Wedding details - photographs

Wedding details. For many, detail shots from a wedding are never considered and certainly not given any priority. Of course there are far more important photographs on a wedding list of priorities, but if I am booked for a Level 2 or higher I will always include some detail shots as a record for the bride and groom. I had a few pre-wedding consultations this week and as we were looking through a sample album one bride commented on some of the detail shots that had been included and said I didn’t need to bother taking any pictures like that for her on the day. Now of course I’ll work in accord with whatever the couple wishes, but I am also happy to offer advice and suggestions that may be beneficial, so I asked her if there was any particular reason for her decision? Basically, she simply felt there was no need for them. However, they do have some merit that can easily be overlooked.

I’m going to run through the gist of my conversation on this subject and you can decide for yourself if you feel they’d have any worth in your wedding day photographs. But please bear in mind that even if I do take some detail shots on your day they won’t go in your album unless you select them, so in many ways you really have nothing to lose.

Your wedding photographs are your memories from what is the most important day of your life. For the most part the photographs will be the only tangible thing you retain from the day that will be brought out repeatedly over the forthcoming years. The wedding dress, shoes and all the accessories will likely not be worn again. The cake will get eaten. The flowers will be gone and the wedding car returned. Okay, I’m not going to go on and on…don’t want to depress you too much, lol! But that’s why I think its nice to have a photographic record of these items so you can remember exactly what they looked like and how much they contributed to enhancing such a special day.

Lets take one example…the wedding cake. This is a costly item if bought and perhaps even more precious if a close friend or relative has baked and decorated it for you. If you don’t have a picture for your collection will you recall exactly what it looked like in a few years time and how it was displayed as well as all those intricate details that went into the decoration? At most of the weddings I’ve attended the wedding cake is put out in a prominent position on display before the wedding breakfast. Virtually all the guests at some point will saunter over and pay admiring looks. However, for the bride and groom the wedding day unfolds so quickly they seldom get chance to even see the cake until its time for the cake cutting ceremony.

It is similar with the ceremony and dining rooms. Because I arrive ahead of the majority of attendees I get to see the ceremony room and dining rooms straight after they have been set up and before anyone enters them. They always look absolutely beautiful and I cant help but think of how much time and discussion has gone into the layout, the decorations, the placements, the settings and look of the rooms and how during these deliberations, probably between the venue manager and the bride, groom and family, every member involved has tried so hard to visualize how the room will actually look when all the details are in place. And yet, the bride will never see them at their best! When she sees the rooms for the first time they are full of guests. I’ve had so many brides express their delight when going through their photographs and then suddenly seeing how their rooms looked all adorned and set out just as they had tried so hard to imagine in the days before the wedding.

There’s another reason why I like details shots, too. And that’s because they make good supplemental page shots. Very often I may be working on a page design with say a couple of important pictures but there is an empty space that if filled would improve the page look. However, you don’t really want an additional image to detract from the two photographs already selected for that page. This is where a detail shot can be ideal. It fills the space on the page giving the spread a nice balance but because it’s a detail shot it doesn’t conflict with the two main photographs, rather it serves as a complement. This type of use can be particularly helpful with linking images in a Storybook album or Image Book.

Anyway, that’s my viewpoint on the merit of detail shots. I’ve included a few here from the last few weddings I’ve photographed. A couple of these were selected for the newly weds album but most of the images are so recent the bride and groom haven’t yet finalized their photograph selection so it will be interesting to see how many get chosen.