Couples & love story
Couple session
Not engaged, not a wedding — an anniversary, a new city, or ten years with no photograph of the two of you.
What’s included
In this session
- 40 retouched photographs
- Two locations within walking distance
- Private online gallery within 48–72 hours
- Print release for personal use
With every session
- A vetted photographer who lives and works in your city
- Professional editing of every delivered photograph
- A private online gallery, delivered within 48–72 hours
- Weather rescheduling at no charge when the location is unusable
- Help choosing the spot, the hour and any permit
Photography inspiration
What couple session can look like
Licensed photographs by independent photographers, credited on the photo credits page — shown for inspiration, not as Northlight client sessions.
Where it happens
Popular couple session locations
Chosen for this session by the photographers who work each city. Each links to the full local guide.
The High Line, Gansevoort to 23rd Street
Planted walkways and the river light between buildings, photographed handheld at walking pace. Shoots there need prior approval from Friends of the High Line.
Couple session in New YorkHeisler Park, Laguna Beach
A clifftop path above coves and tide pools, so the second location is a staircase away rather than a drive.
Couple session in Los AngelesNature Boardwalk, Lincoln Park Zoo
A boardwalk around a prairie pond with the Gold Coast towers rising behind the reeds.
Couple session in ChicagoCrissy Field East Beach to the Warming Hut
A flat, level walk along the bay with the bridge growing in the frame, and two distinct settings within the 90 minutes.
Couple session in San FranciscoGeorgetown’s residential streets above M Street
Federal-era doorways and brick sidewalks, quiet on a weekday evening, for the walking frames that make up most of a couples gallery.
Couple session in Washington, DCCharlestown Navy Yard piers
Granite piers, the USS Constitution’s masts and the downtown skyline across the harbor, with room for two people to walk and talk on camera.
Couple session in Boston
Destinations
Couple session in your city
Available in 18 US cities and destinations.
- New YorkNew York
- Los AngelesCalifornia
- ChicagoIllinois
- San FranciscoCalifornia
- Washington, DCDistrict of Columbia
- BostonMassachusetts
- MiamiFlorida
- AtlantaGeorgia
- Dallas–Fort WorthTexas
- AustinTexas
- SeattleWashington
- DenverColorado
- San DiegoCalifornia
- NashvilleTennessee
- Las VegasNevada
- CharlestonSouth Carolina
- SavannahGeorgia
- SedonaArizona
Guides
Guides for couple session
Couple photo locations in New York, with the rules for each
Where couples in New York are photographed — Brooklyn waterfront, a botanic garden, a train terminal — and what each one requires, from nothing to a booked, escorted hour.
Read the guideThe Central Park photography guide: rules, gardens and the best hours
Central Park lets you photograph handheld or on a tripod without a permit — except in the Conservatory Garden. The rules, the permits, and when the park is empty.
Read the guideCouple photo locations in Miami beyond the beach: gardens, estates and streets
Vizcaya, the Deering Estate, Matheson Hammock and Wynwood: what each costs, who is allowed in the frame, and the hours that decide a Miami couple session away from the sand.
Read the guide
Related sessions
Also in couples & love story
About this session
For the ten years with no photograph of the two of you
- $325
- 90 min
- 40
- 18
This is the session for people who are not getting married and have not been photographed together since somebody else’s wedding. An anniversary, a new city, a move, or simply the realisation that every picture of the two of you is a selfie taken at arm’s length. It answers to nothing but itself, which is why it is shorter and cheaper than an engagement session and why nothing in it is cropped for a save-the-date.
Almost nobody is photogenic on command, so the session is built around doing things rather than holding poses. Walking, talking, being asked a question you have to actually think about — the photographs come from the half-second after an instruction rather than during it. The first ten minutes are stiff for everyone, including people who do this for a living, and they are not the ten minutes you will see.
Two locations within walking distance is the shape, and the walk between them is not dead time. A couple who has just been photographed formally for twenty minutes relaxes on the way to the next place, and the frames made in motion are frequently the ones that get printed. It is also why the session is ninety minutes rather than an hour: the useful part starts once the self-consciousness has worn off, and that takes about twenty minutes regardless of who you are.
Wear what you would wear to dinner somewhere you like rather than something bought for the occasion, and coordinate rather than match. Forty retouched photographs within 48 to 72 hours, a print release included, and from $325 agreed before you book. If there is a save-the-date to produce or a wedding website to fill, the engagement session is the one that is built for it and this one is not.
Questions about couple session
We are not photogenic together. Will this work?
Almost nobody is photogenic on command, which is why a couple session is built around doing things rather than posing. Walking, talking, being asked a question you have to think about — the photographs come from the half-second after an instruction, not during it. The first ten minutes are usually stiff for everyone and they are not the ten minutes you will see.
What is the difference between this and an engagement session?
Length, output and purpose. A couple session is ninety minutes in one area and delivers forty photographs that answer to nothing. An engagement session runs two hours across two locations with an outfit change and delivers sixty, cropped for save-the-dates and a wedding website. If there is no wedding to announce, this is the one that fits and it costs less.
What should we wear?
What you would wear to dinner somewhere you like, rather than something bought for the session. Coordinate rather than match — two people in identical white shirts read as a uniform. Solid mid-tones photograph best, and it is worth one of you choosing first so the other can work around it rather than both arriving in the same navy.
How soon do we get the photographs?
Within 48 to 72 hours, in a private online gallery at full resolution with a print release for personal use. Forty retouched photographs, with no per-image charge and nothing sold back to you afterwards — the number is agreed before the session rather than negotiated once you have seen them.
Next step
Ready to book couple session?
Tell us the city and the date. A coordinator replies within two hours with an available photographer and your exact price.