What Documentary Wedding Photography Is.
So, Is Documentary Wedding Photography a Real Style?
Documentary, when it’s applied to wedding photography, basically means candid. It means that during the day I won’t be telling anyone what to do, or setting up toothy looking-down-the-barrel-of-the-camera shots. That being said, if you do want a few big group shots with everyone all at the same time, or a couple of more romantic couple photos, we can absolutely do that, too, but I’ll give you an activity to do, rather than posing you.
My actual style, as you can probably see from the website, is a bit eclectic. I like the mix between elegant weddingy moments and punchy laugh-snort snaps. I process the images through lightroom and/or photoshop so they’re all exactly how I want them and fully developed, but I don’t do any liquifying, or waist-cinching, or make up. Occasionally I’ll remove a glaring luminous exit sign - the bane of wedding photographers the world over - or get rid of a post sticking out of a head.
I love black and white images; there are just certain situations that are screaming out to be shot in black and white. High contrast, blacker-than-black blacks, and graphic elements are the name of the game. Black and white images feel more timeless, since they evoke a sense of past photography, and a time when black and white was the true art form. Colour photographs evoke more nostalgia because they contain all the nuances created by colour - from the clothes to the decorations.
What Documentary Wedding Photography Isn’t…
Documentary wedding photography isn’t me making ‘Thomas Bedwin-style’ photos with your faces in them. This is quite important because the element that sets documentary photography apart from other wedding styles is that it captures as much reality as possible. So, if you get married in a 16th-century villa in Seville, you’re photos will be of that. If you get married in your parents garden and then pop across the road to the pub, that’s what your photos will show.
Before I had decided to define my style as documentary, people at weddings used to ask me “Can you hide that thing?” or “Can we do it round the corner where you can’t see the whatever.” Sadly, this is not my jam. If you get married in a Georgian mansion there will be plenty of Georgian mansion in the photos, and if you get married in Halford’s car park be prepared to see some elevens and doughnut rings in your wedding coverage.
All of this is to say that the more honest and unique to you the photos are, the happier I will be.
Keep reading at the bottom
Who Is Documentary Wedding Photography for?
Documentary wedding photography is becoming more and more popular as people start deciding that they don’t want to worry about when to do the family formals, or when they’re going to squeeze in two hours of couple’s portraits.
This type of photography is ideal for couples who want to relive their wedding day just as it happened and be able to spend their day concentrating on their actual wedding.
It also means that, although my style is the same documentary approach, each wedding is completely unique because of differences in venue, weather, people, or culture, and there is no “OK, let’s do Thomas Bedwin’s couple shot next” sameness I force into the photography.
What’s the Big Documentary Deal?
The main benefit of documentary-style wedding coverage is that it allows you, the couple, to just forget about the photographer and spend all your time with your guests. That’s the point of your wedding, right?
Documentary photography aims to capture the wedding day exactly as it happened with all the unexpected spontaneous moments that no amount of planning could ever hope to reproduce.
A set of documentary wedding photos should be an emotional journey through your wedding day (or days!) filled with tiny moments as well as all the huge ones, and all the emotions that go with them.
One More Thing.
From my point of view, there’s one extra element that makes documentary wedding photography special; the candid nature of the photography means that there are usually a lot of lovely moments that you, the couple, didn’t even see. These can be as obvious as the bride/groom preparation when the couple is getting ready with friends and family, or something a bit more unexpected like your gran doing a cheeky shot at the bar.
Your memories of the day are cemented into the photographs, but there will also be little extra memories of small side stories that happened during the day that you might have missed.