Happy 2015. Its a new year and perfect time to look back (again) at wedding photography trends in years past... By popular demand, here is my tongue-in-cheek look at the past 50 years of wedding photography… enjoy. 1962: Couple somehow photographed inside brandy snifter 1969: Bride and dad dance while superimposed atop sheet of music of that very tune 1972: Faces of couple (him with ruffled powder blue tuxedo shirt, bushy hair, lamb-chop sideburns) appear in church ceiling somehow gazing downward upon their guests. Was it magic? 1977: Entire wedding apparently occurs in front of a painted blue canvas backdrop as seen through a softening filter 1979: Bride stares at bouquet in profile as parents look on from a 4-foot distance, gently out-of-focus. Groom gazes at ring – also in profile – likely wondering “should I or shouldn’t I…?” 1982: Wedding albums feature toddler book inspired “popups” of the wedding party rising to attention whenever album is opened wide 1986: To stay current, longtime photographers begin tilting images by 32 degrees to make it “photojournalistic” and ride the wave 1992: Aussie photographers, refusing to attend the reception, instead head to the streets to stage wedding parties walking in line then jumping simultaneously… some wearing comedic glasses and noses 1996: Grooms inexplicably begin reaching for – and passionately kissing – the hands of their new brides just as they exit their wedding ceremonies 1998: Not wanting all the attention to end quite yet, brides return from honeymoon to take their gown out for one last swim just for the camera 2002: Digital goes full steam ahead and waves of female photographers arrive to overtake the industry. Headless images of bouquets, perfectly positioned rings and close-ups of flower-laden tuxedo lapels all go mainstream. Cute little convertibles or old-time cars, and high heeled shoes (with special bonus for focusing (name-dropping) that Jimmy Choo® or Manolo Blahnik® label) become the ultimate adorable props. Use of plastic lensed toy cameras, and use of infrared and black-and-white films elevated to chic, hipster art form 2003: Camera manufacturers consider removing all lens aperture openings smaller than f/2.8 as new wave photographers adopt ultra-shallow depth with background details reduced to blurry bliss for nearly all of their images 2003: Need to ever show couple’s faces in wedding photography ends… wholly headless imagery proliferates wedding scene 2004: Photographers begin tossing time-released cameras with fisheye lenses high into the air on crapshoot with hopes of capturing what they are apparently unable to get with their feet on the ground 2004: Under the guise of creating art, countless wedding scenes somehow return to mostly black-and-white… except for a colorful bouquet or a bride’s vivid red lips 2006: Death of “capturing the moment” with birth of the digital illusion. Need to become a real photographer seemingly ends with continued explosion of Photoshop® disguising techniques: merged images/moments, grass turning electric green, skies profoundly blue… and, of course, with each corner and edge somehow becoming very dark 2007: Railroad yards and graffiti clad urban environments replace studios as we know them. Sun flare replaces skies in nearly all of outdoor wedding photography. Random furniture placed in the middle of some field for use as props for posing subjects makes perfect sense only to photographers. 2008: Grooms throughout the world suddenly compelled to dip their brides nearly to the ground just as the camera captures their moment of “spontaneity”... often at the exact moment of sunset... as seen directly behind them. 2010: Popularity of Instagram® for iPhone® photography leads to pseudo-old time “professional” wedding images with homage to Instamatic® and Polaroid SX-70®… likely to be as timeless as MySpace® or Enron. 2012: Wedding photography completely replaced by pseudo-fashion photography of the couple in places – and in poses – that have absolutely nothing to do with their real personalities or their wedding... blurring lines between commercial, greeting card, fashion and wedding photography genres. 2014: Creative composing/cropping off couples heads/faces coupled with use of wide open aperture setting and slightly-odd color balance (via Photoshop action) immediately transforms any wedding photographer into an artist (in their own mind).
Posted on: Thu, 01 Jan 2015 16:28:11 +0000
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