You know what? I hate direct flash photos of myself.
That was food for thought for me lately as I grappled with this phase where apparently direct flash is the only technique that matters in wedding photography.
I’ve never seen a photo of myself taken with flash that I liked or thought looked like me.
I mean, don’t get me wrong, I don’t like many photos of myself but there’s something about direct flash photos of myself where I just feel unrecognisable.
But it’s weird – I’ve grown to like direct flash photos on the whole.
Do you know what though? I love the way I already take photos and I’ve decided to double down on my commitment to what I like (style AND approach), instead of feeling this pull/push towards the stuff we’re supposed to be doing now regardless of our own personal tastes or preferences.
I’ve also had a good number of bookings lately from people who massively resonate with the way I believe wedding photography should be, and that’s filled up the confidence batteries a bit.
Listen, I’ve got no issue with editorial photography. Truly. I like it. I admire people who do a good job of it.
I had a good conversation yesterday with a friend about the difference between style and approach.
Style is one thing. It’s the way your images look – the end result.
Approach is entirely different. It’s the shoot and edit process you go through to achieve that end result.
I’ve decided approach is infinitely more important to me than style. Not that I’ve abandoned hope of creating stylish work, but I’m content and happy with creating what I can create as a result of working in the way I feel I should work at someone’s wedding.
Not sure I’ve explained that very well.
For example, the style is that polished direct flash look which I think is cool.
The approach becomes flashing in people’s faces a lot, which I personally don’t think is cool.
The example applies to so many things… Is the style worth the approach? I think that’s the question.
I believe that the next ‘wave’ of wedding photography is always driven by the current experience of wedding guests.
I could be wrong on this… the power of social media might override it but hear me out.
I recall vividly 10-15 years ago every single couple would tell me “we just went to a wedding and we hardly saw the bride and groom because they were away doing photos the whole day – we don’t want that.”
That doesn’t mean people were asking for documentary, but this definitely fuelled the “natural and unobtrusive” documentary wave which is now washing up on the editorial beach.
I could be wrong, but I think the guest experience and maybe even the couple’s experience is being sacrificed for the end result right now, guests will be seeing and feeling that and that will drive their preferences for their own weddings in the future.
We’ll see. Like I say it all depends if I’ve misjudged the power social media has over people.
I have too many opinions on all of this, but another thing I’ve come to realise is that wedding photography has always been a crazymazing melting pot of niches and styles, approaches and artistic opinions.
That’s not changed and will never change.
Editorial and documentary can both exist. They’re not enemies.
There are also other styles, other approaches. You don’t have to pick editorial or documentary and tribally outcast the other completely. You don’t have to pick direct flash and pretend off camera flash doesn’t exist. You don’t have to stop shooting wide open because that lenselworld guy said it’s out of fashion on an Instagram reel.
Golden hour will never go out of fashion, whatever the content-for-the-sake-of-content juggernaut tries to tell us. If you like blue hour, wonderful – shoot it. You’re allowed to also like golden hour and shoot that too.
The point is what do you like?
I couldn’t shoot weddings any more if I had to do them a certain way, if I didn’t enjoy that approach, regardless of how I might feel about the style of the end result.
Wedding photography is a service, and we’re more than entitled to be artists, but it’s also an experience for our clients and their guests.
The service, the art and the experience – all of this make up who we are as wedding photographers, not just the photo that exists at the end of it all.
Someone reminded me this morning of something I said in a talk years ago – your style is your taste for light, your taste of composition and your take on the moments. None of that has anything to do with the editorial-documentary pendulum.
Have faith in your taste.
Thanks for reading. A good friend told me lately that people don’t like reading any more, but I think I’m going to carry on writing – sorry about that.
Adam
PS – Not all our couples are going to have ceiling drapes. And that’s ok.
PPS – Please come to one of the upcoming FedTalks events I’m doing with FedWed. We’ve put so much into creating them and I’d love to see you there and discuss this kinda stuff in person with you.
PPPS – It’s still fine to shoot wide open if you want.
