What is Classical Wedding Photography?
Trying to understand the terms thrown at you by professional wedding photographers is difficult, here we try to explain what is meant by the style of classical wedding photography.
The modern wedding has taken a classical twist! Vintage is the fashion in the wedding industry at the moment and if you want to capture a contemporary wedding with a vintage twist, you will need an expert classical wedding photographer. The image below is supplied by Sussex wedding photographer Paul Johnson and won the Master Photographers Association Classical Wedding Photography award in 2010 for the South East region. This is a great example of classical wedding photography and epitomises the level of skills and training required to capture such a defined image.
Paul Johnson is one of the leading classical contemporary wedding photographers in the UK and has been for some time now. The image not only reflects his style but the modern trend. The setting is beautifully classical but the manipulation of the image to make it classical and capturing the image in the first place takes a high level of skill. You have to compose the image correctly and have the setting to create an award winning image such as this. If you are having a modern classical or vintage themed wedding then the location is paramount as it sets the theme and mood for the day and the images captured.
Within such images, there is no specific requirement for a pose, the shot is natural, reflecting the mood of the wedding day with the lighting being a key issue to the composition of the shot. To the layman, this image could be 100 years old but the composition is so well crafted that you know that this is modern. That is the key to capturing a really great classical image, to get the feel of a classical shot but not altering the image to the extent that it looks old within the style. You are not trying to tell a lie to the viewer of the image, you are selling a modern image captured in a classical style, not trying to sell the image as classical and captured before the advent of television.
As such, the post edit manipulation of the image that emphasises the classical feel has to be taken with great care and dexterity. The image editing needs to emphasise the lighting, the background and the styling of the image but not make the image look old within itself. Therein lies the skills required to capture a classical wedding photograph that abound in the image taken above.