To kick off the new blog section of the website it seems like a good idea to have a post which will hopefully engage readers and get people commenting – some sort of debate. With that in mind, let’s consider the different styles of wedding photography available.
Traditional wedding photography tends to be formal in style, with pictures of the couple, with and without various family members, the best man, bridesmaids and so on, usually posing on the steps of the church or registry office.
Over the last few years however, new styles of wedding photography have emerged. Some photographers adopt a fine art style, focusing on detailed and exacting composition, while others adopt a more free-form approach, treating the wedding like a news event and capturing images of moments throughout the day. In this style of wedding photo, images are likely to be taken of the guests, and anybody or anything that catches the photographer’s eye, rather than just concentrating on the couple, building a more complete picture of the day as a whole.
The arguments for classical wedding photography are basically that it pleases the older generation, produces guaranteed results and no surprises. You have a known quality and a good photographer can obtain very good results by organising the positioning, the body language and so on, and control lighting and composition. Sceptics might argue however that this is just a record of the clothes worn on a certain day, or that it is dull and boring and lacks creativity. When looking back years later, formal photographs may not convey emotions and memories – just artificial posing.
On the other hand reportage photography records what is happening in real time on a spontaneous basis and gives more flavour of the day, it brings out the emotions and will produce a unique album about the function. It is not the photographer’s idea of what should be but a series of cameos which should be much more interesting. It catches people off guard and one can pick up all the side shows and interesting sub-plots and it brings the whole day to life. The events of the day dictate the images captured, which represent things as they actually occur, rather than only getting artificial, posed pictures. A wedding album compiled in this style will have a natural narrative, and tell the visual story of the wedding day from start to finish.
So, readers, where do you stand? Which is better, formal wedding photography or a more modern reportage style?