Wedding Photography questions

[raf_gti]

As a reasonably keen photographer I am keen that my wedding pictures turn out to be decent, I don't mind paying good money for fantastic shots but I object to paying good money for run of the mill.

I'm half tempted to speak with the local art college and see if any of there students would mind taking it on as a little project, in my mind's eye I have the look of 1950s B&W tabloid pictures. A hot of the press look so to speak.

Another look I quite like is the highly saturated and ultra wide angle approach, lots of funky angles and slightly abstract.

Do any of those descriptions make any sense?

Of course I will be happy with vanilla wedding photography but if I could somehow have the above ideas incorporated that would be great!

So I guess the idea behind this thread is to try and find some examples of the above ideas and also to get a feel if the idea of hiring a student is a recipe for genius or disaster?!

[dogbucket]

Have you tried searching around using the term 'reportage', that brings up the more interesting ones.

[raf_gti]

dogbucket said:

Have you tried searching around using the term 'reportage', that brings up the more interesting ones.

Thanks for that, ir does help when you know the right term to search for!

[Simpo Two]

I think you can tackle this one of three ways. One is to find a wedding photographer who has the style you want and then he will naturally do what he does best. Pay the man, job done.

Or you can find a different wedding photographer, eg me, and say 'We want the shots to be ultra wide angle and very saturated' and he or I will try to work to that brief, but it will not be our natural style.

Or you can get a student and give them a brief, but you will be very fortunate to find one who is much good at wedding photography or has the interpersonal skills to deal with 100 people at once, nor to battle with a technical conundrum whilst smiling and making polite conversation. (If they had the skills to do all of it well, then they'd be doing it for a living and not for £50...)

Of the styles you suggest, ultra-wide angle obviously has to be shot as such (and is generally unflattering for people) but B&W is done afterwards in processing subject to taste, so doesn't necessarily affect how you take the photo on the day. For example, I deliver all photos in colour as standard, with B&W as a free extra - and there are also many different ways to make a colour image B&W.

Any help?

[raf_gti]

Simpo Two said:

I think you can tackle this one of three ways. One is to find a wedding photographer who has the style you want and then he will naturally do what he does best. Pay the man, job done.

Or you can find a different wedding photographer, eg me, and say 'We want the shots to be ultra wide angle and very saturated' and he or I will try to work to that brief, but it will not be our natural style.

Or you can get a student and give them a brief, but you will be very fortunate to find one who is much good at wedding photography or has the interpersonal skills to deal with 100 people at once, nor to battle with a technical conundrum whilst smiling and making polite conversation. (If they had the skills to do all of it well, then they'd be doing it for a living and not for £50...)

Of the styles you suggest, ultra-wide angle obviously has to be shot as such (and is generally unflattering for people) but B&W is done afterwards in processing subject to taste, so doesn't necessarily affect how you take the photo on the day. For example, I deliver all photos in colour as standard, with B&W as a free extra - and there are also many different ways to make a colour image B&W.

Any help?

My ideal way at the moment would be to have a good value, vanilla photographer to do provide standard wedding fayre, we're not interested in spending hours and hours in various cheesy (to us) poses in locations.

However, if I could get a secondary photographer (the student) to float around at will and hopefully come up with some good shots I'd be more than delighted, certainly worth paying him his beer money and travel costs!

[Simpo Two]

raf_gti said:

My ideal way at the moment would be to have a good value, vanilla photographer to do provide standard wedding fayre, we're not interested in spending hours and hours in various cheesy (to us) poses in locations.

However, if I could get a secondary photographer (the student) to float around at will and hopefully come up with some good shots I'd be more than delighted, certainly worth paying him his beer money and travel costs!

I think that's a good idea. And if both photographers will give you their work as hi-res images on disk (like me) and you have any guests who are keen photographers, then you could add any of their results into the mix as well.

I don't do cheesy poses - unless asked of course - but 'vanilla' is not a word I've heard in this context before, so it could confuse others. If you mean reportage then it would help you choose and brief the photographer; if not, you'll need to define vanilla for them

Edited by Simpo Two on Tuesday 29th December 10:02

[raf_gti]

Simpo Two said:

raf_gti said:

My ideal way at the moment would be to have a good value, vanilla photographer to do provide standard wedding fayre, we're not interested in spending hours and hours in various cheesy (to us) poses in locations.

However, if I could get a secondary photographer (the student) to float around at will and hopefully come up with some good shots I'd be more than delighted, certainly worth paying him his beer money and travel costs!

I think that's a good idea. And if both photographers will give you their work as hi-res images on disk (like me) and you have any guests who are keen photographers, then you could add any of their results into the mix as well.

I don't do cheesy poses - unless asked of course - but 'vanilla' is not a word I've heard in this context before, so it could confuse others. If you mean reportage then it would help you choose and brief the photographer; if not, you'll need to define vanilla for them

Edited by Simpo Two on Tuesday 29th December 10:02

My idea of vanilla is nothing more than standard wedding photography, no real defined style as such.

I think '1950s papparazzi' could possibly describe what I'm aiming for but I'm buggered if Goggle will throw up any suggestions!

[Simpo Two]

raf_gti said:

My idea of vanilla is nothing more than standard wedding photography, no real defined style as such.

OK, well in that case I think for your main tog you should look at their websites for examples and choose the one that does it the way you like it. Just saying 'I want some standard photography please' could end in tears as your idea of standard may well not be the same as theirs, and as you can pay anything from £500 to £3,000 there's an awful lot of room for interpretation.

raf_gti said:

I think '1950s papparazzi' could possibly describe what I'm aiming for but I'm buggered if Goggle will throw up any suggestions!

The closest I can think of, short of hiring a fashion tog and doing it in a studio, is to start by looking for reportage ( = 'paparrazi') and then asking them if they will make black and white ( = '1950s') versions of the original images. I can certainly do both for you, and can travel to Lincs, but you may still not like my style so it's really up to you to start trawling sites until you find somebody you like in every respect!

I think the biggest potential pitfall here is in booking somebody that dosn't quite do what you want, then being disappointed afterwards. You have a very clear idea of what you want, but you have to let the photographer use their best skill and judgement on the day as you can't direct every shot.

[CivicMan]

Some RAF snappers are brilliant photographers.....

[raf_gti]

CivicMan said:

Some RAF snappers are brilliant photographers.....

Very True

Unfortunately the wedding isn't going to be in this country so I can't bribe them with beer

[Simpo Two]

raf_gti said:

Unfortunately the wedding isn't going to be in this country

So you'll either have to fly out two people (proper tog and student tog) or hire locally. Looks like you're going to end up with 'Dago Bailey'

[nick_bbb]

raf_gti said:

I think '1950s papparazzi' could possibly describe what I'm aiming for but I'm buggered if Goggle will throw up any suggestions!

Have a look at this wedding by my friend Neal Reed...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/retrophotouk/sets/721...

[Simpo Two]

nick_bbb said:

Have a look at this wedding by my friend Neal Reed...

Ah yes, though the fact they're all dressed up in 1950's clothes, Lambrettas etc does help more than a little!