I would love to be a funny person and just be able to naturally get this out of people, but I am not, so I have to just say to them "Okay now I want you to laugh for me." Most times people aren't very good at laughing (in a way that photographs nicely and doesn't make them look bad), so I give my couples a little tutorial on how to laugh in a pretty way at the beginning of the session. It's hard to describe, but basically I explain to them that when you laugh naturally, you don't just stare at someone and open your mouth (which is what so many people do when you tell them to fake laugh), you actually look around, look down, look off to the side, etc. I tell my clients not to look up, because then I will get the underside of their chin, and everyone hates that angle of themselves. Often I will say "Okay, Bride I want you to stare at his shoulder and laugh and Groom I want you to stare at her and laugh" and that usually results in a really pretty shot.

As I'm typing this I'm thinking of a bunch of my photog friends who would say that this is awful and against everything they stand for and how fake it is to force laughing, and I understand that. However 9 out of 10 times the laughing shot is one of the clients' favorite images. They look at it later and smile, because seeing themselves looking so happy in the photo makes them happy in the present, and that's all that matters to me!