At Xposer Photography we incorporate several styles of wedding photography from Editorial-Style Wedding Photography, Photo journalistic/Documentary-Style Wedding Photography, Traditional Wedding Photography Style, Fine Art Wedding Photography Style, Lifestyle Wedding Photography Style and Vintage-Style Wedding Photography. We combine our expertise in fashion photography with a keen understanding of weddings to create striking images that leave a lasting impression. We keep to traditional post processing not adding multiple filters or effects as they trends come and go and we want your photos to last for generations not to be outdated when the next trend becomes popular.
The creation of successful wedding photos relies on the mastery of five fundamental elements: a thoughtfully chosen location, a deliberate composition, a precise technical setup, effective lighting, and the conveyance of authentic feelings. The successful integration of these elements yields a wedding day of exceptional quality. The style is determined by location, time of day as well as weather that is why we incorporate multiple styles of photography we must adapt to our locations.
Destination weddings available.
Contact us for rates and availability.
Editorial
Characteristics of Editorial-Style Wedding Photography
- Comprehensive Storytelling: This style goes beyond pretty pictures, aiming to tell the complete story of your wedding day. From getting ready to your grand exit, it captures the couple, venue, decorations, guest reactions, and emotional moments.
- Fashion-Inspired Imagery: We incorporate elements of high-fashion photography, emphasizing your attire, accessories, and overall aesthetic. The goal is to create images that look like they belong in a high-end magazine.
- Intentional Posing & Direction: While the look is natural and effortless, editorial photography often involves more deliberate posing and direction. We guide you to create flattering and artistic compositions, always with a keen eye for detail.
- Emphasis on Details: Intricate details are paramount. We capture close-ups of flowers, table settings, stationery, rings, and other elements that contribute to your wedding’s overall ambiance and theme, building a rich visual narrative.
- Creative Lighting Techniques: We utilize both natural and artificial light creatively to produce dramatic and visually striking images. This manipulation of light evokes a sense of glamour, romance, or sophistication.
- Polished & Curated Aesthetic: The final images are meticulously edited and curated for a refined and polished look. We focus on excellent lighting and expert editing to ensure everything is magazine-worthy.
- Balance of Candid & Posed: Though artistic direction is strong, we seamlessly blend posed shots with candid moments to capture genuine emotions and interactions throughout the day.
- Overall Sophistication & Glamour: The primary goal is to create images that exude sophistication, glamour, and a touch of drama, making your wedding photographs unique and stand out.
In essence, editorial wedding photography delivers a “magazine spread” of your wedding day—beautiful, compelling, and rich with visual storytelling.
Fine Art
Characteristics of Fine Art Wedding Photography
- Artistic Vision and Intentionality: We approach each shot with a deliberate artistic vision, aiming to create images that evoke emotion, tell a story, and possess a unique aesthetic. It’s about crafting moments and scenes rather than simply reacting to them.
- Emphasis on Aesthetics and Beauty: There’s a strong focus on composition, light, color, and texture. Images are often characterized by a soft, ethereal, romantic, and timeless feel. This typically includes soft natural light, muted or true-to-life color palettes, and a dreamy quality.
- Film-Inspired Aesthetic: Many fine art wedding photographers either shoot on film or meticulously edit their digital images to emulate the look and feel of film photography. This often results in rich, nuanced tones, soft highlights, and a painterly quality.
- Curated Details and Styling: We pay significant attention to wedding details, often styling them meticulously to create beautiful, magazine-worthy flat lays of invitations, rings, shoes, and other elements. These details contribute to the overall aesthetic and narrative.
- Thoughtful Posing and Direction: While maintaining a natural and authentic feel, fine art photography often involves gentle guidance and direction to achieve artistic and flattering poses. It’s less about rigid, traditional posing and more about creating beautiful, emotive tableaux.
- Emotional Depth: Beyond just looking beautiful, fine art photography strives to capture the profound emotions of the day—joy, tenderness, anticipation, love—in a way that resonates deeply with the viewer.
- Timelessness: The aesthetic choices in fine art wedding photography are often designed to be classic and enduring, ensuring that your images remain beautiful and relevant for generations to come, rather than succumbing to fleeting trends.
- Focus on Heirloom Quality: The end product is often considered an heirloom—a collection of exquisite images intended for high-quality prints, albums, or wall art that can be cherished and passed down through your family.
In essence, a fine art wedding photographer is an artist using your wedding day as their canvas, carefully crafting each image to be a beautiful, emotive, and timeless piece of art that tells your unique story.
