Your wedding photographs will stay with you for a lifetime. The romantic moments and the charming candids will retell this unforgettable day in your life forever. They’ll be preserved in an album full of joy and beauty that you can flip through daily. Eventually, your wedding photos will become moments in your family history, shown to children and grandchildren as glimpses into your life and love story. Therefore, your choice in wedding photography styles should be a choice that stands the test of time. As a professional wedding photographer, I can help you capture the trendiest shots or create a timeless collection for your once-in-a-lifetime day of love.
Understanding Wedding Photography Styles & Trends
Wedding photography trends emerge from all kinds of sources. Inspiration can come from celebrities and magazines, fashion and retro themes, and even social media and Pinterest. A style sometimes takes flight, and engaged couples everywhere envision their own wedding photos capturing a favorite hot trend. Wedding planning is an exciting process and is an awesome opportunity to express yourself creatively. It’s easy to fall in love with a wedding photography trend, especially when your favorite examples seem to capture incredible elegance or shared playfulness.
Popular Wedding Photography Styles in 2024
- Blurred Action in Motion: Prolonged exposure allows the camera to catch a sense of motion through blur. These dynamic photos show movement, often focusing on dance or moments of wedding fun. Blurred motion photos are eye-catching and unusual, breaking the mold of traditional stately wedding photography.
- Magazine-Style Spreads: Editorial photography has been trending for a long time, bridging the gap between classic and chic. It is typically staged and features high contrast. These photos tend to have high detail, clarity, and color saturation. They are, therefore, excellent for hanging on the wall and showing your regal side.
- Photojournalistic Candids: Documentary-style wedding photography focuses on candid moments that show the “true nature” of a couple and their guests. This approach steers away from poses or prompts. These photos tend to display moments of fun, silliness, and genuine emotion of a wedding at its most honest.
- Real Film: In recent years, there has been a surge in the popularity of film photography, particularly for weddings. While it is currently trending, it’s important to note that, before digital cameras were the norm, film dominated the photography landscape. Many modern couples are searching for photography that is unfiltered and unedited, leading more of them to opt for film. With film’s particular camera specifications and limited frame count, each shot is taken with purpose – making for a unique and unforgettable collection of memories.
- Fun Filters: Instagram and Snapchat have left a lasting mark on photography trends. This means some couples want to play with a combination of filters, stickers, and other effects in their wedding photos for the sake of upping their social media content game.
- Drone Aerials: Drone photography is a growing trend both in and out of the wedding scene. Drones can capture expansive scenes and high angles that a human could not normally reach.
The Ephemeral Nature of Trendy Photography Styles
One important thing to remember is that photography trends are temporary by nature. The hottest camera styles and effects today may be cold by next year. A little trendiness can be a lot of fun, but it’s also important to consider what kind of photos you want to last forever and become a part of your family history.
Read more about 2024’s hottest wedding trends here!
Timeless Appeal
Traditional wedding photography seeks to capture beauty, love, and elegance that stand the test of time. You want wedding photos that will look classy and romantic this decade, next decade, and a hundred years from now when your great-grandchildren are cooing over how stunning and happy you were on your special day. Classic wedding photography shows moments of beauty, romance, and fun that could exist at any point in time.
Timeless Wedding Photography Styles
- Golden Hour: Golden Hour is the time just before sunset when the landscape is painted in warm, soft light. This time is often set aside for wedding photography to get the perfect romantic tone for your wedding photos.
- Sweeping Veils & Trailing Dress Trains: Everyone loves the veil and train photos where the bride’s dress is the star, second only to the love shown genuinely between the happy couple.
- Tender Kisses & Dips: The perfect kiss photo will stay on your wall or cherished in your album forever. Depending on the personalities of the couple, this might be a tender forehead kiss, an eyes-closed moment, or a dramatic or playful dip.
- Dark & Moody: Some couples adore the drama of dark and moody wedding photography style, creating a dream-like ambiance that captures raw and authentic emotions. With rich and velvety hues, intense contrast, and the play of light and shadow, dark and moody photography gives your wedding photos a unique and enchanting quality that will take your breath away.
- Stunning Landscape: This treasured style takes advantage of a beautiful landscape, whether it’s a forest, a cliff, or the sparkling ocean, to frame the couple at its center.
- Black & White: Black and white wedding photography is as traditional as it gets, capturing expressions and actions in stark contrast and in a style that transcends color to bring the most exquisite details and emotions into focus.
