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

Manchester Wedding Photographer

I used ‘A’ mode for the first 10-15 weddings which I covered, but it was only when I switched to shooting in manual that I really gained confidence as a wedding photographer and felt as though I could cope with even the worst lighting conditions.

Shooting in manual mode gives the photographer full control over the camera’s three key settings; aperture, shutter speed and ISO. There are hundreds of books and websites out there which explain what each of these settings does so I won’t go in to detail here, but needless to say it is vital that before agreeing to photograph a wedding you understand exactly what these settings mean and how they affect each other.

However, whilst shooting in manual is one thing, but in order to really utilise the advantages of ‘M’ mode, it is vital that you know your camera inside out and are able to change each of these settings almost on instinct. Weddings are frantic, chaotic and fast moving events (to say the least!) so being able to change your cameras settings without having to think about what you are doing is a huge advantage.

A good way to teach yourself to do this is to practice changing the settings without taking your eye away from the view finder. It is easy to practice this by disciplining yourself not to look at the camera’s buttons and dials each time you want to change a setting. By doing this you will be surprised how quickly it will all become second nature – it’s a bit like touch typing or going through the gears when driving a car. Each time you find yourself taking the camera away from your eye to change a setting, make yourself do it again but without looking. Once you can do this you will wonder how and why you ever shot in Program mode…!

As I mentioned earlier, having this ability will make you a much more confident wedding photographer so why not practice this today and you will see your photography improve almost overnight!

Neil
www.neilredfern.com

It is the first post written for the site by a wedding photographer based outside of the UK so thank you Paul! I hope you are the first of many

Paul’s very sound advice is primarily aimed at bride and grooms but will be of just as much interest to wedding photographers. Paul sets out exactly how important the job of shooting a wedding is, you will only get one chance at a wedding and it is a huge responsibility. The skill required, and the ability to manage people, and pressure, can never be overstated.

Once you have read his post I would highly recommend visiting Paul’s website at www.PaulRetherford.com which is full of stunning images.

Reasons why you should choose a professional wedding photographer

Your Wedding location is planned and you think you want a photographer. After racking your brain about guests that can snap images, you recall that Uncle Harry has an expensive camera. Since he will be on the guest list why not ask Harry?

Documenting the story of a Wedding day is an art form. It should not be pawned off on anyone that is less than a Professional Wedding Photographer. Her are a few of the reasons why you should hire a Pro.

First of all, what is a Professional Wedding Photographer? I have heard other professionals say that a professional is anyone who has accepted money for images. I suggest that you call a Professional anyone who has captured, at least, 50 full Weddings, and I would like to see them capture at least 100+ Weddings.

A professional wedding photographer should have been exposed to a large portion of the scenarios during a wedding day. Being able to respond to adversity and handle high stress situations is mandatory. The professional should manage time well and help all parties arrive on time and remain on task. Most of all, the professional is ready to adapt to changing situations and should have the foresight to see changes coming.

Professional wedding photographers have multiple backup systems. Having one camera is not acceptable. I prefer to see two cameras on the Pro at all times. You never know when a camera will error out, break a shutter, or the card will malfunction. Most Professionals have backups to their backups. They understand that this is a once in a lifetime event. Backup is not an option, therefore trust a professional.

Professional wedding photographers know how to make ladies look beautiful and men look handsome. You can spend tens of thousands of dollars on a Wedding, wouldn’t you want to look your best. Professionals know proper posing techniques and also proper angles of exposure to make the subjects look stunning. Do not trust an ametuer to your hotness.

These are just a few of the reasons to book a professional wedding photographer for your wedding day. After you repack your bags and head back to work, your memories will fade but your professional wedding images will not. Please, I beg you, trust only a professional wedding photographer. Get lots of references, check testimonials, ask questions, and see examples of full weddings.

Paul Retherford Wedding Photography – www.PaulRetherford.com

Rick – thank you for taking the time to write this post, I found it very interesting and I am sure that others will too!

Understanding Clients Real Needs
This a short post about the danger of Assumption. We all try to learn from our mistakes (mistakes are crucial to learning!) and I have certainly made a few. One of the mistakes I have made was failing to understand exactly what my wedding clients were after. Rather than listening actively to what they said, I simply imposed my preferred style of photography upon them – which resulted in an unhappy gig for me and possibly less than 100% satisfaction for them!

