A guide to wedding photography styles.
(With pictures)
Choosing the right wedding photography style can significantly impact how your special day is captured, as each style brings with it a different approach in terms of what the photography brings on the day and a completely different look as well when all is said and done, and you’re flicking through your images.
Here are some of the best wedding photography styles:
Traditional wedding photography
Contemporary wedding photography
Documentary photography
Black and white wedding photography
Vintage and film wedding photography
Boudoir Wedding Photography
Creative Wedding Photography
Included below is a write up to discover each style and its intricate details.
Traditional Wedding Photography
Focus: Posing and formal portraits.
Style: Classic and timeless, often featuring posed group shots and family portraits.
Best for: Couples who value traditional wedding photography and want formal, posed images that they can frame and share.
What is traditional wedding photography?
Traditional wedding photography looks to capture posed photos of a wedding. It’s the kind of photo that typically gets framed, given as gifts to parents and grandparents. They are a good bet and chances are you’re going to like them.
Usually with this style of photography the photographer is a bit more involved, they’ll direct how people stand, will organise groups to get together to have their shots taken, and take a lead role during chunks of the wedding where people are having their photo taken. This is something a lot of couples like, and it’s really important to getting those shots that you’ll have framed for years to come.
Traditional wedding photography usually includes:
Posed pictures of the couple.
Individual portraits of each couple looking their best.
Posing of wedding party
Framed pictures with family and friends
Big group shot of whole wedding party
This will of course include some photos throughout the day, such as when the wedding party is getting ready, during the ceremony, and reception/evening. But usually the focus with traditional photos are those framed or posed shots.
What does Traditional wedding photography look like?
Traditional wedding photography often looks quite polished and edited. This can range from a whole host of techniques in post-production like removing blemishes, tweaking the lighting, and colour to techniques used during the shoot like using a flash. Every photographer brings their own style with these posed shots so it’s really important to look over their portfolio to make sure it aligns with how you want your photos to look. (see reference images at the bottom of this section)
What is contemporary wedding photography, and how is it different to traditional wedding photography?
Contemporary wedding photography promises to have more of a modern and creative approach when it comes to capturing your day. There isn’t a whole lot to differentiate, but contemporary will try to use natural light as much as possible and feature more comfortable looking poses that you’d naturally make when together. This seeks an almost candid like look between the couples, though it is very much orchestrated by the photographer.
Documentary and Candid Wedding Photography
Focus: Candid moments and storytelling.
Style: Documentary-style approach, capturing natural and unposed moments throughout the day.
Best for: Couples who prefer a more relaxed and natural style, emphasizing the emotions and atmosphere of the event.
What is candid wedding photography?
While traditional wedding photography has been popular for many years, there has also been a growing trend towards more candid and documentary-style wedding photography, which focuses on capturing the natural and spontaneous moments of the day.
This is a move away from the posed shots of couples and wedding guests and captures natural moments between people in the day. This makes the photos look a lot more real-to-life and gives the impression that the photographer was a fly-on-the-wall for the day.
In terms of the photographers approach, they’ll often be much less involved in the day to day movements and will float around during the day without being noticed to capture candid shots.
What is documentary wedding photography?
Documentary wedding photography on the other hand is very similar to candid photography. Both seek to capture natural, un-orchestrated moments between people on the wedding day. Natural smiles that happen in the moment are taken photos of, instead of the ‘smile for the camera’ type of shots that traditional photography follows.
The slight difference is that documentary wedding photography aesthetically tends to have a bit more of a reportage look to it, like it would be in a magazine. This will seek to closely resemble actual documentary photography which has slightly more serious undertones and an ephemeral feeling. This usually works out great for wedding photography because of the dreamy feel the aesthetic creates.
What does candid and documentary wedding photography look like?
See reference images take by me. See wedding page here
Black and White Wedding Photography
Focus: black and white aesthetic.
Style: Documentary-style approach, with a timeliness look due to its black and white photographic style.