Lifestyle
Characteristics of Lifestyle Wedding Photography
- Authenticity with a Touch of Direction: The core is capturing genuine emotion and interaction. However, unlike pure photojournalism, we might offer light prompts or suggestions to place you in good light or a more visually appealing setting. The aim is to create situations where natural moments are more likely to occur, rather than staging them.
- Focus on Connection and Relationship: Lifestyle photography excels at showcasing the bond between the couple, their families, and friends. We highlight intimate moments, laughter, glances, and embraces that reveal the depth of your relationships.
- Emphasis on Natural Settings and Light: We often utilize natural light and the existing environment to enhance the mood and aesthetic of the images. We seek out beautiful backdrops and good light to make genuine moments shine.
- Aspirational and Relatable Imagery: The resulting photos often feel relatable and aspirational at the same time. They portray real people in real situations, but with an elevated, polished feel that makes them look effortlessly beautiful. It’s about capturing “life as it happens, but better.”
- Balanced Blend of Candid and “Artfully Posed”: You’ll find a mix of truly candid, unposed shots alongside images where subjects might have been gently positioned or given a scenario to interact within. The goal is for even the directed shots to feel organic and natural, not stiff or forced.
- Storytelling Through Real Moments: Similar to photojournalism, lifestyle photography tells the story of the day. However, it often focuses on the emotional narrative and the overall feeling of the wedding, rather than just a chronological record of events.
- Clean and Often Bright Aesthetic: The editing style typically leans towards clean, bright, and natural tones, reflecting a cheerful and authentic atmosphere. While variations exist, the overall feel is usually light, airy, and true to life.
In essence, lifestyle wedding photography is about capturing the true essence of your wedding day—the emotions, connections, and authentic moments—but presented in a beautifully composed and aesthetically pleasing way that feels both genuine and artful. It’s ideal for couples who want their photos to feel natural and unstaged, but also appreciate a photographer’s eye for beautiful light and composition.
Photo Journalistic / Documentary
Photo journalistic, or documentary-style, wedding photography focuses on capturing the unscripted, genuine, and candid moments of your wedding day as they naturally unfold. We aim for minimal intervention, allowing your day to be documented authentically.
Characteristics of Photo journalistic/Documentary-Style Wedding Photography
- Authenticity and Candor: This is the core. We act as observers, blending into the background to capture real emotions, interactions, and events without staging or posing. The goal is to document the day exactly as it happens, preserving genuine expressions, laughter, tears, and spontaneous gestures.
- Storytelling Narrative: Rather than a series of isolated posed shots, this style creates a comprehensive visual narrative of your entire wedding day. It tells a chronological story, from getting ready to the final dance, conveying the flow and feeling of the event.
- Unobtrusive Presence: We strive to be as invisible as possible. We avoid interrupting moments, directing guests, or asking for “re-takes,” allowing you and your guests to relax and be yourselves, which leads to more authentic photographs.
- Emphasis on Moments and Emotions: Our focus is on capturing fleeting moments that might otherwise go unnoticed. This includes subtle glances, heartfelt hugs, inside jokes, unexpected reactions, and all the small, unscripted instances that contribute to the day’s emotional depth.
- Minimal Posing (or “Unposed Posing”): While we may offer a brief period for a few family portraits or couple’s shots, the vast majority of the day is documented without direction. Even when there are “posed” shots, we aim for a natural, relaxed feel rather than rigid, traditional poses.
- Focus on Interactions: This style excels at capturing the dynamic between people the couple, their families, and friends. It highlights the connections and relationships that are central to your wedding celebration.
- Realism and Imperfection: We embrace the raw reality of the day, including any “imperfections” that add to the authenticity. It’s less about creating a perfectly polished, idealized image and more about preserving the honest, lived experience.
- Timelessness: Because it captures genuine human emotion and authentic moments, photo journalistic wedding photography tends to be timeless, avoiding trends in posing or editing that might look dated years later.
In essence, a photo journalistic wedding photographer acts as a visual historian of your wedding day, documenting every significant and subtle moment to create a true-to-life and emotionally resonant record.
Traditional
Traditional wedding photography, also known as classic or posed wedding photography, is a structured, formal, and timeless approach to documenting your special day. It focuses on creating meticulously arranged images designed to be enduring and classic, often reminiscent of past generations’ wedding albums.
