A brief guide to wedding photography

Wedding photographers are running all around Sydney these days and it’s clear that the industry has a lot going on at the moment. With same-sex marriage being recently legalised in Australia there’s an entirely new demographic of (mostly) beauty conscious people who require wedding photography in Sydney.

While taking pics at a marriage ceremony is nothing new, the way in which this part of the occasion has grown and developed has made it one of the top 7 wedding essentials people have when planning their big day. While in years past pictures could be taken by your uncle with his pseudo-professional camera, people are starting to have much higher standards for how their big day is captured in static images and even in film.

This is primarily due to the increased affordability of both regular and specialist services, making the entire occasion cheaper for most people. Nowadays couples getting married have far more choices for location, decoration and general aesthetics that make choosing between wedding photographers a much more involved decision.

It’s natural that most couples getting married would want to get the best wedding photography in Sydney in order to perfectly capture their emotions and memories of the occasion. When choosing between wedding photographers, consider the following information so that you make the right choice.

List of local and best wedding photographers in Sydney

It is important to know who are the best wedding photographers in Sydney, below is a list of the most awarded wedding photographers in Sydney:

No.: Photographer Website
1 Chris Prestidge www.atdusk.com.au
2 Hannah Blackmore hannahblackmoreweddings.com
3 Matt Osborne weddingphotographybyronbay.com
4 Lara Hotz larahotz.com
5 Jonas Peterson jonaspeterson.com

If you think you are one of the best photographers and you should be on this list, get in contact with us today and we will review your art work!

Why is it important to have good wedding photographers?

A brief guide to wedding photography in Sydney
Why is wedding photography so important anyway? Photo: Aleandr, Bigstock

When it comes to considering choices for wedding photography in Sydney, you need to ask yourself how much you and your partner personally value the craft. Even if you don’t personally see the value of professional picture taking, do you at least admit its value to guests and other family members?

We all know a grandmother, aunt or some other family member or friend who is obsessed with family albums. Family albums are a huge part of many cultures and this is no less true for many Australians, with marriage pictures being one of the most treasured areas of these sacred tomes.

It’s clear that the true value of wedding photography in Sydney is the way in which it documents family memories in a professional manner. It implies that the marriage is a special life event that warrants the presence of professionals rather than just using our phones to take pictures.

However, if you already see the value then the aforementioned points aren’t going to sway you any more than you already are. We’ve established the inherent reasons for why wedding photographers are in high demand, so let’s take a look at some of the key advantages of using them.

What are the advantages of using wedding photography in Sydney?

A brief guide to wedding photography in Sydney
Have you considered the distinct benefits of hiring a professional wedding photographer? Photo: Scott Webb, Pixabay

There are several key advantages of hiring professionals for your event. Let’s take a look at some of the most persuasive benefits.

Professional pictures

The most obvious benefit of hiring wedding photography in Sydney is getting an expert who has access to and training with expensive equipment. While they each may have their own special philosophy behind how they work, they will normally frame their work as telling the story of your event rather than just documenting it.

Peace of mind

When you spend money on professional services, you gain something called ‘professional liability’ which is what incentives the professional to act, well…professionally. This means that they are held to accountability for the quality of the work and their end of the bargain.

This means that you won’t need to keep checking over your shoulder to make sure your uncle is still taking pictures. You won’t have to worry about people misplacing memory cards or damaging their cameras, as professionals would be highly unlikely to make silly mistakes like that.

For you this means that the whole ceremony will go much smoother and incur fewer interruptions due to unforeseen logistical issues. While seamless wedding photography in Sydney will still require some pre-planning with other elements of the ceremony, the professional liability you have paid for already makes it much easier than asking a friend or relative to do it.

Creative control

The best wedding photographers in Sydney will be highly creative individuals who offer their clients several different approaches and work styles to suit them. They’ll be able to use their expertise to help inform your plans for the big day with regards to group pictures, first dance pictures, ceremony pictures etc.