My style of wedding photography is to take a fairly relaxed and what I call a ‘non-invasive’ approach which I think allows the happy couple to really enjoy their big day. I like to take a largely ‘documentary’ approach to the day – shooting events as they happen. I am not that interested in taking hundreds of family and friend group shots… or spending too much time on detailed set-up shots. I will do so however if that is what the clients really want.

I think the problem here is in the terminology we all use. Wedding photography, like other professions, develops its own jargon with mysterious phrases like ‘documentary’ and ‘reportage’ or even ‘traditional’. The potential danger here is that one person’s definition may well vary considerably from another’s. Therein lies the problem.

I now spend much more time at client meetings really getting a handle on the types of images that they really want. I ask for a general outline and then probe a little deeper. When I find myself using jargon of any sort, I explain what I mean by the term. I will also ask them to actually show me photographs that they like whether from my website or anybody else’s. I generally add a proviso that I may not be able to reproduce a particular image perfectly but I have a lot more information that I can then build into my plan for the day and to decide whether I am really the wedding photographer they want.

I am sure that I will continue to make mistakes and learn from them, but I now know the importance of truly listening to my clients.

Rick Mason
www.rjmphotographic.com

So, once you have got to this stage, how do you continue to increase your number of fans your page has?

Well there are basically two ways. The first is to increase the number of fans you have organically, which we’ll talk about more in this post, and the second is to pay for an ad and use Facebook advertising, which we’ll look in to in more detail in Part 3 – the final post in this series.

Increasing your number of fans organically is without doubt the best way to grow your page for the simple reasons that it will get you in to good social networking habits and best of all, it’s free!

The key to oraganic growth is to encourage your Facebook fans to interact with your page, whether that be writing on your page’s wall, commenting on a photograph or status update or simply ‘liking’ your page’s status updates. The reason for this is that any interaction a particular fan has with your page will show up on their profile page and, more importantly, in the feeds of their friends. This lends itself perfectly to viral marketing.

For example, if you post a wedding photograph on your page and one of your fans (let’s call her Karen) leaves a comment on that photograph, this will appear on Karen’s profile page which in turn Karen’s friends will then see. Once Karen’s friends see this they too may click on the link to your Facebook page and, if they like what they see, will hopefully become a fan of your page too and so and so on! As you can see though, this cycle will only take place if fans interact with your page!

Make sure that you update your page regularly to keep up brand awareness but not too often that fans tire of seeing your notificiations. I find that an update once every 2-3 days is ample.

Remember to make sure that what you post is interesting and positive. Try not to be too formal – social networking is best when you come across as being personable and friendly.

As you want to encourage fans to interact and respond to your updates, why not put questions in your status updates? For example, as a wedding photographer, you may update your Facebook page with “What are you most looking forward to on your wedding day?”

When your fans do leave comments, the important thing is to respond, ideally quite quickly. In my experience the quicker you respond, especially to direct questions, the more people will post and this, again, will increase the fan interaction rate on your page.

Another way of increasing fan interaction is to hold a Facebook competition for fans of your Facebook page. You could do this by asking fans to leave a comment on a particular photograph, with the best comment winning a prize, or encourage fans to post their own photographs to your page with you picking a winner. The more creative the better – just remember that the aim is to get as many of your fans involved as possible!

By following these tips you should hopefully find that the number of fans your Facebook page has will start to increase naturally. Remember though that this is a long term strategy and having fans leave comments on your page, especially those people that you don’t know personally, will take time. Stick at it though and your Facebook page should develop in to a useful and effective marketing tool for your wedding photography business!

Neil

Manchester Wedding Photographer

www.facebook.com/neilredfernphotography

From a wedding photographer’s point of view the likelihood is that this won’t allow you as much time alone with the bride and groom as you would ideally like – actually, you can virtually guarentee that you won’t have as much time as you like!

However, regardless of how little time you may have, the important thing is to take the “safe” shots first. When you are working as fast as your inevitably will be, and with the old adrenaline pumping, it is very easy to forget to take some of the “safe” shots that couples will expect to see.

