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Is anyone skipping the posed shots?

Ali092011Ali092011 member
1000 Comments Second Anniversary 5 Love Its
in Wedding Photography and Videography Forum
I am gathering inspiration for when I begin to meet with photographers, and I'm realizing more and more that my taste leans more towards candids and those rare but beautiful "caught" moments. When I envision my wedding day, I picture myself socializing and dancing up a storm with my husband. I don't really want to use the cocktail hour as time to take the formal "bride with bridesmaids, groom with groomsman, bride and groom with groom's family, etc." Also, I can't imagine ever really looking at these pictures as memories of how the day went, as they are usually forced and stiff and at least one person in the photo has his eyes closed.

I was thinking about asking the photographer to focus on the people we love the most (parents, siblings, wedding party, etc.) and make sure to capture certain moments, but generally to take candids. A picture of my sister and I laughing over bowls of gelato will mean more to me in 20 years than a picture of us standing stiffly in front of some scenery.

I understand, though, that the formal pictures may be our only chance to get pictures of us with everyone we love. We're torn, because we don't want to blow our budget on pictures, so we want to get the best pictures possible in the least amount of time.

Will I regret not having all of those formal pictures?
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Re: Is anyone skipping the posed shots?

  • gymbugmj2kgymbugmj2k member
    Fourth Anniversary 500 Comments 5 Love Its
    edited December 2011
    is there a reason you cant have both?
    my photographer takes both kinds of shots (and he said the 'formal' ones only take about 10-20 min out of the day and are usually the ones that parents like for frames, etc)

    whats nice is that we get a digital release of ALL the photos (a cd of all the proofs) so we can choose to print whatever we want, wherever we want. so we can have our photog edit and print the ones we love, and then print the formal shots ourselves.

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  • fallbride1109fallbride1109 member
    5000 Comments Fifth Anniversary 5 Love Its Name Dropper
    edited December 2011

    What you want is more of a photojournalistic type of wedding photography, which is what most photographers do these days.

    From Wikipedia:  A wedding photojournalist is a person who takes photographs during a wedding using an alternative approach where images are captured spontaneously to emphasize moments and emotion. Much like photojournalists for the media, wedding photojournalists present the story of the day through their photographs. A wedding photojournalist typically shoots images quickly using available light or on-camera flash rather than using traditional, formal posing techniques and studio lights.

    However, most photographers still set aside 20-30 minutes for formals.  They don't take much time and honestly, your parents and grandparents are probably going to want them.  Formals were not important to me and I instructed my photographer to keep them to a minimum.  Still, there are some of them that I really like--even posed formals are not your parents' formals.  Emotion and joy can still be capture when guided by a good photographer.  Here are a couple of my "formals" that I love (the first one is of me and my sister).





    Planning the Meal
    With All the Trimmings
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  • NorcalLoveNorcalLove
    10 Comments
    edited December 2011
    We're doing the more staged pictures (me with my girls and me and my family, FI with his boys and FI with his family) before the ceremony, and FI and me after so that we can have more time with guests!
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  • angybanezangybanez member
    100 Comments
    edited December 2011
    One thing as a bride and a photographer, you need both when there are family members or friends who are not good with the candid shots etc. The formal pictures are there to ensure you have a picture of you and your family and friends(parents definitely like the formal pcitures to hang or frame) and then you have the photojournalistic lifestyle photography where we photographers capture the candids, the spur of the moment and more. Both actually look great in albums. In my wedding we actually didn't get a formal picture of me and my mom and to me that was sad. If there were two of me I'd be the bride and photographer, but alas it's making sure you have that list of shots you want is important and someone should be in charge of it (not you since you're supposed to be having fun!) to wrangle the masses and get it done quickly. This way like PP said, you'll have more time with guests and the reception!
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  • vexievexie member
    100 Comments
    edited December 2011

    The candid shots are so much fun to look at, to get a taste of what the day was like etc... but trust me, you'll want one or two formal portraits of yourself to frame.  I know of one couple who afterwards realized that they never got one shot of just the two of them together, looking at the camera, smiling etc.   The bride was devastated because she had no real frameable shots to give to her parents, put in the paper what have you.
    A good photographer can do both.  Many will have a second shooter who does all the candids while the main photographer takes the formal shots.

    I dont think you'll regret it if you have some formal shots!

    84image 73image 11image Wedding date: June 11, 2011 :)
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