When I started out photographing weddings I bought a course on DVD called “The Wedding Photography Blueprint”… It taught me all the rules. All the necessary shots, everything that a photographer has to do at a wedding. Right from how to pose a pair of shoes on a chair through to how to place the couple’s hands for the perfect cake cutting photo.

That got me through my first year, then I signed up for a group mentoring thing which loaded some extra rules on top of that. Like shooting everything at F4, shooting aperture priority, and using a monopod to shoot all the details – making sure you got all the photos you absolutely needed for the album, like a photo of the rings by themselves (perhaps tastefully balanced on a flower in the bouquet).

I vividly remember the exasperation when they were teaching me the rules of album design using a set of my photos. Rule number one was a ring shot on page one. I didn’t have one. Fail for me.

I didn’t do that mentoring for long because my mentor told me my work was safe and that I was a safe pair of hands for couples – they knew exactly what they were going to get from me. He apparently meant it as a compliment but being told I was safe was enough to spark me into life creatively, and from that day on I knew that if I was going to be fulfilled by my own work but more importantly stand out in a saturated market I had to be different.

I knew I had to actively ignore the rules I’d been told to that point.

I also had to actively stop trying to learn the rules from other people.

And so that’s what I did for a good few years.

I read once that new rules are just something created out of an act of rebellion against old rules. People say “oh that’s different I want to learn how they’re doing that” and so the rule breaker starts teaching their methods which become new rules in the students minds. And the cycle continues.

This is what workshop culture has done to the wedding photography industry. And I know I’ve been a part of that…

I’ve been to workshops and learned new rules from photographers I look up to.

I’ve taught the ‘rules’ of my own work at my own workshops.

I’ve learned the rules that sit behind the work of people I’ve taught workshops alongside.

I’ve heard rules laid down as commandments at conferences.

So we’ve gone – I think – from that rebellious 2012-2015 phase to a whole new set of rules around shooting, editing and marketing that means everything is just kind of blending into one sea of generic wedding photography again. In my very personal opinion!!

But that’s what following the rules does. It lumps you in with the herd.

It makes you safe.

Being safe is fine if being safe is your goal. I think if you’re going to be safe creatively then it’s important to be an expert at marketing and selling and I’m not that so it’s really important to me to be different in the look and feel of my work where possible.

I think I’ve lost focus on that “being different” thing personally and it’s something I want to refocus on.

I’m talking about this because someone asked my opinion about it when I asked for topic suggestions a couple of weeks ago… and they specifically mentioned the example of “the nose breaking the cheek line” rule, so let me finish by using that as an example.

First of all only a very small percentage of our work as wedding photographers is portraiture. In my opinion this is a classical portraiture rule.

Do I take nice portraits? I think so. Do I ever try to actively keep the nose within the cheek line? No.

It takes us into the wider discussion of technical perfection vs feel again, and yeah of course you can at times get a technically perfect image that feels great too. But often – at least in my experience – if you obsess over the technical rules you will lose the feeling in your photos.

I want my subject to feel great while they’re having their photo taken – and that comes from the human connection between me and them

I want to feel great about the image I’m seeing in my viewfinder or on my screen and that – still – comes only from my connection with my subject.

Micro-adjusting their head position, however I do it, will in my opinion kill the vibe and kill the feel of the photo. I’ll end up with the perfect pose for sure, but what’s at stake is the feel.

I think with portraiture of normal people (non-models) – again this is just personal opinion – as soon as they feel like they’re posing, the feeling leaves the building.

And I think the same goes for documentary – you can only feel a moment building and do what you can to line up the light and the composition to suit your tastes before the moment dies.

You might have to abandon the perfect composition and lighting to nail the moment at the exact millisecond it feels right and click.

Not only is technical perfection a myth, but striving for it strips the personality from your work.

I’ve shared the quote before from Dave Grohl:

“My sign of a good drummer is if you hear about 15 seconds of their playing and you know who it is, no matter how technical, you just know who it is. It’s the feel and the feel is indefinable. It’s like a fingerprint.”

And Dave is one of the most successful musicians of modern times. He can play multiple instruments, but he can’t read music. The same goes for Paul McCartney.

They will both, along with many other famous musicians and artists I’m sure, follow the subconscious rules they’ve created to make work that feels like theirs, and that’s why audiences connect with it because it’s all feel and no rules.

So the only rule I follow personally these days is focus completely on connection and feel.

Notice when a photo feels good, and click. Because I know that feeling can last milliseconds for me and milliseconds for whoever and whatever is within my viewfinder.

Someone, somewhere, right now is breaking the current rules beautifully. Pretty soon they’ll start teaching workshops and loads of people will learn the new rules. And the cycle will continue.

So you and I have two options as far as I see it…

Learn the rules – the old ones and especially the new trendy ones – and then actively break them.

Or stop trying to learn the rules and just double down on what feels great to you about photography.

Thanks for reading!

Adam

PS – A few days late this week sorry! I forgot on Thursday and then didn’t want to rush it and I had weddings Friday and Saturday. I just watched Man United dash all my pre-season hope and optimism and thought what better time to sit down and write!

PPS – My nose looks a little bigger when it breaks my cheek line for sure but it’s still my nose – I don’t need to be tricked into thinking it’s smaller than it is. The ONLY time I would ever make a special effort with this cheek line thing or anything appearance related is if someone I was taking a photo of made me specifically aware of THEM having a problem with THEIR appearance that they specifically wanted my help with while I was taking their photo.