Characteristics of Traditional Wedding Photography
- Posed and Directed Shots: This is the most defining characteristic. We actively direct and guide the couple, bridal party, and family members into specific poses and compositions. The goal is to create aesthetically pleasing, flattering, and formal portraits.
- Emphasis on Key Moments and Formalities: Traditional photography focuses on capturing the most significant and formal moments of your wedding day, such as:
- Bride and groom portraits (often in various classic poses).
- Formal family group shots (e.g., couple with parents, with siblings, with the entire immediate family).
- Bridal party portraits.
- Key ceremony moments (e.g., walking down the aisle, exchange of vows and rings, first kiss) that are often set up or anticipated for optimal capture.
- Reception formalities (e.g., grand entrance, first dance, cake cutting, toasts).
- Classic and Timeless Aesthetic: The editing style leans towards a clean, natural, and true-to-color look, avoiding trendy filters or dramatic effects that might become dated. The aim is for images that will look beautiful and relevant for decades to come.
- Controlled Lighting and Composition: We pay close attention to lighting (often using artificial light when necessary) and composition to ensure subjects are well-lit, sharp, and framed impeccably. Every element within the frame is carefully considered.
- Shot List Driven: Traditional photography often works with a comprehensive shot list provided by you, ensuring that all desired groupings and specific moments are captured. This structured approach provides peace of mind that no important person or moment will be missed.
- Polished and Refined: The final images are highly polished and refined, with a focus on technical perfection (sharpness, exposure, color accuracy). Retouching is common to ensure a flawless appearance.
- Less Emphasis on Candid Moments: While some candid shots may be taken, the primary focus is not on spontaneous, unscripted moments. We act more as directors than observers, ensuring that the day’s significant events are captured in a predetermined and elegant manner.
Traditional wedding photography is ideal for couples who value formal portraits, a classic aesthetic, and a comprehensive collection of images that meticulously document the significant people and moments of their wedding day in a structured and elegant way.
Vintage
Vintage-style wedding photography aims to evoke the nostalgic charm, romance, and aesthetic of past eras. It’s not necessarily about using old cameras or techniques, but rather about creating a final product that looks and feels like it could have been taken decades ago.
Characteristics of Vintage-Style Wedding Photography
- Aesthetic Inspired by Bygone Eras: This is the defining element. The visual style draws inspiration from various historical periods, such as the 1920s, 1940s, 1960s, or even the film photography of the 70s and 80s. The specific era influences the color palette, composition, and overall mood.
- Color and Tone Manipulation:
- Muted or Desaturated Colors: Colors are often desaturated or shifted to have a more subdued, faded appearance, mimicking the look of old prints or aged film.
- Warm Tones/Sepia: Sepia tones are a classic vintage effect, giving images a warm, brownish hue reminiscent of very old photographs. Other warm color casts can also be used.
- “Faded Film” Look: This popular technique involves “lifting” the blacks (making them less black, more gray) and slightly subduing highlights, creating a softer, lower-contrast look similar to how older film prints might have faded over time.
- Film Grain and Texture: Digital images are often processed to add simulated film grain, dust, or scratches to replicate the imperfections and tactile quality of authentic vintage photographs.
- Composition and Posing:
- Classic Compositions: We may use compositions that harken back to older photographic styles, such as symmetrical framing, simple backdrops, or classic portrait poses.
- Natural and Authentic Poses: While some direction may be given, the aim is often for a natural, unforced feel, capturing candid moments that feel timeless.
- Lighting Techniques:
- Soft, Natural Light: Vintage styles often favor soft, diffused natural light, especially “golden hour” light, which creates a warm, dreamy, and romantic atmosphere.
- Dramatic Shadows (less common but can be used): Depending on the specific era being emulated (e.g., film noir influences), dramatic shadows can also be incorporated.
- Inclusion of Vintage Elements: The aesthetic is often enhanced by the presence of vintage props, attire, vehicles, or venue choices that complement the desired era, helping to create a cohesive and immersive look.
- Vignetting: Darkening the edges of the photo (vignetting) is a common technique to draw the eye towards the center and give an aged, classic feel.
In essence, vintage-style wedding photography is about crafting a nostalgic and romantic visual story of your wedding day, imbued with the charming imperfections and timeless beauty of photography from a bygone era. It’s a deliberate choice to step away from overly sharp, crisp modern digital aesthetics in favor of a softer, more evocative feel.
Destination weddings available.
Contact us for rates and availability.
LOS ANGELES | LAS VEGAS | DENVER | NEW YORK