The Styles of Wedding Photography: Editorial

It’s time at last to draw our exploration of the styles of Wedding photography to a close, and to finish we’ve chosen perhaps one of the most glamorous of photography styles: Editorial. If you’ve been following this series so far you’ll know that we’ve featured the work of some of the world’s best photographers alongside these posts to represent each style – Kevin Mullins for Documentary, Steve Gerrard for Contemporary, Emma Case for Alternative, Joanna Brown for Vintage, Fer Juaristi for Fine Art and Brett Harkness representing Classic. With a list like that we figured we’d better finish the series with someone truly fabulous, and we’re over the moon that perhaps the best known photographer in the world right now has agreed to help us with our final style, it could only be the amazing Jasmine Star.

Although she may not know it Jasmine and her own fantastic blog were actually one of the main inspirations behind us starting Bride Vs Groom so we’re thrilled to be able to include her work as we talk about a style that she encapsulates not just with her work but with her entire style and branding. The editorial style creates the type of photographs that belong in glamorous magazines, and that’s exactly where Jasmine’s work is regularly showcased. But let’s find out a little bit more about what Editorial really means.

The word editorial could be easily confused when thinking about this style – Editorial seems to suggest a lot of editing which (although sometimes the case depending on the photographer) is a little misleading. Editorial photography tends to actually have a very warm, clean, unedited look closer to the original photograph captured in camera than a lot of the other styles. The dictionary definition is perhaps closer to the truth:

 “Relating to the commissioning or preparing of material for publication”

Editorial wedding photographers are looking to make the couple look as glamorous as possible – effectively to make them look like models for the day, and their photography tends to be heavily fashion inspired. Editorial often best suits the fashionista bride, the avid readers of vogue and vanity fair – if you love poring over the photos in those mags and dream of being on those glossy pages yourself then editorial wedding photography is probably the style you’re going to most connect with.

Editorial is all about beauty – very flattering imagery carefully composed. If the ‘edit’ part of the word is not so much about the style of post-processing then it’s more about choosing exactly what should be included in the frame to make up the most flattering picture. Editorial wedding photographers tend to shoot quite close in, focussing on the people rather than the surroundings. If there is an “imperfection” in the background, for example a dog walking by, then the editorial photographer is likely to crop that out in camera and zoom in closer to avoid it, whereas a Fine Art photographer might find the dog one of the most interesting features of the image and actually draw more attention to it.  It’s about “editing out” the features that maybe don’t match the inherent glamour of the wedding day. That said, any images tend to be within the context of the wedding, so, for example, whereas an alternative photographer might take the bride’s shoes and photograph them somewhere unorthodox, an editorial photographer may well move them but would place them somewhere that blended perfectly with the rest of the day.

“A thing that you see in my pictures is that I was not afraid to fall in love with these people.”

~ Annie Leibovitz

As you might expect with magazine-like images, editorial photographers tend to focus more on posed imagery than documentary moments. Their wedding work is often accompanied in their portfolio by lots of “styled shoots” – photo-shoots set as if taking place at a wedding but actually carefully orchestrated and often using real models to show off wedding products as well as showcase their own work. If they were to take group shots they would probably place everyone very carefully into the scene one by one and give each person precise directions to ensure it looked absolutely perfect. This might take a little time to get right and editorial wedding photographers generally enjoy working with couples who are happy to allow their photographer creative control and follow their instructions.

Editorial wedding images tend to be quite soft and bright, partly to soften skin tones and remove blemishes in-camera, but also to help to create a very even look and draw the eye straight to the image. Remember these are images designed to look great in a magazine – an environment where it’s all about grabbing the reader to stop and really look at the picture rather than just skim past it. Editorial wedding photographers tend to prefer to shoot in bright, natural light to create the most flattering image and use it as a tool to capture great beauty in the most beautiful way possible. It’s generally a very even image, rarely going for big contrasts or heavy shadows but using subtle differences in tone to draw attention to the couple without accenting anything too heavily.

Every bride wants to feel beautiful and glamorous on her wedding day and Editorial photography aims to evoke that feeling in every couple. It’s not just about the photographs, it’s about the experience of being photographed – that feeling of being the most important person in the world, the most beautiful and glamorous person, of being photographed like a celebrity, the centre of attention, the one that all eyes fall on when they enter the room. Most of us live fairly anonymous everyday lives and your wedding day is the one day that’s all about you. That should be enjoyed, and great editorial photographers help to expand and enhance that feeling as well as provide you with photographs of you looking the best you’ve ever looked. In the words of Jasmine herself it’s simply about being FABULOUS! 

And so concludes our exploration of all the different styles of wedding photography, we hope you’ve found them a useful starting place to go about finding the right type of wedding photographer for your own wedding. Thanks again to the wonderful Jasmine Star for allowing us the use of her stunning images for this post and to all the other fantastic photographers who’ve helped us create this little series.

If you’d like to find out more about Jasmine or see some more of her fabulous work you can check out her awesome website and blog at www.jasmine-star.com

You can find links to the rest of the posts from this series below: