Photographic Styles
Photographers will use many different terms to describe their photographic styles and sometimes, misused terms only confuse people. From the get go, any photograph is either posed or it isn't! I'll briefly touch on a few terms and their suitability for wedding photography applications.
Editorial photography: photographs made to illustrate a story or idea within the context of a magazine or newspaper. These are usually assigned by the magazine or newspaper and this approach can include images which are posed or not and the subjects may be actively or passively prompted. Such a wide ranging category is obviously used for photographing weddings!
Photojournalism: this is a subset of editorial photography. Photographs made in this context are accepted as a truthful documentation of a news story presented primarily through photographs. The subjects are never posed nor prompted in order for the image to retain its integrity! The photojournalists effectiveness depends upon their ability to avoid interfering with any eventual outcome and/or the subject's behavior. This approach is used throughout the wedding day, whenever the photographer manages to remain "invisible". Wedding photojournalism, as it has been called for the last 30 years, is the style used to deliver the most poignant images. It's also the most challenging and my personal favorite.
Even though anyone can go around taking shots of people mingling, being able to anticipate and capture fleeting emotion or decisive moments, not to mention the need to know when and where to stand to capture them, is an art that takes many years of experience to be effective! The unobtrusiveness of photojournalism and candid, which I'll discuss next, leaves no footprints on your schedule and makes photography revolve around you!
Candid photography is "snapshot photography" that focuses on spontaneity and involves capturing people living an event. It too, falls within the editorial category. Even though not posed, the subjects may be actively or passively prompted with the presence of a camera or verbal comment. This is the most commonly used style to cover wedding events.
Because the candid style is not posed, it frees everyone to move about and mingle with everyone else. Other "buzz" words commonly used to describe this approach are documentary and reportage.
Classic or Traditional wedding photography refers to pre-planned and posed portraiture and most people automatically think "Formal Portraits" but it also includes contemporary variants such as glamour (emphasizing bride) and fashion (emphasizing clothing). Architectural (emphasizing venue) and still life images (emphasizing details) also fall on this side of the scale hence, it would be a mistake to assume that such a broad style with so many variants could ever be passé, as many like to refer to it! Remember, classic also means timeless and your photographer's abilities must allow him/her keep it that way! Claiming it as passé might be a hint of inadequate understanding or ability or both!
Because the classical/traditional style is structured, a slower approach is necessary. Time needed depends on subject matter, location and lighting/set up conditions. Unlike the cookie cutter approach, time spent composing each image does not fall into the one size fits all category! Additionally, because of the variety of styles within this style, the photographer's creativity can flourish. Glamourous images for example, the kind commonly found in contemporary magazines are always popular with brides. Fashion is what brides and bride's maids dream of their entire lives hence, ignoring this aspect of wedding photography is like playing tennis without a racket! Images for these variations are created by using illustrative photography (staged set-ups) to bring out the best in everyone's look, the venue's attributes and various other details to ultimately reveal your event's style. All of these require a high level of artistic and technical skill, a great sense of fashion and design, in order to deliver innovative, predictable and desirable results. The drawback is its dependence on time allocation, forcing your wedding day's scheduled events to revolve around photography!
Of course, part of the classic/traditional category wouldn't be complete without family and bridal party shots, also known as formals. Totally predictable and quickly boring for all involved, but necessary! They're a great opportunity to record family members of all ages, something that in time, will prove invaluable! This style requires a specific skill set (portraiture) and a great background so, you should read the location page. It should also be kept to within a strict time limit, ie the list! Once the pro has shot through your list, shutterbugs who have impatiently gathered around and can't wait to get their own, will now have their chance, while the bride and groom move to another location for more creative shots!
Because the photographer you hire is on your meter, you can ask for any type or number of specific group/family shots you want! However, keep this important point in mind:
A portrait-a-thon is going to rob everyone of beautiful moments that could be going on all around and prevents your photographer from capturing them!
Unless you've allowed enough time for them, they'll cut into the shots that originally attracted you to your photographer in the first place!
Notably, the most renowned wedding photographers usually allocate no more than 15mins to these types of photos, that way, they can focus on what truly made them masters of the trade! They accomplish this by doing a couple (literally) of large group shots! It doesn't mean that 15 minutes is the magic one size fits all kind of deal, but you get the point!
Digitally captured images can be converted from color to black and white for printing regardless of style used. Black and white is making a huge come back, its timeless feel creates a style all by itself. It produces highly engaging images, so don't underestimate or neglect its impact on your album content! Another great advantage of black and white is that, if the backgrounds on location are less than optimal (color conflicts or lack of color) black and white is a great way to eliminate most distractions.
What's my approach & style ?
In my opinion, an event as complex as a wedding day, requires all styles and their variants to be used in a timely manner, however, because I don't like to impose a style, I adapt my approach to my client's preferences.
Ability & Flexibility are Key ! 