3 Most Popular Wedding Photography Styles

Photography is no doubt the most crucial aspect of any wedding. This is a once a lifetime event & the only way to treasure it is by capturing the precious moments from a highly, experienced professional wedding photographer. There are different wedding photography styles to choose from for couples, so it’s essential that you’re familiar with them before commissioning a wedding photographer in Birmingham. Let’s talk about the different wedding photography styles a bit elaborately.

Reportage Wedding Photography:

 

Also known as documentary wedding photography, reportage wedding photography is preferred by many couples out there. If you’re after spontaneous, one of a kind, uncoerced  and  story-telling photography, then reportage wedding photography is perfect for you.

In this form of photography, the photographers blend with the guests & shoot the moments as they unveil. There is very little portraits and planned poses done as pictures are captured in a candid & natural way. A photojournalist who’s able to tell a story from the images he captures depends on his or her experience, awareness, intuitiveness and artistic eye in capturing precious & emotional moments.

If you’re one of those couples who don’t like posing for photos, then visiting the showrooms of reportage/documentary wedding photographers should be your focus.

 

Fashion Wedding Photography:

 

You must have seen those wedding images that whirl around the brides wedding gown, stage the bride or couple in some urban or industrial-like background, and other fashion magazine-like imagery! Well, that’s what we call the fashion wedding photography style. This form of photography emphasizes more on the outfit of the couples. It involves the handling of lights by the photographer to produce a more significant presentation of the photographs. This type of photography is perfect for a bridal & engagement session where the photographer needs to be more involved & there’s more set-up to capture the attire of the couple.

The best thing about this form of photography is that pictures are visually beautiful & high class if the photographer is good at posing and lighting. Just like the ones you have seen on the cover of a fashion magazine. The negative side to this style is that the photos eventually can look dated.  Styles change, fashion trends change, as does fashion photography.  Take, for example, how professional models have posed over the years, how they wear their make-up, how much or little clothing they wear, etc.  If you look back over the last fifty years, there are remarkable changes and shifts in style, not only in the clothing but how the photographer photographs the models.

 

Editorial “Hybrid” Wedding Photography:

 

This form of photography is an attempt to merge both the styles of the reportage and fashion-style photographers. The photographers who do this sort of photography are ultra-concerned with providing realistic looking imagery, but only do so by setting up the scene and the action. The settings chosen are idealistic and perfect in comparison to the limitations a reportage photographer might encounter. For example, when the bride is putting on her dress, the documentary photographer simply photographs the moment without directing or moving the bride to a better location.  An editorial style photographer would not only direct the bride toward a nicer area, like a picturesque window, but would move any clutter and distracting items from the composition, as well as set up additional lighting to give it a fashion-like feel. The mood, lighting, scene and pose needed for this sort of photography is always controlled by the photographer and will happen throughout the day.  Even for some of the ceremonial happenings, like the kiss or candle lighting ceremony. If during the ceremony, the editorial photographer is not satisfied with the images that happened in real time, he might ask the couple to re-create these events after the ceremony for the perfect photo. Couples who are attracted to wanting perfection in their images will be drawn to this style of photographer.  The images produced by this form of photography are visually eye-catching & tend to be more inventive than a typical photojournalistic photography.

The down side to the editorial-style image is that the resulting photos will lack the truth behind the real and spontaneous imagery of the reportage photographer because every image is a recreation and reinterpretation of what happened.  The images lose the honesty and truth captured historically. This may seem like an unimportant concern if all you want are pretty photos! But consider your perspective ten or twenty or fifty years from now. Documentary or reportage-style photos will always endure nostalgically because connected to them is the real history of the moment. Emotions photographed spontaneously, rather than coerced, will make the couple relive those feelings as if they were carried back in time to when the image was captured. How important will this be to you is for you to decide. Thinking into the future, though, might help sway your decision for the kind of photographer you decide upon for your wedding day!

Are you looking for a professional documentary wedding photographer in Birmingham and metro Detroit or anywhere in Michigan? If yes, then look no further than Ray Anthony Photography. Your wedding day is filled with stories, and we make sure these remain fresh and intact forever.  Visit our downtown Birmingham, Michigan boutique photography studio for consultation and loads of insightful advice for your wedding needs. Or email your query us at INFO@RAYANTHONYWEDDINGS.COM. For more information stay social with us Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Instagram.