Journal

I was out on a social event with a group of wedding photographers from Northern Ireland recently and was asked this question, I thought it would be a simple answer but after much consideration it was a question that I found very hard to answer. The debate was based on what makes a great wedding photographer, the standard of their technical excellence or their artistic eye and uniqueness. It’s rare to have both skill sets, as most people who are artistic don’t really worry about technical jargon they care only about the end result and people who are technical generally don’t see the artistry, they only see the technical mistakes, even if it’s conducive to the image.

If you asked this question to a range of wedding photographers they would likely give different answers, here are the main qualities I would say every good wedding photographer should have.

One of the hardest things for a wedding photographer to achieve is their own unique style that set their photographs apart for every other wedding photographer around them, to make your images instantly recognizable as your own style takes many years to develop, it becomes your trademark. Every wedding photographer is faced with the same scenario but will produce something completely different out of that same situation, the best wedding photographers capture something more, something that cannot be put into words.

Most great wedding photographers shoot from the heart and not with the head. Wedding photography is not a science and cannot be judged by this strict list of criteria. I read an article by one of the top wedding photographers in the world recently and he tries not to think about anything while he works but prefers to concentrate on his subject and feel what he shoots, if he thinks about it he will only find a reason not to take it.

The best wedding photographers have an eye to see a photograph in their head before the shutter is pressed, you could say they have a gift that cannot be taught but all the best wedding photographers have had to hone their skills and draw from their influences somewhere. They have sublimely learned from looking at the work of other great photographers who have gone before them, the skill is to extract and absorb from all of their influences and add them together to create their own unique blend of wedding photography. Most top wedding photographers have an appetite to learn, they are constantly looking for new influences whether from photography books, journals, blogs, magazines and off-course the worldwide web. They are constantly looking for inspiration from any source to keep themselves interested in what they shoot.

Great wedding photographers do not stand still they are constantly evolving their art to stay relevant. I had new clients visit me a few days ago and thought to myself that they were very young to be getting married, but in hindsight it was me who was getting older, not them being younger.  This emphases my point perfectly, the clients I shoot weddings for now live in a different era from the clients I shot weddings for ten years ago, even five years ago, we live in a digital age were everything is accessible through the internet and everything moves so fast, it’s critical that as wedding photographers we move also and constantly reinvent ourselves. It could be argued that if you shoot a wedding in the same style you did five years ago or even two you have lost the one thing you strive to produce, that is original work. It’s easy to go to a wedding and take the easy route, if you know something works why not simply stick to it and shoot the same photographs over and over again, the problem with this is you will never improve as a wedding photographer or develop your unique style, the result is you will never be completely satisfied with the results. It is important that as wedding photographers we do not lose our ability to try new things, if what you do now is the same as you did ten years ago you have lost the art of learning and the ability to see things with your own eyes, it’s time to take a look at what you do.

It can also be to the detriment of your clients if they are not getting the unique images that they commissioned you for. Working within the limitations is fine for the standard shots that need to be taken but it’s good to be looking for new images and originality when you are shooting, today wedding photographers have a dilemma, if we do not experiment we run the risk of becoming conditioned and shoot the same style of images every time we are at a wedding or by challenging ourselves and doing something different, do we take the chance that the client may not like the images produced as they are too far away from their expectations. This is why I like the work of new wedding photographers, their work is fresh due to their lack of experience and they have not fallen into the ‘if it works’ trap. They have yet to find what works best for them and are constantly experimenting to find their style.

Once a good wedding photographer develops their style it is important for them to get consistency of that style through the complete story of a wedding day. It is very easy to take an individual image in a particular style but it is much harder to carry this through all the different areas involved in shooting a wedding. Wedding photographers wear a lot of different photographers hats on a wedding day, they need to be a lot of photographers rolled into one.

