The difference between Tradional, Contemporary and Reportage wedding photography
For any couple looking to book a wedding photographer, one of the first questions you need to ask yourselves is what style of wedding photography you would like.
Photographers tend to use lots of different words and phrases to describe their photographic style; traditional, reportage, contemporary, documentary, photojournalistic etc. and it can be very confusing for couples to know what the difference is between these styles.
To try and help, I have listed below what I believe to be the three main photographic styles, together with a brief definition.
It is important to remember that many wedding photographers (myself included!) will incorporate more than one style on the wedding day (sometimes all three) but most will promote themselves as specialising in one particular style.
I hope that this brief guide will give you a better idea of the type of photography that each style refers to and hopefully help you in your search for the wedding photographer who is right for you!
Traditional wedding photography
This style primarily consists of carefully constructed, set up posed shots. The photographer will spend lots of time interacting with the bride and groom and will often take fewer photographs on the day but put more time in to setting up and arranging each shot. The poses will often be very classical, so no running or jumping shots! Until the lates 1990s, tradional wedding photography was very much the norm although the advent of digital photography has led to this style becoming less popular these days. Traditional wedding photography is often favoured by the older generation whilst younger couples are more inclined to want more contemporary coverage.
Contemporary wedding photography
This style of wedding photography sits in between traditional and reportage as it has similarities to both. A contemporary wedding photographer will take time to set up each shot, interacting with the couple along the way, but the poses and locations used will be much more dynamic than that of the traditional photographer. A contemporary photographer is likely to look for interesting and unusual viewpoints. The contemporary wedding photographer is also likely to spend longer editing the photographs in post production to really give the images impact.
Reportage / Journalistic / Documentary style wedding photography
Photographers specialising in reportage wedding photography primarily observe what it happening at a wedding as opposed to dictating things themselves. Photographers act as a “fly on the wall” and have very little interaction with the bride and groom on the day. Reportage photographers aim to be as inobtrusive as possible so will often avoid the use of flash as that may bring attention to themselves, preferring instead to use very fast lenses and high ISOs. Due to the nature of this type of photography, the shots taken have a very natural quality to them as they are never posed. As the photographer will have virtually no interaction with the bride and groom, this style of photography is very difficult style to master, although as with any of the three main types of wedding described in this article, when executed well, the resulting photographs can be stunning and packed full of emotion.
Neil
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