Digging Deeper: Wedding Photography Styles

Traditional/Classic Style:

We do not have any one style of photography. Every wedding presents various opportunities for different styles of photography. For example. Very small weddings where there is little interaction between the Bride & Groom and between the Bride & Groom with their handful of guests makes very little content for the journalistic style of photography. Especially when there is also no dancing and all the guests are simply sitting around the tables. A Bride with such a very small wedding and bridal party consisting of perhaps only two or three bridesmaids and that many groomsmen would have to agree to a LOT of posed photographs in order to have great looking photographs. To get great looking journalistic style photographs with such little genuine interaction would mean semi-posing and the photographer(s) creating some situations and photographing the spontaneous reactions at the anticipated moments. But while this may produce some great looking journalistic style photography, the Bride & Groom and everyone else in the photographs will remember that these images were actually contrived. For these reasons and more, Cherry and I shoot very small weddings in the traditional style.

Journalistic Style:

Than at the opposite end of the spectrum are the weddings with LOTS of people in the bridal party, hundreds of guests, music and dancing at the reception. With a Bride & Groom who are not shy to interact with all their family and friends, there is a lot of CONTENT for the photographer to switch to the journalistic style of photography. This is our favorite style of wedding photography! Capturing people celebrating the wedding, sharing the joy, laughs and genuine smiles and happy tears with their closest family and friends! Than there are also the genuine romantic moments of the Bride and Groom during their first dance as husband and wife. I love these opportunities to capture so many genuine and exciting moments of people having a wonderful time. For big weddings like this, you may expect to see John and Cherry shooting a lot more journalistic style photography.

Contemporary Style:

Whether the wedding is small or the wedding is very large, there is a "contemporary" style of photography which looks more dynamic and creative than simply straight shooting. This style of photography is very popular. It relies largely on tilted camera angles TO MAKE a dynamic composition. Some photographers also like to frame the subjects between foreground objects - leaving the distant subjects focused and the foreground objects out of focus. This technique often helps impart a journalistic look even though the subjects are sometimes obviously posed. But that's ok. It is acceptable and expected because this style breaks the mold and frees the Bride from the dreaded "ordinary" of the traditional and classic styles she does NOT want. Formal group shots and other posing of the bride & groom and wedding party are more "dynamic" and simply not your typical traditional style poses. All your formal group shots of family and relatives are traditional poses. If you view a LOT of samples of contemporary style photography, you will eventually notice, perhaps even feel, that the people in the photographs are a "secondary consideration". Sometimes it seems it was more important to the photographer to get a great tilted camera composition than to actually capture the people in the photograph and the actual context of the interaction between the people. If you find yourself looking at these photographs and paying more attention to the tilted composition rather than to the people and what is happening with the people, you might want to consider a modest use of this style of photography. In fact, most of the photographers who promote this style of photography do NOT have complete wedding albums of any one given wedding which tells the complete wedding story exclusively with this style of photography.

Creative Style:

Also beautiful images may be created from very small up to very large weddings with the creative style of photography. Creative style photography can be broad in its scope of subject matter. But it most popularly emphasizes close-ups of Wedding Day mementos such as the bouquet, bride's shoes, the rings, flower girl's basket, ring bearer's pillow and other things which are meaningful to the Bride and/or Groom. It is more obvious that this style of photography cannot tell the complete wedding story all by itself.

For all these reasons and more, I incorporate a variety of photography styles, some of which I have not addressed here, to photographically document the Wedding Day in a way which ultimately fulfills the expressed needs and desires of the Bride. Every wedding is unique. During our consultation with the Bride, we will discuss the styles of photography with the Bride and get to know the various styles she wants us to use as her Wedding Day unfolds. We will make recommendations to the Bride. Ultimately, it is the Wedding Day itself which tells us as photographers the amount of various styles to use to properly document the day . . . you don't want your photographers to dictate the day. But with proper pre-planning of the Wedding Day during our consultations with the Bride, we can help ensure the Bride receives the mixture of photography styles she would like for a well-balanced documentation of her special day.