Wedding season is soon upon! Are you keeping current on wedding photography trends? If you are not, you risk becoming staid as a photographer - a sure step toward losing clientele. We are confident these are a drop in the bucket and more will arise throughout the year. We also believe in setting our trends when it comes to our photography. It's how to stay competitive in the world of fine art wedding photography!

Here are a few things we see trending in wedding photography - including the return of a few old favorites!

Group Styling:

Wedding group pictures are getting more attention than ever and gone are the days of just lining up the wedding party and snapping your pictures. Artistic wedding party portraits are critical to any modern wedding photography today. It is important as a professional photographer to spend some time planning these important group shots before you get in there. Group wedding pictures today look more like a professional modeling shoot with its high-fashion styles and well-choreographed poses. Gone are the dull lined up at the altar photos of three decades ago. These pictures aren't as formal and stiff as they used to be when it comes to posing. The rising trend in outdoor weddings has given way to a rise in more free-flowing look to group wedding pictures. 

Film Photography:

There's a lot of talks lately about film photography making a comeback -particularly in wedding portraits. Whether or not this becomes a lasting trend is another story, but there's certainly a lot of talk about it. And, some photographers harkening back to the old days of film. It is not for everyone and, remember, that you can emulate much of the same look of film photography using digital photography and Lightroom. It's entirely personal whether you want to go back to film photography or stick to digital photography and achieve the look in Lightroom.

Documentary-style Photography:

Most brides want their wedding pictures to be more than pictures. The want the pictures to tell a story and to have both creativity and depth to them much like a documentary or journalistic photography. It can be a challenge for a photographer, but the results are terrific. And, besides, you always want to give the client was they want! Wedding photography is beginning to employ some of the tricks typical of documentary-style photography.

Creative Photography:

Beyond storytelling as part of wedding photography, brides are also asking for more creativity. Think back to photography typical of the 1970's when darkroom tricks such as superimposing pictures with a background were used to jazz up pictures. 

Artificial Lighting: 

Wedding trends have been all about outdoor weddings and photography has had to follow suit, of course. The photographer goes where the wedding and the bride go! However, that preference for all things natural, including lighting, is giving way to a more practical nature. Sometimes additional and artificial lighting is needed to achieve the effects you want or need in a picture. Don't be hesitate to pull out the flash and the lights for effect.