How to Tell Stories with your Wedding Photography
- PPGCS
- Aug 1
- 4 min read
Andrew Selby - PPGCS VP
Each photo should tell a story, and a story that is self-contained, so that anyone who looks at the photo instantly knows what is happening and the context of the scene. Now you might think that’s obvious and easy to do, and almost every photo does this. But I’m going to tell you how MOST wedding photos fail at this and how you can become a storyteller as a wedding photographer.
Why is telling a full story important?
Well, a wedding photographer’s ONLY job is tell their client’s story through photographs. We should judge photographers on their story telling capabilities first and foremost. Look and style are personal preferences, but storytelling is objective. 5, 10, or especially 20 years after a bride and groom’s wedding, they are going to forget a lot of the context of their wedding pictures. They might remember a few special details about the day, but everything else that they remember is going to be limited to what was captured on their wedding day. Their photographs are going to preserve the memories of their special day.
A poem isn’t great because it uses refined prose to describe a mountain, what makes the poem great is when it draws out our humbling awe that the mountain makes us FEEL. Or how a poem connects two seemingly unrelated concepts into a unified idea through the use of metaphor or simile. A great poem combines multiple elements into one story, a great photograph does the same. So the way to tell how full of a story a photograph has is simply to see how many elements are in the photo and how well those elements play together. The wedding story is bigger than just the couple, there’s a reason couples invite the guests they do. They want to celebrate with them and have them be a part of their wedding too! The more elements, the fuller the story. Often that simply means a wider field of view. But more isn’t always better, all the elements also need to work together and be unified in a single goal, that’s the difference between a noisy cafe and a world class choir. There isn’t a single, unified goal in a noisy cafe.
So what does combining multiple elements look like for wedding photography?
You can have a photo of the couple cutting their cake, which is a single element, or you can have a photo of the couple cutting cake with all their closest friends and family cheering them on in the background, that’s multiple elements telling a much fuller story. You can have a photo of their first kiss, that tells a focused and narrow story, or you can have a photo of their first kiss that includes the bride’s mom wiping a happy tear in the background, that tells a wider and complete story, it gives context to the subject of the photo. This applies to detail shots as well. The decorations they spent hours scrutinizing over don’t exist by themselves, they compliment all the other decorations! Why shouldn’t detail shots include those other elements too?
And every story is a human story, so including details in the context of how they are meant to be used and enjoyed by us humans tells a fuller story than just a photo of the detail by itself. A simple example of this is a detail shot of a signing book, it’s part of the wedding day and should be captured. But, a guestbook is not just to look at, it’s there for guests to fill out, so a much better photo is one of guests filling out the guestbook. A ring shot is nice to have, I love ring shots as much as anyone, but a photo of rings being worn by the newlyweds, along with other details like a necklace, boutonniere, bouquet, tie, or even the couple’s smile is a much more complete and compelling story than that of a photo of just the rings by themselves.
Having a focused photo of just a single element is fine, there is nothing wrong with those photos, they go great in albums next to other photos. You just need to also have photos of the whole scene. Just think about how your clients are going to experience their wedding photos. Unless they are flipping through their whole wedding album, their probably only going to view 1 or 2 or maybe up to 5 of their wedding photos at a time. Will those few photos tell enough of a complete story, or will they be missing some context?
If you can market yourself as a photographer over just a photographer, you set yourself apart from the thousands of other wedding photographers out there. Ask yourself if your portfolio photos capture multiple elements. Do your photos tell a complete story with plenty of context? Or, are your photos of single subjects, missing context of the full scene?
Andrew Selby is a wedding and portrait photographer and videographer. Andrew has been a professional photographer since 2014 and runs the photography education YouTube channel "The Philosophy of Photography". He focuses on capturing and telling his clients' authentic stories.
Website: https://andrewselbyphotography.com
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