Hire a wedding or a fashion photographer?

There are many disciplines in professional photography. The largest ones are fashion, still-life, interior and architecture, photojournalism and fine art photography. There are more out there of course, but notice that we didn’t list wedding photography?

Wedding photography is it’s own genre and has it’s own aesthetics, expectations and most importantly the subject is also the client. Wedding photography unfortunately also has a low barrier to entry. It’s quite easy for someone to buy a camera with a few lenses, do some online courses or workshops and voila—a new wedding photographer is born.

When I founded the studio it was very important that our studio photographers have a professional photography background outside of weddings. I made sure our photographers came from different disciplines. Our clients appreciate the outside perspective and love the editorial feel of their wedding photography.

Now consider this scenario: You hire a fashion photographer to capture your nuptial. Fashion photographers may bring an extra edge to portraits—but will miss the candid moments that make a wedding album so special. These photographers often shoot on sets where the environments are controlled by teams of stylists and assistants. And on top of it who they have in front of the camera are models who know how to pose. Some (not all!) may lack the skill set or aesthetics to get those natural portraits out of non-media trained couples.

Remember, a wedding is dynamic and things can change at a moment’s notice. It’s important for photographers to be able to quickly adapt to any shooting environment on a wedding day. Our team is trained to know the moments, the angles, the light and the tricks to get those great natural poses all the time.

The bottom line is this: You can hire a photographer that shoots in other disciplines, but make sure they also know how to photograph weddings. The best way to do this I by asking to see the real weddings they photographed. Then you’ll know