How to ask for a second engagement photo session??

As long as you aren't asking for it for free it shouldn't be an issue. Be honest and say the photos are great, but I am not thrilled with my wardrobe choice and we would love a second shot at them. If you are worried that would come off badly you could always say you want something in a different season... "we would love shots with snow - they will reflect our winter wedding" or "we really want something done in spring now that we've thought about it... to offset our winter wedding photos."

In the long run as long as your checkbook is out he's probably not going to think twice about it.

Are you trying to ask for a second session for free? Or just a re-do, where you pay for it again? If you were unhappy with his photos/quality/work, then that's one thing to ask for a re-do for free. But you said the photos are good, you're just unhappy with yourself in them. That's not a valid reason for a free session. You did mention you were unhappy with acne... If fixing that alone might make you feel better, you can mention that and ask him if he could edit one or two photos to clear up your acne, and see if those results make you happier with the photos (and if so, maybe you can pay a nominal fee for editing all of them that way).

If fixing the acne alone would not help you feel better and you want a re-do to change clothes and do something different, then just send him a message with what you typed to us to him (mention you're willing to pay for another session). He won't be upset for your reasons since you're not complaining about the quality of his work.

I'm a photographer and I want all my clients to be happy. I'd hope if someone wasn't happy - for any reason - they would contact me and communicate that so I can try to make them happy I think an important lesson here too though is that you should try to be happy *with yourself*. Remind yourself that you're beautiful and your future spouse thinks you're beautiful as you are! If you feel beautiful and are comfortable during the session, that will shine through in photos

Just another thought. My daughter didn't like her engagement photos but they were done by a different photographer than they will use for the wedding due to location issues. Anyway, instead of doing another engagement shoot, she decided to hire a photographer to do some photos during their honeymoon in Italy!

ETA: she did end up using 1 photo for their Christmas cards and opted for a STD without a photo

I would just tell him that you did not like the way that you looked in the photos and ask if you could schedule another shoot. Be prepared to pay for it though, just because you do not like the photos he won't give you a session for free.

I didn't like about 50% of our engagement photos for the same reason. In some photos we just looked so awkward. I thought about requesting another shoot, but since I liked the other half of the photos I just left it be.

One thing to keep in mind is have the photographer take photos on your "better side". Most people have a side of their body that they feel looks better in photos, mine is my left side, and many of the photos taken for our engagement session were taken from the right, so on our wedding day for sure I will be relaying the message of taking photos from the left side.