Wedding Photography – Just How Specialized is it?

A Post By: Lily Sawyer

Specializing in photography is all the rage right now. Being a specialist is synonymous to being an expert. Being an expert means you are more trustworthy, what you say and what you do carries more weight, and people can have deeper confidence in your knowledge.
A specialist focuses their ability on one area of photography, and concentrates growing their knowledge to a very detailed degree within that area. The words special and specific come from this word, and further drive home its meaning.

To specialize or not to specialize

To specialize or not to specialize – that is the question. For many photographers wanting to stand out and be different, to be known and able to demand higher prices, this is a question they are facing. There are many genres of photography you can choose to specialize in such as: landscape, black and white, cityscape, macro photography, musicians and bands, portraits, people, events, weddings, baby, newborn, children, families, and fine art, just to name but a few. These areas vary in their specificity so that “people photography” can be as specific as it can be general – depending on how specialized you want to be. Nowadays, specialisms are being pushed into more defined niches such as…

Examples of niches

Weddings – outdoors only, city weddings, big weddings, intimate weddings, six hours wedding coverage only, add on a variety of wedding styles such as vintage, modern, contemporary, classic, chic, etc.
Family – lifestyle only, portraits only, everyday candid photography, black and white only, active families only, adventures only, sunset and golden hour only, etc.
Children – 0-3 years only, 4-11 years only, teens only, newborn, studio, etc.
Street photography – black and white only, daytime only, night time only, etc.
Portraits – natural light only, studio light only, on location only, etc.

Just how much of a specialism is wedding photography?

Let’s deconstruct a wedding day to its main components in terms of the subject to be photographed, the skills that may be required, as well as the suggested lenses to use.

Subject: scenery and locations
Skills required: landscape
Lenses needed: wide angle zoom lenses, and fast primes; 16mm, 24mm, and 35mm

Subject: bride and/or groom getting ready
Skills needed: candid, reportage, portraits, macro for the accessories, people skills!
Lenses: 24-70mm, 35mm, a good macro lens

Subject: the wedding ceremony
Skills needed: documentary photography, creative, capturing emotions, special moments
Lenses needed: 70-200mm, 24-70mm, fast primes (working often in low light conditions)

Subject: details of the wedding day
Skills needed: creativity, an eye for composition and colour, etc
Lenses needed: a macro lens, primes with large apertures

Subject: group portraits
Skills required: suffice to say you really need to have a solid understanding of the exposure triangle and depth of field
Lenses and gear needed: wide and zooms (you may also need speedlights and other lighting gear)

Subject: portraits of the bride and groom
Skills needed: portrait photography experience, creativity, wide scenes, night scenes, people skills
Lenses: 50mm, 85mm, 105mm, 70-200mm, wider primes and zooms

Subject: reception and leaving
Skills needed: lighting and use of flash, cake and food photography, working in low light conditions
Lenses: 24-70mm, 70-200mm, macro, large aperture lenses like a 50mm f/1.8

To be a good wedding photographer, at the very least, you need to know how to shoot each component mentioned above, to a degree better than the average person with a shiny new camera or DSLR can. You are being paid to do the job, and that’s the bare minimum expected of you. To be a great wedding photographer, you need to be confident in your skills to deliver amazing photos in all these areas.

As a wedding photographer just how much of a specialist are you?

How many wedding photographers wake up one day, pick up a camera, decide to be a wedding photographer, and shoot an entire wedding knowing only one single thing? I would hazard a guess that many successful wedding photographers have spent hours behind the scenes, learning the ins and outs of various types of photography and the appropriate lens to use for each. Or they have done sessions in many, or all of the other areas of photography listed above, to get to a place where they can photograph a wedding and all the elements that come with it, and reach a very good, if not first-class standard.

Wedding photography is a world of its own, and cannot be compared to something like purely wildlife photography or macro photography, and other highly specialized types of photography. Within the wedding photography world are various challenges, and you have to be a special kind of photographer to meet all those demands, while keeping cool and being on the ball throughout the entire day. Looking at this industry holistically, yes it is a specialism in itself given the amount of variety and skill required.

But the deeper question is, do you think wedding photographers are specialists, or do they have to be a bit of everything to be considered good, high standard, or even an exceptional wedding photographer? Can someone be a specialist in all these areas and apply these specialisms into one global category such as wedding photography? Does knowing a bit of everything to fulfill the demands of wedding photography make a wedding photographer a jack of all trades, or a wedding specialist?