Commercial photographers shoot a lot of still life and product photographs, wedding photographers need this skill also to photograph the finer details of a wedding like the jewelry, wedding dresses, flowers, cars, cakes to name just a few. Press or documentary photographers are charged with capturing the importance in the moment to tell their story, wedding photographers need this skill also to capture all the unseen moments that happen between the couple and the interaction between the guests on the wedding day, only with the time constraints associated with a wedding day and whatever conditions that unfold in front of them, whether it be a sunny summer wedding or a dark winter wedding. The final skill that wedding photographers require is that similar to portrait photographers, a wedding photographer needs to able to capture people looking their best in a location not usually chosen by the wedding photographer, again they need to make the most of the situation and the location they find themselves in, unlike portrait photographers wedding photographers cannot cancel the shoot to another day if the weather is bad, they need to produce no matter what the weather is at the chosen location.

The best wedding photographers learn this through many years of experience, it takes this time to be able to make the right decisions under pressure that will still get the best results for their clients. This skill only comes from practice, great wedding photographers have a built in instinct and have honed their skills through time, this experience to read any situation means they can predict what is about to happen, react and capture the moment. This enables them to find the moments that tell the real story that goes unseen by the untrained eye.

If there is one skill that wedding photographers must have that is unrelated to wedding photography it is to be a good communicator and be outgoing. To get the best from your clients and to get them to work with you, it is very important that you have a good rapport with them and are able to convey your ideas to them in a relaxed manner. The only way to do this is through good communication of how you envisage the wedding will unfold and by building a trust with them. If your clients know what is expected of them and you both are aiming for the same thing then you and your clients need to work together to achieve this. It is only through miscommunication and lack of understanding that there will be an unsatisfactory outcome.

On a wedding day it is equally important to be able to work under pressure and not to lose your patience with your clients or wedding guests, there is nothing worse than a grumpy wedding photographer. You need to remember as the wedding photographer you are there to capture the day, not to hijack it. Great wedding photographers work smoothly and as efficiently as possible, they have the ability to find the right balance of getting the directed photographs the clients require but not impede on the couples day to the point of them missing their entire wedding day to an over indulgent wedding photographer. Good wedding photographers have a sense of when to adjust their approach of what they are shooting and know when it’s time to let the clients relax and enjoy themselves and capture other things less intrusive.

It is equally important as a wedding photographer to be open to your clients ideas about how they envisage their wedding to unfold and not dismiss their suggestions, for the wedding photographer the challenge is to take the clients ideas and interpret them into a wedding photograph that is in the photographers style, to not do this is to not do your job properly. The importance of listening to your clients needs and asking them for their inspiration has to be the main priority and most clients appreciate that to produce great work you must take the time to try new things so their photographs will stand out from the rest and be unique even if there is a small element of uncertainty. Ultimately a wedding album is a collaboration of ideas and inspirations between you and your client.

Although a good technical ability coupled with good cameras and lenses are important, it is less important that the others mentioned. Good wedding photographers are artistically driven and are less interested in the science of camera equipment. They are more interested in the result it achieves and are only interested in a camera or a lens if it can help them with a look that they are trying to produce. Great wedding photographers see their camera equipment as merely a tool and will more often than not know the cameras full features as they prefer to produce photographs manually through their own skill and not by a clever camera or Photoshop skills. They learn the technical skills they need to know for the sake of their photography but do not see the need to over work their images to the point they become unrecognizable from the original captured image.

In my opinion these are the main facets that all great wedding photographers possess, they are passionate about their work and continually strive to take better pictures. The top wedding photographers always strive to become better at what they do, they are rarely happy with their work and are their own worst critic, even if the client is happy. They always see were they could have improved and a way of taking a better photograph and never see themselves as the best. It is more than a job to them, more than getting any accolades or awards, it is all about the photography, their art. They continually take pictures of anything and everything that interests them even if it is un-commissioned.

To be one of the great wedding photographers in the world is a lot harder than anyone could imagine, there are very few that fall into this category, a lot claim to be but only a tiny percentage of them really are.