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Home: Video University Forums: Digital Photography for Videographers:
"A defense of traditional wedding photography"

Brackish
Veteran

Jun 11, 2007, 6:32 PM

Post #1 of 4 (729 views)
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"A defense of traditional wedding photography"	Can't Post

Just ran across this and thought I'd pass it along:

http://www.slate.com/id/2167722/fr/flyout

One interesting point that is made is that some/much of what

goes for "photojournalistic style" is actually posed, such

as the wheelbarrow shot they show. My understanding is that

a strict interpretation of PJ style is that the shots are

not posed.

Another interesting topic they bring up is: "What really will

be the treasured shots that stand the test of time?".

Do you think the more traditional posed shots will be the

most valued over time? Have you heard any feedback

from your clients as to their "favorite shots" of the whole

day?

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"We'll always show up at the wedding with a gift bag for the bride. Inside we have these incredible fuzzy slippers in the teal of our branding."

Aaron
Novice

Jun 13, 2007, 8:02 PM

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Re: [Brackish] "A defense of traditional wedding photography" [In reply to]	Can't Post

I enjoyed reading that article. Thanks for bringing it to our attention. I came from a journalistic background (college newspaper, yearbook, local newspaper internship) so I really enjoying "creeping around like a ninja" getting those un-posed shots as the article described. I personally enjoy seeing those shots much more than the posed stuff, but I was thinking about what shots would the client frame and put on the wall. I would say that the vast majority of those pictures are the posed formal shots. It's my most dreaded time of the wedding setting up the formal shots, but I feel it's one of the most important parts. That's why I enjoy doing video, because I don't have to be in charge as I do when I shoot stills.

I also liked that they pointed out the middle ground is getting "candid" shots while setting them up a bit...moving the flowers around and such. I think there is a need for that type of thing to get a better aesthetically pleasing shot. I liked the shot of the wheelbarrow on the beach, but of course it is not photojournalistic in the formal sense. It seemed natural enough, of course you don't normally see that happen at the beach, but it was fun. Isn't that what the day should be about, fun and celebration?

So what I get from that article is to try and have a combination of the two.

Aaron

Brackish
Veteran

Jun 13, 2007, 8:47 PM

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Re: [Aaron] "A defense of traditional wedding photography" [In reply to]	Can't Post

Hi, Aaron.

I'm really new to the photo business so I can't really say
what clients value. I did recently meet with a potential
client and kinda got the feeling that she didn't place
a whole lot of value on the candids. I'm wondering what
others here have found regarding what the clients value?

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"We'll always show up at the wedding with a gift bag for the bride. Inside we have these incredible fuzzy slippers in the teal of our branding."

Brian Coe
User

Jun 27, 2007, 2:46 PM

Post #4 of 4 (609 views)
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Re: [Brackish] "A defense of traditional wedding photography" [In reply to]	Can't Post

From my limited experience, the posed or semi posed sell well as do large close up portraits generally taken candid with a long lens. I sell a lot of pics taken with the 70-200 nikon lens set to 200 (300 for 35mm equivalent) These are rarely posed which is why they are generaly very good. In France the group or family pics sell well as well.

There is a US book about wedding photography that splits the photographers into 3 categories
Portrait
Portrait journalistic
Journalistic

My photgraphers and myself fall into the middle category.

Two weeks ago at a wedding where we were only doing the video, there was a "portrait" photographer who took ages to perfect each pose. By the time we got to the reception, the party was 2 hours late and everyone including the caterer was seriously thinking of how to murder the photographer. What they actually said was too rude to put here in the forum ! Later that night I saw his photos and they were no different from what I or my other photogs could have got in a quarter of the time.

Coming back to the topic, I don't see many sales for pure candid shots with no one looking at the camera.

But we do a lot of wedding books rather than albums and here the candid shots can often be useful for backgrounds, same as close up's of champagne glasses etc . These are shots that would never sell in an album but are good for creating the ambiance in the book. Also we often take pictures with the subject way of centre to use in double page spreads. Sorry , gone off topic again.

Brian
Elite Video Mariage
Paris France
http://www.elitevideomariage.com