Questions about weddings
Absolutely! I can provide answers to common wedding-related questions.
Understanding both styles of how a photographer works and edits photos will be critical to you enjoying your wedding day.
Firstly the photographers style of shooting, Secondly, the editing style
Tip #1
Examine Their Portfolio
the best place to start when trying to understand their style
Tip #2
Understand The photographers style
how they shoot. Do they prefer to blend into the background or do they actively direct scenes.
Tip #3
Look at Their Editing Style
some photographers may prefer a 'light and airy' feel, while others lean towards a 'dark and moody' aesthetic.
Shooting Style
How a photographer approaches documenting your wedding is known as their shooting style. This approach greatly shapes the atmosphere of your celebration, affecting not only the captured images but also the interactions between you, your guests, and your photographer.
When considering the shooting style, the main thing to consider is defining how much of a relaxed experience you want verses, the desire for an extensive, glamorous photo collection.
The more images you desire and the more significant amount of glamour you aspire for in these photos, the more investment of time and effort you’ll need to make. This could involve posing for multiple shots, changing locations or outfits, and spending a significant part of your wedding day on photography. Therefore, it’s essential to align your expectations with the shooting style of your chosen photographer.
To help even further, here is a difficulty level to understand how much effort you need to put in to get the shots you might be looking for.
Photojournalistic / Candid / Documentary
In this approach, the photographer acts as an observer, capturing candid moments as they happen naturally. They don’t interfere with the events but instead, try to document the raw emotions and genuine interactions. This can make your photos feel more personal and dynamic.
Traditional / Posed / Guided
This style involves more direction from the photographer to ensure they capture all the important moments and people. The photographer would guide you and your guests into poses for group shots, portraits, and key moments like cutting the cake or first dance.
In most cases, a combination of documentary and posed styles is the way to go. A professional photographer will know when to uses both at the right times.
Fine Art / Modelling / photographers style
This style gives the photographer creative freedom to turn each shot into a piece of art. They focus on creating visually stunning images, often using unique angles, creative lighting, or exciting compositions. This style is often the most aggressive, and it has been known to wear out brides and grooms who weren’t ready to put in the extra hours and effort in front of the camera.
It can also cut into time spent with family and friends, often making the day pass like a blur without really getting to sit down, look around and enjoy the moment.
Be sure to ask your wedding photographer how they capture images, and challenge them in the pre-booking meeting about what they will strive towards accomplishing.
Let them know what you want to experience and what you want to look back on. Hopefully, by reading this shooting style guide, you will know what to talk about, but here are some questions you could ask to spur the conversation forward.
- How would you describe your approach to shooting a wedding?
- How do you handle different lighting conditions, especially if the weather is unpredictable on our wedding day?
- How much direction do you provide for posed shots?
- How do you handle specific photo requests or shot lists?
- Ultimate guide to wedding day etiquette for photographers
Editing Style
The post-production phase, where a photographer edits the images, and defines the look and feel of your wedding photos. The style is tied in with the shooting style, but significantly handled by how they choice to edit the photos in a post-editing software like Adobe Photoshop.
This editing process can dramatically alter the ambience and emotional impact of the photos. While it may be challenging to describe editing styles due to the broad range of options, it’s a crucial aspect of a photographer’s craft.
Perusing the photographer’s portfolio is a great way to understand their editing style and see if it aligns with your vision for your wedding.
Remember, you do have an opportunity to discuss the photographers style editing photos even after the wedding day has passed. Many photographers provide a sneak peek of your wedding photos, sharing a selection of 10 to 30 highlight images in the days following the event. This preview allows you to evaluate the editing style and put forward any specific requests. However, once the photographer begins the task of editing the entire gallery – potentially consisting of hundreds or even thousands of images – it becomes significantly more challenging to accommodate changes. Thus, it’s important to communicate your preferences early in the process.
Filmic
This style aims to mimic the look of film photography with its characteristic color tones and grain. Images edited in this style often have a nostalgic, timeless feel.
Clean / Classic
This photographers style is more minimalistic, aiming to keep colors accurate and vibrant. The goal is to create photos that are beautiful yet realistic.
Moody
This style typically involves heavier editing to create images with high contrast, less saturation, and a focus on darker tones. It can create a dramatic and emotional feel to your images.
When it comes to typical wedding photography, especially those set in outdoor, natural settings or rustic venues, certain editing styles are more commonly used to complement the surroundings and evoke a certain mood. A common style is the sepia tone colour palette, the “light and airy”.
The “light and airy” style is often favoured for daytime outdoor weddings, where the abundant natural light is leveraged to create dreamy, ethereal images. This style is characterized by soft, pastel colors, gentle shadows, and a general emphasis on light, lending a romantic, almost fairy-tale-like quality to the pictures.
Light and airy / Desaturdated yellows and false greens
The final style we’re going to touch upon is widely prevalent among contemporary wedding photographers. Its appeal lies in its timeless, classic aesthetic, which is designed to withstand the test of time.
Aiming to remain unaffected by the ever-changing whims of fashion phases. As such, it’s favoured by those desiring a lasting charm that continues to captivate long after the wedding day.
its the style that aims to have timeless classic look, and proves equally as hard to describe
The “desaturated yellows” editing approach to photographers style, perhaps, is one of the most difficult styles to define due to its widespread use and unique adaptations by modern wedding photographers. As professional photographers like to incorporate their individualistic touches, this style embodies a diverse spectrum of impressions. Each photographer also like to name their style differently, reflecting the distinctive interpretation and application of this approach in their work.
Technically it’s classified as “desaturating yellows”, by the team here at AJTaylor Images because that’s how you get it when you edit in Photoshop.
Viewed from a less technical perspective, the dislike towards yellow in wedding photos, except for sunset snaps, has a rationale behind it. Yellow can often evoke a sense of discomfort or sickness, and an overabundance can lend an unnatural, ‘oompa loompa’ hue to skin tones.
A bet you don’t want to look like you are from willy wonka!?
To achieve more flattering skin tones, desaturation is a favourable approach. This technique may create images that don’t look like what you remember on the day, turning off the true colours of the day, but this minimalistic touch enhances the distinctiveness of your wedding photos.
After all, these are no ordinary pictures, they are unique memories you’ll never recreate, thus deserving an unparalleled visual treatment.
With all that said, it’s your wedding and you get the choice to have your wedding photos the way you want them, by picking the photographer who is best fit for you.
Despite all the technical things we can talk about, at the end of the day, if you like the photographer’s portfolio, then your going to like what they can do for your special day.
Looking for something else
A list of things to consider when getting the right wedding photographer for you.