One of these “safe” shots which you should always aim to take is a 3/4 length portrait of the bride and groom together. Very straightforward and takes no time. A 3/4 length portrait isn’t going to win any awards but it will usually be expected – and appreciated.

Once you have the safer shots in the bag, then is the time to move on to the more creative, potential wow(!) shots. You just don’t want to be in the situation where spend too long trying to get a higher risk shot (such as shooting in to the sun to get lens flare) which may not turn out as you wish, only to realise that you have run out of time before you got the standard shots.

This sounds like a simple and obvious bit of advice but it is a very easy mistake to make – I know as I made this mistake in one of my first weddings! The desire to take those one or two killer shots can be very strong but, as with anything related to wedding photography, I think a safety first approach is always best.

Obviously you can always take shots of the bride and groom together after the meal, but in my experience you can’t always rely on this so it’s best to see any photographs you take after the meal as a bonus rather than a necessity. I personally use any time I may have with the bride and groom after the meal to really go to town with the creative shots, if one or two don’t quite come off then it doesn’t matter as I have plenty of nice photographs already safely saved on my memory cards!

Good luck!

Neil
Manchester Wedding Photographer

This is excellent advice and could not be more true. Many bride and grooms will choose their wedding photographer based on personal recommendations from their friends so to ensure they recommend you, not only will you have to provide an excellent product but you must also provide first class customer service at all times. A wedding photographer is unlikely to stay in business very long if they ignore this fact!

You can view examples of Keith’s work on his website at www.keithadamsphotography.co.uk

The importance of excellent customer service

It is not discounts or great packages that customers remember, it’s service. Whether it is good or bad, this is what people remember.

Think of it as calling an electric company, if you called and the advisor was terrible, even if this company was the cheapest available you would still look badly on them and possibly move suppliers. What you will also do, as Sarah Sadler pointed out in her ealier post regarding word of mouth advertising, is tell your friends, family and work mates about the poor service. This also is the same situation for great service.

Go out of your way to impress the customer, make them feel that they are special – after all they are the bride and groom. Go and visit them instead of them coming to you. Word emails in a personal way, so dont use word or phrases like “we” or “for our customers” instead use “I” and “you”.

A common one I hear of is “we offer our customers x package” this would seem much nicer and personal to the customer with “I can offer you this package”. It makes the customer think that it is exclusive to them.

Service is the most important part of your wedding photography business.

Best of luck,

Keith

I personally have no problem whatsoever with guests taking photographs during the group shots, they are at the wedding as guests of the bride and groom and, in my opinion, have every right to take photographs.

However, as a wedding photographer, unless managed effectively, guests taking photographs during the group shots can be problematic. There are two main reasons for this, although both can be easily oversome.

Problem 1: Once the shot has been set up, the official photographer will have a wall of paparazzi(!) stood just behind eager to take the same shot and those in the photograph will more often than not taken look in the direction of their friends of family, rather than the official photographer.

Answer: Simple – invite the wedding guests to take their photograph first. This should only take 15-20 seconds maximum, after which you can take your photograph safe in the knowledge that all eyes will be on you. Everyone’s a winner!

Problem 2: In a confined space, whilst you (as the wedding photographer) are setting up the group shot, the wedding guests wanting to take that particular photograph will creep forward for the best shot meaning that there isn’t enough space to get the shot you want without asking guests to move back and out of your frame.

Answer: Set up a tripod. Setting up a tripod seems to create a magical invisible barrier that wedding guests will not go past. Even if you do not wish to use the tripod when taking your photograph, just having it there will be a big help!

Remember as well that taking photographs of the guests taking photographs can often make really nice little reportage images in the final wedding album so remember to turn round every now and again for a different perspective!

By using these tips shooting wedding group photographs should become far easier!!

Good luck!

Neil
www.neilredfern.com

As well as sharing some great advice, Alison also points outs that this stage of the day is one of the few elements of the wedding day which you can practice at home. This is particularly useful as knowing you have some great photographs of this part of the day gives you a real confidence boost for the rest of the wedding day!

