the perfect proposal in a photography studio. You'll have to read to the end to find out the answer to THE question...

So, I have been thinking of proposing to my girlfriend (for 5 years) for a very long time now. I have saved up for the perfect ring, but the problem was thinking of the best way to propose to her. I had seen a video where there were hanging pictures from the ceiling and thought that because we have so many pictures together and also being a photographer that this was the best way to propose to her. Showing different memories and stories of us together for the past 5 years. I had this planned for a very long time but didn't have a date on when I was going to propose until 3 days before I did it, so I needed to do everything in a rush. I had my home photography studio that was the perfect place to do the proposal.

First thing I did was to clean my studio and take down the seamless paper. My problem was thinking of a way to hang the pictures from the ceiling, I thought of buying a mesh and just hang the pictures from It but I wouldn't look to romantic, so I just went with tying a string from end to end of my studio, and tying lines in between of it.

I tried lighting my studio using the Modeling light of my studio strobes(which was the original plan to create some nice dramatic lighting), but there was something missing, luckily I still had some Christmas lights lying around. I dangled the Christmas lights from the string which made the place more romantic.

After that I printed about 100 pictures from our first picture together as a couple to our most recent picture. I was thinking of hanging all the 100 pictures but the back side didn't look so good so I went with 50 pictures back to back. I used nylon again to hang the pictures from the strings I tied and just taped it.

I wanted to make a video to upload on youtube of our engagement, so after doing all the preparations I still had time to take some quick video of the rings and the arrangement inside the studio.

I told her that before we had dinner I wanted to take some shots inside the studio because I finally finished one of my DIY projects, so I had her close her eyes. I played our theme song, then told her to open her eyes. I had my Dad and Sister take the still's and my bro-in-law take the video of the actual proposal. You can watch it here. In the End, she said YES :)

Real-time Engagement Session

About The Author

Laya Gerlock is a portrait photographer based in the Philippines. You can follow his work on his web page, follow him on Flickr and if you happen to come by Cubao Quezon, (To Manila, Philippines) he gives a great workshop!