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Today we’re going to dive into the world of documentary wedding photography and discuss both how and why to embrace this style.
As you may know, there are many styles of wedding photography, and even those styles are customized and personalized by each wedding photographer or couple.
Documentary wedding photography is a style that’s here to stay because couples want the story of their wedding day told.
Even as someone who specializes in adventurous wedding photography, I have to know the techniques of documentary photography as it’s a big part of what I do and what my clients want.
In this article, we’ll talk through the what, why, and how of shooting in the documentary style so that you can up your wedding photography game.
Why Documentary Wedding Photography?
As I’ve already alluded to, I believe that documentary wedding photography is an excellent complement to whatever your wedding photography style is.
You may be focused on editorial or fine art wedding photography, but your couples will most likely also want you to tell the story of the wedding.
Event photography, in general, is about capturing what’s happening and documenting the events.
Therefore, it makes sense that you want to get better at documenting things.
So, let’s explore documentary wedding photography a little further to understand what it is.
Definition of Documentary Wedding Photography
Documentary wedding photography is a style that focuses on capturing candid moments and authentic emotions throughout the wedding day.
It’s often referred to as photojournalistic or reportage wedding photography.
This style of wedding photography aims to tell the story of the day as it unfolds naturally, without heavy intervention or direction from the photographer.
The emphasis is on documenting real moments and providing a genuine and unscripted portrayal of the couple’s special day.
This style of wedding photography often involves anticipating moments and capturing the flow of events without disrupting them.
The resulting images aim to convey the uniqueness of the couple.
Benefits of Shooting in a Documentary Photography Style
One key benefit of shooting in a documentary style is that it’s timeless.
As various wedding photography styles and trends come and go, the authenticity of photojournalism will always be a great way to preserve the memories of your couples.
There’s nothing like being able to capture authentic, unscripted emotions.
From a shooting standpoint, I also love photojournalism because it allows me to remain inconspicuous.
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Rather than directing, commanding, and interfering with the wedding day, I get to gently guide the couple into having a great day while remaining relatively unobtrusive.
It’s less pressure to capture something real than to try to create some ideal and unrealistic image of the day.
How to Shoot Documentary-Style Wedding Photography
If you’re still with me and you like the idea of documentary-style wedding photos, let’s talk through the main aspects of photojournalism and how to implement them.
We’re going to talk about candid moments, storytelling, and authenticity.
Think of these as three goals that we’re aiming for while we’re shooting a wedding.
Learn to Capture Candid Moments
Almost all of my couples lately tell me that one of their priorities is having photos of candid moments with their friends.
They want to remember laughing, smiling, and even crying.
To me, candid moments are about the experience, and capturing these moments will allow our couples to remember how much fun they had.
To capture candid moments we need to be present when moments of genuine emotion are happening.
That means we need to understand both the flow of a wedding day and the details of a moment.
Sometimes, we think of candid photos as snapshots; a quick click of the camera freezing a moment in time. But as professional wedding photographers, our goal is bigger than that.
We don’t want mediocre moments but rather moments that feel charged with emotion.
Luckily, wedding days are filled with such moments, from first looks to high-energy wedding receptions.
The first step in preparing to capture candid moments is to learn how to see them.
From there, you’ll learn to be patient as you wait for and anticipate the peak of the moment.
Consider the Broader Storytelling
Beyond thinking about capturing individual moments, we wedding photographers need to think about our overall storytelling.
In an individual photo, we can increase our storytelling by adding more details and context that tell the story.
For example, bridesmaids’ dresses hanging behind a group of girls laughing around lunch gives context that this isn’t just an ordinary lunch.
Beyond the individual photos, there’s an even greater story to tell.
When you start to think about delivering a slideshow or wedding album, you can create a gallery of images that tell a larger story.
Your slideshow or album might start with the anticipation in the getting-ready rooms and some scene-setting images of the venue.
From there, it builds to the first look or ceremony where the bride and groom are together.
