Documentary Wedding Photography - Your Questions Answered

Whilst many photographers shoot solo, the choice of whether a second photographer is needed generally comes down to either the photographer’s style of shooting or the practical necessity of being in more than one place at a time to capture simultaneous events (or both!).

We personally always prefer to shoot as a duo as this allows us the opportunity to explore the stories of your wedding in more depth, be fearless in our pursuit of original imagery and offer different perspectives of the day whilst still ensuring that the central storyline is always at the forefront of our minds.

Whilst some photographers find commencing a site visit or having worked in a wedding venue previously to be an advantage this is not always the case. Whilst portrait-based photographers may wish to seek potential backdrops to their photographs in advance, ultimately for non flash users it is the available light on the wedding day itself that will likely define the best areas to shoot in.

Whilst there are certainly exceptions to the rule, for most documentary wedding photographers or street wedding photographers there is often little or no advantage to having previously encountered a particular venue as the spontaneous nature of this style of photography and the people based approach means that it is impossible (and often unhelpful) to plan specific shots ahead of time.

Professional wedding photographers and videographers should of course always be doing their utmost to work together throughout a wedding day and mostly do so without any problem. However it’s important to consider the individual styles of your wedding photographer and videographer before putting them together as, whilst in 99% of cases photographers and videographers work together seamlessly, there can occasionally be clashes of style that can inadvertently lead to some difficulties during certain parts of a wedding day. For example if booking a documentary wedding photographer it’s important to understand that to get their best imagery they will largely be working spontaneously from moment to moment, so booking a videographer with a carefully orchestrated, pre-planned structure to their shots may not always be the best fit, and vice-versa.

For our part we love working with videographers and are happy to work with anyone. If you’re looking for a videographer that shares our documentary style though we of course recommend our own York Place Films!

Click here to find out more about the similarities and differences between wedding photography and videography and how we work together as documentary photographers and videographers.