The staircase does most of the work in the first half. It curves, so it pulls your eye along it whether you want that or not, and two people standing at the right point on that curve get introduced to the viewer by the architecture before they do anything at all. A’s gown was white and plain enough to read against all that marble, which matters more than it sounds like it should. Busy stone and a busy dress cancel each other out.

Most of these frames came from the ten or fifteen seconds after I stopped talking. I would set a position, which side the light fell on, where a hand went, how close they stood, and then get out of the way and let them talk to each other.

The second look changed the temperature of the whole session. Deep red velvet with beading at the shoulders, against grey stone and the warm interior light of the main hall, with S in black beside it giving every frame its anchor.

Color does something in a building like this that is hard to plan for on paper. The stone is cool and nearly colorless, so a red gown becomes the only warm thing in the picture and your eye has nowhere else to go. That is most of the trick, and it is why I ask about wardrobe before a session rather than after.

When couples ask where to photograph an engagement session downtown, the Old Courthouse comes up more often than almost anywhere else, and the reason is variety. A curved staircase, a columned hall, a rotunda, and several smaller corners, all within a few minutes of each other and all indoors, which in Cleveland between November and April is not a small thing.

It also photographs well at most hours, because the light is mostly interior. You are not racing a sunset. That takes the pressure off the schedule and leaves room for the part that actually decides how the pictures come out, which is the two of you getting comfortable in front of a camera.