The big moments, such as the first kiss, grand entrance, and first dance, are important ones to capture. But when you think about the larger story, little moments are important, too.
Transitions between the more significant moments help put the story in context and remind your couple of how they felt leading up to the big moments.
Stay Out of the Way of Authenticity
Lastly, authenticity is a big goal in wedding photojournalism.
As reporters and journalists, we want to tell a true and genuine story.
Our clients are increasingly being drawn to a more relaxed wedding photography style because they want to be and feel authentic.
Some photojournalistic wedding photographers are very strict about not interfering at all.
They consider themselves genuine reporters, and therefore they want to capture genuine moments.
You can decide how strict you want to be, as many couples will look to you for some guidance.
For example, I sometimes gently nudge the bride by reminding her of the time if we’re getting close to needing to be ready for something.
Or I’ll gently suggest one location over another for certain things to happen so that I have better lighting or backdrops.
Beyond that, I don’t want to be a part of the story; I want to tell the story.
How to Approach and Prepare for the Wedding
There are some things we can do to better prepare for the weddings ahead.
Capturing moments will come down to patience and being ready, but that doesn’t mean we can’t prepare for capturing moments.
Storytelling can’t happen until the story unfolds but we can still have a gameplan for the photos we think will make up the story.
In this section, we’ll talk through some things that we can do ahead of time to be prepared for success.
Communicating with Your Couple
One of the most important things you can do to ensure success is to communicate and set expectations with your couples.
Depending on how many weddings your couple has been to and what those experiences were like, you may need to give them some guidance on what to do.
Otherwise, without guidance, couples might feel like they need to be doing something for you when you want them to just enjoy their day.
The more comfortable they are just being themselves with you in the room, the better your candid images will be.
Therefore, explaining to them the benefits and methodology behind your shooting style is a great first step to helping them feel comfortable.
Another good step is to make sure you’re showing this style of photography in your portfolio.
Location Scouting
When you’re shooting on a wedding day, you want to be present and focused on capturing moments.
Therefore, it’s a really good idea to scout the various locations ahead of time so that you can have an idea of the best framing and composition.
That way, when you move between locations, you already know what to expect, and you can focus on capturing moments.
You’ll also get an idea of any tricky lighting or backgrounds that you might encounter and have time to come up with a plan in advance.
We’ll talk about challenges in the next section, but a little location scouting can help prevent challenges from even coming up.
Have a Gameplan
Lastly, having a game plan is a great way to start the wedding day.
This is like storyboarding, where you plan out the story ahead of time.
Weddings have a general storyline that you already know based on the timeline of the day.
You can use that timeline to map out the photos that you know you want to get.
(Here’s a checklist of must-have wedding photos that can be useful as a guide.)
The exact photos you may end up with won’t match your gameplan exactly but having the gameplan significantly increases your chances for success.
The more you can prepare, the more you can adapt.
It’s like I tell my couples, “Have a plan, but don’t get married to it!”
Challenges and Solutions
You’ve prepared, educated your clients, and planned your framing.
Now you’re ready to anticipate moments and capture all the images that will make the wedding story complete.
But then you’re suddenly thrust into a dark room, or everyone’s late and the timeline is thrown off.
In this section, we’ll talk through some common challenges when it comes to documentary-style photography on a wedding day.
Dealing with Tricky Light
Tricky light is a challenge for any style of wedding photography.
Unless you’re able to control and produce the lighting for every scenario, you need to learn how to use light and shadows in any and all scenarios.
I love sunset and golden hour. I live for epic portraits in beautiful light.
But unlike what we would think based on the Pinterest boards our clients build, sunset only happens once a day.
The all-day sunset is a dream. So is taking star photos at noon.
There are no shortcuts or secrets to learning how to be a better wedding photographer.
But there are some tips that I can give you that will make your road there a lot easier.
If you’re interested in documentary-style wedding photography, you’ll need to learn how to utilize natural light and minimal equipment.