Once you have read Alison’s article please take a moment to pop over to her website at www.alisonbaileyphotography.co.uk

Thank you Alison – take it away…

If you are new to wedding photography the whole day can be rather daunting. I can’t think of another discipline where you have to be an ace portrait photographer a good landscape photographer, a great product photographer, an organisational genius with the stamina of a marathon runner and the ability to do it all with a smile on your face too. But it is fun and it is a lot easier to manage if you break it down into pieces, or phases as I call them. After all, you don’t eat an elephant in one bite.

Bridal prep is one of my favourites. It’s the start of the day and the air is alive with anticipation. It’s still quite relaxed though and you can help to play your part in making it a truly great day for your bride. I always make sure I pay my bride lots of compliments as she gets ready and I make sure I am relaxed too. I always have a good nights sleep beforehand with no alcohol, I want to be at my best too. Now bridal prep is one of the areas that you can practice. “How on earth do I practice bridal prep without a bride?” I hear you ask. Well you can, here’s how.

The product photography I mentioned. Shoes, jewellery and the dress are your products that need shooting. Inanimate objects that you can easily practice shooting at home. Go and get a pair of shoes out and stand in your own bedroom. That’s exactly the situation you will find yourself in when shooting bridal prep at a client’s home. Where are you going to shoot them? Where is your location? Where is your light? Look around the room and look for light first. Is there anywhere that is receiving some nice directional light from a window that you could use? You can always move a chair into the light if there is one handy but please….don’t use a table. Apparently it is bad luck to put shoes on a table and I have known someone get a clip round the ear from mum for doing it, you have been warned!

If you can identify a good spot with some directional light then that should be your location. Make sure you can arrange the shoes well and avoid any labels. If you can’t find a decent bit of light you will have to create some. My next option would always be a reflector, can I bounce some light into an interesting fireplace? If I can I’ll shoot using a reflector. Is there a window ledge anywhere I can use? Can I place the shoes on a window ledge and by exposing for the shoes can I blow the background so there are no distractions? Can I use the window to side light? Take your time to play around with these things. You don’t want to be shooting your bride with her hair still in rollers so make sure you get there in plenty of time and occupy yourself with getting the best shots you can of all these details.

Shooting the dress is something else you can practice. A nice wooden hanger is something to keep in the back of the car. I’m always amazed at hundreds of pounds worth of dress on a plastic hanger. Make sure you can improve on that if you need to. So it’s back to your bedroom. Where are you going to hang the dress? We are back to light again and this time you are more limited because there are only so many places you are going to be able to hang it. I’ll warn you now …most homes don’t have four posters! Wherever you find (usually a wardrobe or a door) needs to be as high as possible to let the dress hang. Make sure it is hanging properly too and not falling off the hanger. Now it’s nicely arranged you need to light it and shoot it. If you can use window light that’s great. I’d much rather have to tripod mount my camera and shoot it with ambient light but if you can’t you are going to have to use flash on this one. Try to get it off camera though, even a simple cord and hold it in your other hand is better than the direct nuclear blast of an on camera flash. Lighting from the side as if the light were coming from a window is the way to do it. Shoot a close up to get the detail, a three quarter, a full length if you can and if it’s a nice room a wide one showing the room with the dress to give context.

So there is one phase of a wedding that you can practice at home and don’t forget to ask friends and family if you can practice with them too. Those shots of the bride having her make up applied can easily be practiced with a couple of friends to make sure you get the lighting right, same goes for window lit portraits, you have a window so get practicing. The more practice you do with these element the less stressful shooting a wedding becomes because you know what you are doing. So practice, practice, practice.

So, when taking photographs on the wedding day itself, it is important to remember to “set the scene” throughout each stage of the day. For example, when taking shots of the bride getting ready in the morning, as well as the important small details, remember to take a wide angle of the whole room where she is getting ready. Likewise, if you are taking photographs of the speeches, as well as the close up photographs of people’s faces full of emotion, also remember to step back and take a wide shot of the room.

When it comes to designing the final wedding album, these wider shots will be very important and will help break up the album in to the different stages of the day. In my eyes, an album that goes straight from a photograph of the bride arriving at the church, straight to shots of the ceremony itself is really missing a lovely wide shot of the church inbetween to set the scene.

Once you get in to the habit of taking these scene setting shots it will become second nature in no time!

Neil

Manchester Wedding Photographer
www.neilredfern.com