Every photographer approaches wedding portraits differently. Some photographers will simply record the traditional formals in a half hour before or after the ceremony. Then, they will just leave it at that while getting back to documenting the spontaneous moments of the day. However, the more adventuresome pros will take the portrait concept and run with it, bringing the art form to new levels of creativity and impact. The results are portraits that often convey the depth of the subjects personalities, and can be expressive, and or full of energy.
The key to capturing creative portraits is to gain the trust of your subjects and to get them to buy into your vision. Once they are on board, it gets progressively easier to suggest unorthodox portrait ideas. And sometimes the bride, groom or member of the bridal party will come up with their own off-the-wall ideas for portraits. During our portrait sessions we like to play a bit with our clients, which requires their trust and a willingness to invest in our creative ideas.
The whole thing is just having fun while letting them know exactly what it is we’re trying to get. We reassure the bride and groom that we have an awesome shot, and we continually talk the whole time. We know the names of the people in the wedding party and people know us by the end of the wedding.
We tend to pre-visualize our images and script them out in our heads, but sometimes we fly by the seat of our pants, and what ever comes along we will shoot it. So I guess it is part of putting all of those things into place and creating an environment where the emotion and the spontaneity can occur, encouraging that to happen, and having the right light and the technical ability to capture that. As with the stricter side of wedding photojournalism, creative portraiture requires the practiced ability to anticipate and to be in the right place at the right time, a skill that becomes intuitive with more experience and the right chops.
We start with one pose, but then the pose will evolve as each of us works with that person or that couple. We move the light, then walk around and it will evolve into something completely different or extraordinary. It regularly happens when we shoot our portraits, and its great for us to see. It’s a synergy that comes out when we put everything all together and put everything into place.
When couples come to visit our studio the first thing out of their mouth is usually we notice that we capture a lot of expression and emotion in our images. And those are the couples who book us. They are attracted to us because they know they are going to see a lot of emotion in their wedding day pictures.
Steve & Sarah Mills wedding photography
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