I’m not saying you’re going to be a natural light shooter exclusively – you’ll want to learn how to use flash effectively as well.
But wedding days are often fast-paced at the most important moments, and you can’t always take the time to move your lighting setup around.
Luckily, you can learn how to shoot in low light by really understanding your camera settings for wedding photography.
If you can afford it, you can also use camera gear that’s incredibly effective in low-light conditions.
I rarely, if ever, have the sharpness or focus issues I had even five years ago.
And, you can take the time to learn how to see light and shadows everywhere, even in poorly lit rooms.
It’s important to look for opportunities for good light. They’re often there even if they’re hard to find.
Dealing with a Rushed Timeline
Another big challenge when it comes to documentary-style wedding photography is that the style requires you to be patient and anticipate moments.
You’re supposed to wait and observe and be ready for moments to build into something beautiful.
But sometimes the timeline goes off the rails and you find yourself out of time to get incredible candids.
My first tip is, don’t panic.
I’m talking from experience here.
I always start to panic if I was set up for an epic candid and then didn’t get to complete the frame.
But then I remember that I’m shooting thousands of photos on a wedding day and delivering only hundreds.
My couples aren’t going to know the moments I missed; they’re only going to love the ones I captured.
In addition to patience, a photojournalist needs flexibility.
Your observational skills extend beyond moments and details to the big picture.
If you anticipate that the timeline is going crazy, then you might dial back your over-ambitious perfectionism and make sure you get a solid shot.
Sometimes I focus on getting a nice solid photo so that I know I have something deliverable and then I get immersed in my photojournalistic mindset.
The key here is to come up with your own strategies for dealing with stressful events so that you can get back into the moment you’re trying to document.
Building Your Documentary Style Brand
The last step in becoming a documentary wedding photographer is to develop your brand to demonstrate to your couples what they can expect.
The best way to ensure you get to capture the kinds of photos you want, and that those photos end up being the kinds of photos your clients want, is to make sure you’re attracting the right photography clients.
Branding is all about learning the market, defining your target audience, and then building a brand that attracts those clients.
In this section, we’ll talk about how to build your photography brand to reflect your style.
This applies whether you’re exclusively targeting couples that love candids or in conjunction with something else.
Web Presence
Your overall web presence is the perfect opportunity to communicate your values and priorities when it comes to wedding photography.
If you’ve decided to embrace being a reporter of weddings, you’ll want to show the real, timeless, emotional, and authentic quality of your photos.
You may specialize in something else as well so you can find ways to integrate your strengths into a cohesive brand.
Many wedding photographers use taglines and text that discuss their style, vision, and approach.
This is a good way to set yourself apart and/or start to set expectations.
Portfolio
I’m a believer in having a portfolio on your website because it’s a great way for couples to see the type of work that they can expect if they hire you.
It’s important, therefore, that your portfolio reflects the type of images you want to create.
Include some strong emotional candids in your portfolio, and you’ll have your couples starting to picture themselves on their wedding day.
Emotions are a powerful connector.
Client Education
We talked about this above in the wedding style approach section, but it helps if your clients know what your goals are.
Whether on your website or in your initial meetings, it helps to communicate the value of photojournalism.
You can show candid images and discuss your goals for why these types of photos will be important to your couples.
Candid moments and storytelling are timeless: as trends and styles change, human emotions are always at the surface.
Communicating the value of photojournalism to your clients or potential clients will help them think about what they actually want their wedding day to be like.
Summary
Whew! We dove pretty deep into this idea of documentary, photojournalistic, reportage-style wedding photography.
Long story short, because we’re storytellers, documenting weddings isn’t as easy as it sounds.
While capturing candids may seem as easy as snapping a photo at the right moment, a lot goes into making sure that photo is powerful.
You want to consider your lighting and composition, controlling what you can and anticipating what you can’t.
Then, it’s essential to set yourself up for success with a good game plan and by scouting the locations.
And finally, you want to make sure you’re serving your clients by ensuring that your style of photography hits the right target market.
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