Complete Guide to Wedding Photography Styles

One of the most important stylistic decisions all couples have to make for their Wedding Day, is choosing a Wedding Photographer and which wedding photography Style to use to capture your big day. Every couple has different style preferences; from colour to wedding themes. Whether you're drawn towards classic, or dark and moody pictures or bright fine art shots, there's a style for every couple. Wedding photography defines how you and your loved ones view your special day for years to come, so you and your partner need to choose a desired wedding photography style.

With so many options, it’s tricky to choose exactly what wedding photography style is best for you. Look at Instagram or Pinterest and see which types of images you’re liking and saving the most. If you can see a pattern where everything is similar or in the same family, that’s great. Otherwise, you can create mood boards or start Pinterest boards to see what you like most. After a few weeks of going through and pinning, you’ll start to see a trend.

Today’s most popular wedding photo styles include fine art and even dark and moody images, but classic images remain constant as well. But what if you like, say, classic and dark and moody photos? Do you have to choose one or the other? Of course not, because as true and experienced professionals, we offer a variety of styles throughout the day.

From candid to classics, here’s everything you need to know about wedding photography styles to help you to inform to us your decision. We have rounded up the most popular and new styles to help you decide. Read all about them below, so you can know what you want from your photographer and set the right expectations.

1. Editorial

Think of this style as your own magazine photoshoot if you want your wedding photos to have a special, magazine-spread-like feel and even a fashion focus. Editorial photography is the most technically demanding, and we may give more directions to the couple to best capture their day with beautiful light and angles. The focus is more on lighting and posing. The process is completely different from the photojournalistic style, for example, because the photographers are more hands-on, and the environment is more controlled.

Our editorial photography style encompasses creatively compelling, visually driven, and narrative-rich images. Creating meaningful and beautiful photographs requires time, trust, and preparation. Take a moment to reflect on what truly matters to both of you and share these details with your Photographer.

2. Fine Art

If you want to have your photos, feel like, a piece of art, you should gravitate towards this style. Wondering what the difference between editorial and fine art wedding photography is? Fine art is like the editorial wedding photo style. It's known for being light, bright and airy—perfect for your romantic celebration. It's generally softer and more delicate than magazine-style wedding photography. Our primary goal here is to visually narrate a story with an artistic but selfless approach. We remain authentic to the art but unwavering to the client's needs. This popular style plays well with bold, bright colours and pretty outdoor weddings (thanks to all that natural light). This style can capture your florals, fashion, and overall event with a dreamy feel thanks to the our editing style. We have a keen eye for detail while creatively using lighting and angles to create beautiful, timeless imagery that transcends typical photography. Fine art photography is optimal for couples who value a creative, artistic touch to their wedding photos and also choose this style If you're dreaming of a soft, romantic wedding album.

3. Photojournalistic, Documentary, Candid

Rather than posed shots, photojournalistic-style wedding photography captures candid moments or spontaneous pictures of people, decor and action. We treat the wedding day almost like a feature or news story. These photographs make for some of the most heartfelt and memorable images. We let the moments unfold naturally, then snap away, recording the magic as it happens. Nothing is staged we will work to show everything in the best light. You laughing with your partner during the first dance, crying during the vows and speeches, or your best friend wiping away a tear during a toast. Also known as documentary-style wedding photography, these types of wedding photos are all about those special, in-between instances. The story is told through photos by focusing less on capturing the perfect technical photo but more on capturing the moments that contribute to the 'mood' of the wedding day. We choose angles and backgrounds that make everything look its best. We look for intimate areas instead of wide-open spaces for group portraits. We get more interactions with everyone, and we create better moments.

4. Traditional

Couples are most familiar with this wedding style. It is a traditional look focused on staged portraits with the couple and family, capturing key snaps from the ceremony and reception, and curating a clear picture of the day. Those with a checklist of key shots to be captured may opt for this style and can expect a more structured and posed photo session, ensuring all crucial moments are captured precisely. Traditional photography offers a classic and timeless approach to wedding photographs.

Classic images stand the test of time. They're striking, gorgeous and a bit formal. This type of wedding photography reflects reality but is infused with the shooter's artistic license.

5. Lifestyle and fashion

You love the look and feel of documentary-style photography but want us to provide you with a bit more direction on how to pose? Lifestyle photography is advanced photojournalistic style. It's still candid, yet done with some direction and styling, it has an approachable feel and a relaxed result. We will lead the way when you and your wedding party take portraits, yet they will still try to capture more natural, genuine moments from the session.

6. Flash

Similar to journalistic-style wedding photography, direct flash photos are not posed and instead capture the couple in unrehearsed times, like singing to their favourite song on the dance floor or hugging their parents before their wedding exit.

These photos will stand out because the flash is directly pointed at the person or thing, making the image sharper. Also, this wedding photography style lets you live your celeb fantasies because, with direct flash, each photo feels and looks like the paparazzi took them.

7. Blurred

Blurry is a new style of wedding photography that is more popular with the youngest couples. These photos are intentionally blurry to give a natural and informal look to your wedding album. That doesn't mean each of your photos has to be blurred, but a few images with the style can add variety.

8. Dark and Moody

While some couples want their photos to be clean, light, and bright, others might opt for a more dark and moody photography style. When shooting in this aesthetic, we work more with shadows, darker editing filters, or vintage film styles to achieve a dramatic tone and ambiance. Black-and-white wedding images are more about editing than photography style. As photographers, we can tell some images will speak louder or softer in black and white, so it really comes down to feeling and emotion.

Tip:

Not sure what light versus dark wedding photography is? Light photos lean toward being more romantic and soft because of the lighter colors and muted tones. Dark wedding images seem more moving and sometimes haunting because of the deep shadows and intense colors.