Real Weddings

I was reading this article, “Is That Shot Really From a Wedding?”.

Generally, when I’ve seen other photographers do styled shoots, they’re very honest about it when they post the photos. If you’re not familiar with these, it’s basically a portrait shoot that’s styled like a wedding, and a lot of planning goes into them: make-up artists, florists, stylists, models. Everyone involved gets to show off their work, which is why good photographers will be up front about how the shoot was done (and give credit where it’s due). They’re not trying to pretend that they just threw that shot together on the fly, or that your own wedding portraits will look just like this (unless you’re willing to devote the same time and planning).

As they say in the article, seeing these shots on a photographer’s site is no reason to run screaming in the other direction. Just see if they’re honest about it. Ask them about it. If they’re trying to pass off a styled portrait session as an organic shoot from an actual wedding, what else might they be misrepresenting? I’m always happy to show potential couples full weddings – all of the photos that I actually deliver to a couple. Why? Because anyone can get lucky and pull off 5 or 10 nice photos to post on their blog. But who only wants 5 or 10 nice photos?

I always encourage people to meet with their photographer in person, or at least over the phone. It’s much easier to tell if someone is being up front and honest with you in person, and you want to make sure the person you’re booking is who you think they are.

For the record, my wedding photos all come from actual weddings. I don’t have any moral or artistic issue with doing styled shoots, I just haven’t ever been inclined to do one. And what you see from me online is pretty much what you’re getting in person (I routinely refer to groomsmen as “dudes,” I make terrible jokes, I am legitimately mega-excited about your wedding). In case you were wondering.