What is lifestyle wedding photography?

As you plan for your wedding.. you scour the internet for wedding photographers. You’ll find photographers categ-orizing themselves as terms such as photojournalistic, traditional, fine-art and documentary. But what is lifestyle wedding photography? 

Each one has it’s own niche and each one is not entirely like the other. We will try to answer that here! 

Photojournalistic/Photojournalism

When you think of photojournalistic, probably the first thing that comes in mind is newspaper. In many ways it is. It’s the way of documenting the day – from moment to moment – without any interference. It’s raw and unfiltered, untouched and unbothered, it’s ugly and it’s beautiful. The photographer is just another person in the crowd. Photojournalism is very much a method of freezing the here and now.

Documentary

Documentary photography is a little different. It requires the understanding of the backstory and a vision and direction of the overall story. The photographer is the director with the goal to inform, educate and retell the story of the day through detailed shots, wide-shots of the surroundings to set the scene and candid and unobtrusive shots throughout the day to capture the essence of the people and subjects. It’s hands-off like photo – journalism but more thought-out and planned.

Traditional…

When I think of traditional wedding photography, I think of nicely posed portraits that almost scream “look at the camera”. These photos are well put together – very by the book. Candid moments are posed, and almost recreated. You’ll probably never see the photographer going around the crowds and just randomly taking photos of people. 

Fine Art

Think paintings. Think artwork at a museum. Think photos that shock you and make you go “WOW”. 

In the modern day, it may also include a dramatic lighting, and setups. When you look for a fine-art photographer, every detail is well thought-out and setup. Hands are perfect, veils are perfect, expressions are frozen in time like an artwork.

What is lifestyle wedding photography?

Lifestyle photography is a lot of things! It is also, not entirely defined in the wedding industry. But, the aim of a lifestyle wedding photographer is to use whatever means we need to tell your story and to document your life in a way that reflects your personality and tastes. We are fluid, free flowing. We use prompts like “walk slowly to me” or “pull her towards you”. We direct where your hands, feet and eyes should go – so you look the most flattering as possible. It’s organic posing and not rigid. And when we ask for that posed moment where we say “look at me!”.. we may say “CHEESE” just to get you to laugh because it might remind you of your mom making you take family photos! We do whatever we need to do to tell your story in the best way possible. And it’s ironic, but most of the time, when we ask you to pose… the best picture comes at the moment when you stop posing and you just end up laughing and loving the person in front of you! 

That’s what lifestyle wedding photography is. And that’s what we do and LOVE TO DO! 🙂