Every bride and groom deserve to have beautiful wedding photographs to remember their magical day. The first step is finding the right wedding photographer for you, but before you start shopping around, you need to understand a bit about wedding photography and have a bit of an idea of what a photographer can do to create your magical wedding album.
Stunning wedding photos are all about striking a delicate balance. Ideally your posed shots should look as natural as they can, and your candid moments should be captured stylishly. This actually covers the two main styles of wedding photography: traditional and reportage.
- Traditional - this basically means a posed shot, but can be anything from the classic group photos of all your friends and family outside your venue, to more contemporary bride and groom shots.
- Reportage, or journalistic photography - this is all about catching people unawares! Taken paparazzi styles, reportage photos are candid, taken with the subject acting completely natural. These types of shots are perfect for placing in a wedding album next to the posed photos to give a real sense of your special day, and bring all the moments you might have missed as a busy bride and groom.
So how does a wedding photographer make your photos magical? Well they need to know what makes you tick! Any wedding photographer that you contact about potentially working at your wedding should offer a consultation. This is your opportunity to see if you get on with your photographer, as well as tell them all about your wedding and what you want from your photography. They should show you some wedding albums from their portfolio so you can see what kind of photographs they take. You can ask them how they work and, if they have any experience with your venue, you can ask what ideas they have for your wedding.
Once you have decided on your wedding photographer and discussed any particular shots you know what you want, you can sit back and wait for your big day. On the day itself, your wedding photographer should take care of everything to make your wedding photoshoot run as smoothly and beautifully as possible. They can photograph your preparations; all the special little details of your dress, your flowers and your rings. A good photographer will slip into the background, quietly snapping up all those intimate images during your ceremony and reception. They will organise your bridal party for posed shots without being intrusive, and add some magic to your bride and groom photos. If you're worried about 'posing' for photographs, your photographer will be able to coach you and your guests to create wonderfully natural shots.
The final magic is added after you come back from your honeymoon. You'll get the opportunity to look over all your prints, choose your favourites and how you want to display them. Then just wait to see that touch of magic in your wedding album!