Creating the New Old School in Wedding Photography
by Jose Villa
People often ask me how I developed my style, and how I create images that stand out in today’s highly competitive wedding market. Well, I am a fine art wedding photographer. My approach applies fine art photography to the living, breathing, fast-moving phenomenon that is a wedding. Yes, I do some documentary photography—you need to capture the important moments at a wedding—but I also compose and direct. For me, it is all about making something beautiful, even if I have to insert myself into the situation and recreate a moment. Ultimately, my goal is to craft vibrant, energetic, fine art images that are as unique as the people in the photographs.
The origin of my style traces back to my time working for commercial photographer Marcy Malloy. Shortly after graduating from Brooks Institute of Photography, I spent some time with Marcy at her San Francisco studio. Her work is very active and playful. She produces bright images that portray a happy, vivacious lifestyle. Later, when I opened my own studio in Solvang, Calif., I decided to apply the same type of look to my wedding photography. I wanted that active, playful feel. I wanted to focus on positive emotions—people laughing and smiling and having a good time. That is, after all, how couples want to remember their wedding!
With the emotional component determined, I set about forming a specific artistic look. I came up with an avant garde fine art approach that combines progressive shooting with a vintage feel—all captured on film. Film that has amazing grain, and soft pastel color.
I do as much as possible in camera. First, I set my camera so that I’m overexposing my images by a stop to a stop-and-a-half. This produces a nice, soft glow. I want light wrapping around my subjects and giving off a sense of warmth. Typically, I expose for the shadow. I use a variety of Fuji films, which are all forgiving enough to give detail in the black of the groom’s tux without washing out the bride’s white dress. I also like to shoot with an extremely shallow depth of field. The shallow depth of field works well with the overexposure to create that soft, wrap-around glow.
Next, I compose. I don’t just take pictures as things happen. I capture moments, but I do it with more of an artistic perspective. Beauty to me is elegance, simplicity and clean, white spaces. So I look for compositions where I can take advantage of beautiful blue skies, blank walls or stunning but clean natural backgrounds. If necessary, I will recreate a moment, framing the subjects with an ideal background and putting them in perfect light. Throughout the wedding, I direct lightly. When I see something attractive, I jump in and help turn the moment into a memorable image. It’s more of an editorial style, as if I was conducting a fashion or lifestyle photo shoot.
As I mentioned already, I shoot everything on film. During the course of a wedding, I’ll shoot fast-paced documentary images with a 35mm Canon EOS-1V, artsy selective focus photos with a Holga camera, and broad panoramas with the Hasselblad Xpan. But my Contax 645 medium format camera is my most important tool. Using a Carl Zeiss 80mm f/2.0 lens, I can engineer a really shallow depth of field while keeping the subjects in tack-sharp focus. When I overexpose images on Fuji color films like Pro 400H or 800Z, the colors come out almost pastel. To augment this look, I back light and let the light wrap around the subjects for beautiful color that’s reminiscent of a painting. A lot of my clients book me specifically because of this approach to color.
The Contax 645 is pretty fast for a medium-format camera. I treat it a lot like a 35mm SLR. I put it on aperture priority, hand hold everything, and just let it go. I use this camera for most of the detail shots (flowers, place settings, rings, etc.) and for the editorial-style images with the bride and groom. It’s especially useful for a couple-only portrait shoot as the sun is going down. With the excellent Zeiss glass, I get the couple in very sharp focus and then let everything else go soft. Also, when I set the aperture to f/2, I can create a little motion blur, which gives a sense of activity. Brides love this style because it reminds them of a fashion spread in a magazine.
To properly execute my approach, I must develop a strong rapport with my clients. I let them know that I’m going to direct them, but it’s going to be a relaxed process. I don’t just tell them to “walk over there and act naturally.” Instead, I get them to have fun. I laugh a lot and joke around, and I encourage them to do the same. I promote a lot of motion. I like to have them running toward the camera, jumping off things. This helps produce those energetic images that couples love. It’s a tweaked real-life look, instead of static images where people just stand in one place and smile.
I feel like wedding photography is moving away from strict photojournalism and toward a more editorial, magazine-type look. Today’s couples want their wedding images to look like they’re out of a fashion spread. They want a more artistic influence. They want stylized imagery that promotes happy memories from a beautiful day. I provide this by merging progressive shooting techniques with the vintage look. The result is fine art weddings—and a very busy schedule of high-end weddings!
Richard Avedon's photographs are on exhibit at the SFMOMA 
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