Best for: Couples who like a minimalist look and don’t want an overdone editing style that could look outdated in years to come.
What is black and white wedding photography?
Black and white wedding photography, as the name suggests, utilises black and white photography to capture the big day. The monochrome palette is a great look for couples that want a timeless look and prefer a minimalistic style.
The look also creates a feeling that the photos could have been take in the mid 1900’s, and adds to the dreamy look that couples are looking to feel from their wedding photos.
Without colour though, it’s important to consider dress code for the day and light dresses can easily become white dresses with the colour stripped out of images.
This adds to the point that while photographers can easily edit and make colour photos black and white, and often couples can have both colour and black and white, it’s best for a photographer to go into the wedding with the mindset of solely black and white photography.
This is because photos taken specifically with black and white in mind require a higher degree of thought put into different shades of colour, how they’ll appear in black and white, and how shadows and light come together to create contrast that is well suited to the style.
If you’re seeking out this style of photography, it’s best to have black and white wedding photography as your standalone style of photography.
What does black and white wedding photography look like?
Vintage & Film Wedding Photography
Focus: A range of styles like the above, but with a film photography look and feel.
Style: Vintage grainy look with filmic colours.
Best for: Couples who are wanting a timeless look to their photos, true-to-life skin tones.
What is vintage & film wedding photography?
Despite all the benefits that digital photography offers, film photography has had a resurgence predominantly due to its look and feel and the feeling that comes with more physical vintage process of photography.
There’s something pretty slick about a film photographer walking around taking photos on film, and the vintage cameras used are also a great touch that could add to the vibe of the wedding atmosphere that you’re trying to create.
To sum it up, it’s a feeling. It’s hard to put a finger on what exactly this feeling is, but the tactile quality of film adds a great charm to the wedding vibe that could be well suited to your day. This also gives the added bonus of being able to keep your film negatives.
Outside of actual film photography, photographers are able to easily emulate the look and feel of the vintage film look, with Fujifilm cameras specifically designed to mimic film stock (i.e. Portra 400). This is a cost effective route to getting the look couples want for their wedding photos. That, and Fujifilm cameras also fit the aesthetic of a film camera.
What does vintage and film wedding photography look like?
Editorial Wedding Photography
Focus: Heavy focus on posed shots, elaborate group photos and portraits.
Style: Fashion and magazine aesthetic.
Best for: Couples who are wanting a step above traditional wedding photography and have the budgets to spend.
Editorial wedding photography is very similar to traditional wedding photogrpahy, but with a higher quality look that fits the bill of what you would expect to see in a magazine, such as “fashion forward” posing.
If you’re looking for beauty, emotion, and storytelling all in a single portrait or group photo this is what you’ll tend to get.
This will include a lot of posed photos and the photographer will be very involved in directing the scene with exact poses, hand placements and setting up a frame that make use of powerful lighting and evokes emotion.
Often this kind of photography will have longer chunks of time for wedding photos, and sometimes even take place on separate days to a couples actual wedding. Depending on the photographer, they could also include photos throughout the day or effervescent shots of the ceremony to create a narrative of the day but in style this doesn’t change much from traditional photography.
This option is great for anyone that’s into fashion or high end celebrity culture, with photos mimicking a lot of what you’ll see in luxury media outlets and brands.
What does editorial wedding photography look like?
In summary
Traditional wedding photography focuses on capturing formal portraits and posed group shots,
Documentary and candid wedding photography emphasizes capturing natural moments and emotions
black and white wedding photography uses a monochromatic palette for a timeless and dramatic effect
vintage & film wedding photography recreates the aesthetic of past eras using film or digital techniques
editorial wedding photography draws inspiration from fashion and magazine editorials with a focus on high-quality, artistic images
There’s a whole host of wedding photography styles, some of which might suit your style more than others. Some you might not have heard of or thought about. In any case, the important thing is to document and capture the day you get married. As arduous and expensive as it might seem, there is no feeling like flicking through one of the best days of your life.