They will most likely consult with you regarding the timing of certain parts of the event so that they can account for differences in natural lighting. If you are keen on some signature pictures with a sunset backdrop, you’ll likely have to do some careful planning to make sure you don’t miss out.

Depending on what you pay for, the job can be done by a single person or by a team of wedding photographers. Team work can be great especially when they are different genders as they will subconsciously capture different elements of the ceremony based on their individual perspectives.

Having multiple artists working collaboratively on your big day will give you a huge range of choices when deciding on what the final album will look like. Different angles of the same moment in time, different moments happening at the same time and different stylistic choices make having more than 1 person working a very attractive option.

Experience and expertise

The highest profile wedding photography in Sydney is carried out by professionals who have worked in the industry and honed their skills over several decades. These experts will often have high concept philosophies behind their work style and can be hard to get a hold of because they are in such high demand at high profile marriages.

Even if you don’t have the budget to or even the desire to hire one of these super elite professionals, they give an example of just how large of a spectrum there is in this field. This means that choosing your wedding photographer in Sydney is as much about browsing different styles as it is trying to meet budget constraints.

The advantage of this is the sheer amount of choice it gives you when selecting between professionals. There is such a high density of wedding photographers that there is definitely a great deal of different talent to choose from.

How do you choose between wedding photography in Sydney?

A brief guide to wedding photography in Sydney
Struggling to choose from several wedding photographers? Check out our tips below! Photo: Sivilla, Bigstock

When it comes to choosing between wedding photographers, there is really no mathematical method for making the most optimal choice. Just like half the things involved with planning any event, aesthetic preferences will usually be what the choice comes down to.

Nevertheless, here are some basic tips for choosing your wedding photography in Sydney:

Make a shortlist of candidates

If you’ve been looking already then no doubt you already have a few candidates that stood out in your mind. Write down these names or businesses in a simple list with their name, contact number, website/email and any special benefits or features.

As the list gets longer, you’ll need to represent the added level of nuance that differentiates each choice. All of the options that are low cost could have a little green dollar sign next do them for example, anything to help you quickly classify your candidates.

Once you feel you have enough options to choose from, you can begin visiting websites and making phone calls to further narrow it down.

View their portfolio of work

All of the best providers of wedding photography in Sydney will have robust portfolios of their past work. Their websites will usually be made up of their best images that they have decided to show-off on their homepage.

First impressions are everything when it comes to pictures so you’ll likely know which wedding photographers suit you from browsing the first few images. While you might not be an expert who can differentiate between different capture methods or lenses, you can tell between what you do like and what you don’t.

If you find one picture amongst others is really good and the perfect style you want, it’s a good idea to ask the professional if they can replicate that for you. A good candidate will understand the reasons why you like that particular picture and can usually tailor their services to deliver that style for you.

Interview them

At this point you should have begun thinking about the top 3 to 5 choices and adjusted your list accordingly. Ideally there should be some stylistic similarities between your top wedding photographers as well as all of them fitting nicely into your budget.

Now the decision of who to work with should be based purely on their unique offerings and your gut feeling about working with them, with the latter as the most important consideration. As special as their deals may be, there’s no point hiring them if you don’t get along with or can’t see yourself working with them.

This is where their general charisma and professionalism should win you over and make you feel confident in hiring them. They should be enthusiastic about working with you and be visibly excited (although not over the top) about getting to work on your marriage.

After all, these people are career wedding photographers that make their living from doing this exact job, so they must enjoy it right? The last thing you want is to hire someone who is disinterested and only sees you as another gig.

Also, the more charismatic they are, the better they will be on the day. Organising group shots, getting people to pose certain ways and giving general instructions to a crowd is all part of their job and they need some basic people skills to do that successfully.

By this time you should have come close to a final decision based on affordability, quality of work and their work ethic. Once you have all these boxes ticked you can begin incorporating your choice of wedding photography in Sydney into the official planning of the big day.

Why is their philosophy or ‘style’ so important?