The Enduring Beauty of Timeless Wedding Photos
When you choose a classic wedding photography style, the beautiful moments you capture will last a lifetime. Your wedding photos will compare in elegance and style to the most beautiful wedding photographs of times gone by and weddings to come, their elegance shining through in every shot simply by focusing on capturing beauty and joy above all else.
Balancing Trendy and Timeless Wedding Photography Styles
Of course, you don’t absolutely have to choose one or the other. Most modern couples know that they want a traditional album of gallery-worthy photos while also getting a few trendy shots for fun. It is absolutely possible to incorporate trendy elements in your wedding photography without sacrificing the enduring beauty of your collection.
Selective Use of Trendy Poses and Editing Styles
Trendy poses are fun for everyone. Couples and wedding parties like to get together, strike poses, and joke around during the photo shoot. It helps to loosen up, and your photographer can capture some great candids of everyone laughing together. You can also ask for a few photos to be edited in a trendy way for your Insta while still capturing everlasting beauty beauty by taking classic shots and using more artful editing styles the other photos.
Mix Contemporary Elements with Classic Composition
Composition, either contemporary or classic, is another element to consider. Most professional photographers are trained in classic composition, framing the subjects and the scenery to achieve a perfect balance – creating images that could hang in any art gallery. But that doesn’t mean they can’t get wild with a few shots. If you want a fun angled shot while your friends pretend to fall over, that can be silly and lighten the mood. If you want to whip out the comedy hats and glasses for a quick set, you can do that, too – even if most of your wedding party photographs are classic in style.
Collaborating with Your Photographer
The best way to achieve the perfect balance with your wedding photos is to work directly with your photographer. Talk about the trends you want to recreate as well as the classic wedding photos you have loved the most. Both you and your partner should bring a few examples, sharing your style preferences and overall vision of the ideal wedding album.
Your wedding photographer will happily collaborate to achieve everything you want to see in your wedding album. If you want some modern or highly-stylized shots, planning ahead is the best way to get them – especially if you also want an album of breathtaking wedding photos that will become part of your family history.
Showcasing Real Weddings
When it comes to weddings, often the best way to pinpoint what you want is to explore styles from real weddings. This can help you see how each photography style influences the way these happy wedding moments are captured and remembered.
Flory + Isaiah: High-Fashion with Pops of Color, Culture, and a Sports Car
Flory and Isaiah’s wedding is a great example of infusing a traditional classic wedding with elements of modernism and personality. This couple was definitely into style and fashion. While the groom’s suit was a classic cut, they chose a unique pattern for his jacket to make it stand out, and his bow tie and pocket square were a bright pop of red, a bold color choice they carried over to the bridesmaids’ dresses. Isaiah even sprung to include a neon green McLaren sports car in many photos.
Shei + Sammy: Classic Wedding with Color, Poses, and Balloons
Shei and Sammy chose a stylishly bold color palette paired with a very traditional dress and ceremony. The majority of their images feature classic photography style focused on elegance, balanced framing, and loving looks. But they also dove deep into the modern trend of First Looks, having one not only with each other, but also with their bridesmaids and parents. They also didn’t shy away from incorporating fun poses into their wedding party photos and ceremony processional. They recessed down the aisle in a blizzard of bubbles, sported fun sunglasses with their names at the reception, and had a Grand Exit surrounded by light sticks and glowing balloons. They’re another perfect example of balancing the contemporary with the classic.
Investing In Quality
Of course, no matter what style suits you best, it’s the quality of your wedding photos that matters most. You want to capture this once-in-a-lifetime day in a way that embraces your boundless joy for an eternity. Every romantic kiss and candid laugh is a memory you can keep forever. That is where you will find the most value when investing in a skilled wedding photographer.
These moments are immortalized with expertise and exquisite attention to detail. An experienced and talented photographer can work with you to capture both the trendy styles and the elegant moments with flawless precision.
Wedding Photography Styles to Last a Lifetime and Beyond
It is important to plan ahead to ensure your wedding album is the beautiful masterpiece that this day deserves. With the right wedding photographer, you can make style choices to reflect your unique personalities as you consider the longevity of each wedding photo. If you’re seeking a skilled and versatile wedding photographer in Southern California who is ready to collaborate on your unique style, reach out and let’s chat about making your wedding day vision a reality!
