06 Oct Myths about wedding photography

Myths about wedding photography

There is still a lot of misconception about wedding photography. It’s one of those jobs that seems so simple. And in a lot of ways it is simple – after many years of experience, hard work creating a certain style and learning about every aspect of the business and the creative side, the technical and marketing side, the consistency and drive. Today I’d like to talk about the misunderstandings about wedding photography in hope that having a better understanding will assist couples in choosing the right photographer for their big day.

Wedding Photos have to be pretty

One of my biggest values is the real moment. I talk about it all the time. Pretty shots that are perfectly posed and styled often don’t bring those feelings of a real raw emotion. It looks nice to the eyes. I often need more than that. I need an emotion. Each photo is a story. Capturing the uniqueness of each person, situation or moment is what makes the images whole. You will love those pretty shots for a while and over time your relationship with images changes and you will always cherish the images that tell the story of your big day. Your wedding day is about love and the people around you, about excitement and joy, laughter and great vibe. When images reflect the real you, the real vibe of the day, the real happiness it is inspiring and uplifting.

The better camera the better photos

Skilled professionals, not cameras, make good photography. Dedicating time to hard work, training, performing under pressure is a part of becoming a good photographer. Then there’s the talent and passion every photographer would possess. That is what makes great photography. Cameras are tools. I, personally, choose an expensive camera and equipment for reliability and usability. By that I mean, technology just goes forward and with each new model there’s always something technically exciting and usually it’s not about the quality, more about the performance. This is where my geeky side comes out. For example, I really love the fact that I can change most settings while I am still looking through the viewfinder. This, for many photographers, is an important feature about their camera. This allows us to capture moments fast and on time. This gives us freedom and speed. Often with just changing the position slightly, either towards sun or away from the sun, or pointing towards the shade – the light changes. I need to be able to change the exposure settings quickly, almost super fast so I get the results I aim for. Other amazing feature I love about my camera is how wonderfully my manual focus flip button is positioned. I LOVE to use this on the dance floor. This gives me flexibility and capturing fast action with a great accuracy. Absolutely love this. As you can imagine, I pretty much need to know what all these buttons are for. Using my skills, experience and knowledge is what makes good photography.

“I don’t like my photos taken, wedding photography is a waste of money”

Your wedding is about the true moments, the vibe of your special day, the laughter and tears, spending quality time with your loved ones, celebrating love… The emotion captured that will bring those feelings years later when looking back at the wedding photos. That is exactly what you will want years from now, to be reminded of your day and re-live it again. So don’t worry about what you look like or that you are not good at posing. Find the right photographer, perhaps an informal wedding photographer who will take natural shots and not take much of your time from friends and family.

Everything can be photoshopped later

We are artists, not magicians. Photoshop is a wonderful editing program and we all use it. Although, you can’t make up a moment that doesn’t exist or why would we want an unrealistic images? Some of the most important moments won’t repeat, you can’t fake them or photoshop them into your images. Wedding photographers generally don’t enjoy creating reality that didn’t happen, it’s not where our skill is. Our skill is to do the job right in the first place, on the day, on your wedding day while shooting. And isn’t really life more fun and more valuable to us? Actually taking photos does most of the job. Editing the images is a time consuming process but taking good photos is a highly skilled job which is the core of good photography.

The more expensive wedding photographer the better quality

When you receive a quote from a photographer and you are simply ‘wow £3000?’ Sometimes you ask how could wedding photography be so expensive? And then, for obvious reasons, you find yourselves thinking that there must be a good reason why certain wedding photographers charge so much. Perhaps they’re one of the best in the area or country. Perhaps they are in high demand or they are simply incredible and perfect. This could all be true, and they probably take really stunning images and are great photographers. Although, do you really need to spend so much money for wedding photography? Definitely no. High rates don’t always mean better quality of photos and often an affordable wedding photographer is just as skilled.

The cheap wedding photographer

This is pretty obvious, too. When you get quotes below £800, you get excited and think you found a great deal. Then you think how could photography be so cheap? We all know there must be a reason why someone would charge a very low price. Perhaps they’re new to the business and just building a portfolio. We’ve all been there, this is natural to all starting up business. Perhaps they don’t understand the logistics of what it means to shoot a wedding, editing, correspondence, website and marketing time etc. An experienced wedding photographer knows that each wedding involves 40+ hours if they want to deliver great work. An experienced photographer also knows the cost of their expenses which some of us pay about £4000 a year for advertising only. Not to mention other expenses, it is a business like others. How important to you it is to hire a photographer that you can rely on and on one of the most special days of your life. Would you be willing to take the risk just so you can save a little bit of money?

Wedding photography is an easy job

We do really love our job, taking photos of happy moments is simply a dream come true to many of us. It can definitely be challenging, long hours, heavy equipment, constant attention to detail, non-stop motion and always making effort, showing no sign of stress and hard work (this is a real mastery). And with all of these challenges it is very important to be in the moment and just surrender. Because when you surrender you become a part of the real moments. It’s a true art – getting those perfect timeless shots. When things don’t go as planned, mastering the art of overcoming challenges with a good spirit is a must. Experienced photographers can make their job look easy, working under pressure and getting their job done look artfully. After the wedding day, really long hours sitting at your dest and editing. While editing jobs are adding up we have to deal with correspondence and website updates, marketing side of things. I could go on.

Personal Thoughts

As an alternative wedding photographer in London I have worked all around the UK and abroad, I love my job and I can’t be happier about my business choices and my work life. Although, it has been a long journey, I wasn’t always this happy, I had doubts, I wasn’t satisfied with my results a lot of the times, difficulties were off putting, rejections were hard and all that time and effort I put into my business were not smooth. But I created all this from scratch and my long journey and hard work paid off and I can’t imagine doing anything else.