A brief guide to wedding photography in Sydney
The best wedding photographers have special styles and themes they can use for your photos. Photo: Iiievgeniy, Bigstock

For the wedding photographers, their philosophy or style for taking pictures is what they use to identify themselves within the field. Because wedding photography in Sydney is a form or artistry, these professionals need to create portfolios that express their unique personality as an artist.

These stark contrasts between wedding photographers make for some healthy competition and helps create a buyer’s market. People planning their marriage ceremony have a huge range of choices when it comes to wedding photography in Sydney and none of them are objectively wrong.

These highly stylistic and artsy approaches to a service present at most marriage ceremonies gives a great deal of power to couples who want to take their wedding photography to another level. You can really impress guests, friends and relatives for decades following your ceremony if you have an album of perfect pictures of the day.

Even if this isn’t your first marriage, ideally you want it to be your last so naturally you want to get the best deal you can when it comes to wedding photography in Sydney. Getting a cheaper, basic option may give you something to look back on, but you’ll be thinking “why did I cheap out on the pictures?” when you see the mediocre quality.

Since pictures and videos are going to be the only tangible memories of the event, you’ll want them to be close to perfect quality. While everyone in attendance will have their own photographic memory of the day, you’ll want something you can show people who weren’t there, such as future children and new friends.

Some of the best wedding photographers in Sydey will describe their work style as aiming to tell the story of your ceremony rather than just visually document it. This implies there is another level of subjectivity behind each picture that is taken as part of a larger narrative of the ceremony.

This style involves capturing the sincere emotions of attendees as they happen in several candid shots of people simply interacting with each other. A marriage ceremony is usually a multi-generational, sometimes multi-cultural gathering of people enjoying themselves and joining together in celebration of a life-long commitment.

This makes any marriage ceremony ripe for high quality pictures that contrast the subtle differences between groups of people. The use of colour at the event also gives wedding photographers a lot of different moods and backdrops to work with.

Wedding photography in Sydney – is it worth the investment?

A brief guide to wedding photography in Sydney
If capturing magical moments like this one interests you, then you should invest in wedding photography! Photo: AS Photo Project, Bigstock

Short answer; yes it is! There are simply so many great wedding photographers out there that there’s definitely one whose work will blow you away.

It’s hard to think of anyone who doesn’t appreciate pictures of a real life event they attended. There are probably more people that would forgive a lack of catering than a lack of photography.

This goes to show just how ingrained this service is to our cultural appreciation of marriage ceremonies. Wedding photography in Sydney is functionally essential as a part of your ceremony whether or not you personally hold any reverence for it.

As mentioned previously, you only get one chance to capture this special occasion and everyone wants to see pictures of the big day even if they were there themselves. There’s something magical about these pictures and the emotions that people attach to them.

Whether it’s seeing the bride and groom enjoying each other during the first dance, children playing while adults chat or seeing the extended family all together in the same pic, these are special moments that last even longer when captured by wedding photographers.

You’ll likely be surprised by how many of these special moments you can save and cherish by engaging wedding photography in Sydney. Most people will gladly admit that the cost of the service is worthwhile considering the magical pictures they got out of it.

Ultimately, the value of wedding photography in Sydney will rest with you and your future spouse. Depending on your preferences and budget, there are several different valid choices when it comes to choosing between wedding photographers.

Whether you want something elaborate and high energy or something subtle and unobtrusive, you can get exactly that with wedding photography in Sydney. There are so many choices out there that it’s very unlikely you can’t find something perfectly suited for you.

By now you probably have a cursory idea of what you want and how to search for it efficiently. Most importantly, keep your eyes and ear open for offers and deals that may make some choices more cost effective than others while not compromising on the aesthetic quality you are going for.

While some people might find this decision easy to justify, everyone is different and has subjective evaluations of art in general. The benefits of sourcing high quality wedding photography in Sydney speak for themselves, all you need to do it make sure you follow the aforementioned tips and secure a professional who is able to help you create your perfect wedding.

Christian Woods
Christian Woods
Christian is a morning reporter and technology columnist for Best in Australia. Christian has worked in the media since 2000, in a range of locations. He joined Best in Australia in 2018, and began working in Melbourne in 2019.
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