A Street Photographer’s Approach to Shooting Weddings

Lately, I’ve become obsessed with street photography. There’s a lot of debate over what exactly constitutes a street photograph, which I won’t be getting into today, but for me it involves taking photos of people and places in a documentarian sort of way. Sometimes this is done conspicuously, sometimes it’s more overt, but always, it’s with a documentarian’s eye and a journalists heart. I’ve loved the spontaneous encounters and conversations I’ve had while doing it, (mostly good although sometimes negative), and I’ve loved how it makes me feel connected to the place I’m photographing, which is usually OKC.

Wedding Photography is Documentary

Speaking of documentary photography, wedding photography is also absolutely documentary. You’re documenting a once in a lifetime event, and Ideally, (pun absolutely intended), you’re doing so as honestly and truthfully as possible. For me this involves grabbing shots conspicuously when people aren’t expecting them for the purpose of showing the couple and their guests in their natural state; without the guards that normally go up as soon as someone takes out a camera. For a while people referred to this as “candid” photography, but the word quickly lost its meaning when people started staging photos in a natural way and calling it candid. Think Instagram in the mid 2010s. For me this was incredibly dishonest, and I’ll say with no real authority on the matter that I think people became tired of this trend. Yet, the allure of photographing people in a natural way lives on through documentary work, and the street photography approach I take to documenting weddings.

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So what does this approach look like exactly? I'm glad you asked! Below I have a few tips for how you can get started thinking like a street photographer while shooting our weddings.

1. Be Present in the Scene

Taking documentary styled photos starts with being present in the scene. Like I mentioned earlier about street photography making me feel more connected to a city, I think there’s a connection between this approach to shooting and the way that you yourself are experiencing the event. What it comes down to fundamentally is an awareness of what’s going on around you. It’s shocking how much information our brain block out from our surroundings, and a wedding is no exception. If you want to document the little moments happening all around you, you first have to notice them. Some things that have helped me tune this awareness is going on regular photo walks and constantly being on the hunt for interesting subjects. You could also try not wearing headphones while out in public, or better yet not being on your phone. Try sitting without distractions and just try to notice as many things happening around you as possible. You can write them down or just try to think about them consciously. Exercises like these will help tremendously when trying to take natural looking photos at a wedding.

- Being a second shooter makes this much easier

I do want to point out that it can sometimes be hard to be, "in the moment" while being a lead photographer. You're trying to capture as much as you possibly can while taking into account everything your couple wants. Sometimes guests ask you to take photos too! This is why I think it's so helpful to have a second shooter at every wedding. For all of our wedding photography packages we include a second shooter for this reason. While my wife is focused on getting the best shot of the ceremony, taking family photos, or anything else, I can focus on capturing the smaller moments.

2. Learn to Shoot From the Hip

Another key part of this approach is how you take the photos. There’s no one way to take them, and different styles will lend themselves to different situations, but let me give you a few scenarios of how I’ve approached taking photos that might help you figure out how you should do it and when. A popular street photographer’s approach is to shoot from the hip. This has the benefit of making it seem like you’re not taking photos at all, since your camera seems to be in a resting position, and your hand just seems like it’s resting on it or keeping the camera from swaying about. Paired with a camera that has a quiet shutter and you’re in a great place to take natural photos of guests. I like to shoot this way with my Ricoh GR iii, and it’s a magical experience.

- Don't Look at Your Screen

On this note, learning to guess your lens’s angle of view is essential here. This removes the step of having to look down at the screen, and allows you to work more quickly. This might sound shocking to someone who has never tried it, but a good photographer won’t need to double check their exposure on the screen, or use the VF to frame a shot. Ideally (pun actually not intended this time), they would have done this so many times that it becomes second nature, and they can consistently get good results. Additionally, even if your camera has a tilt up screen, I still wouldn’t recommend using it in this situation. The reason being is that it’s extremely distracting when someone is staring directly at the ground, and people might try and see what you’re looking at. Maybe there’s a spill, or a child running around, or you dropped something. This gets people’s attention, and can actually achieve the opposite of being conspicuous.

3. Learn When to Use Your Viewfinder

The other way is to take photos with your viewfinder. This style is not as conspicuous unless you work very quickly, but it doesn’t have to be in the first place. I find the benefit of shooting this way is actually the opposite of not being seen. The strength of taking photos this way is you’re actually participating in a moment with people. I would recommend not hiding behind your camera the whole time while taking them. I know it might sound obvious, but making eye contact and smiling at people before taking their photo goes a long way to lower those guards and building a small amount of trust. Hopefully you can see that by either taking photos conspicuously, or taking them in this obvious but unobtrusive way, both lend themselves to not adding something to a moment, but rather capturing it as it is, like a good documentarian should.

4. Try to Predict What Might Happen Next

The final superpower a documentary photographer should have in order to take natural and unobtrusive photos, is predicting what might happen next. This takes honing your observational awareness skills even more, but the benefit is being in the exact right place, with good lighting/backgrounds/subjects, with the right camera settings, at the right moment. It’s hard to take good photos when you’re constantly reacting to what’s going on, but if you can look ahead that will do wonders for your photography.

Above all, you should be able to read the room and know what kind of shooting will be most appropriate and get the kind of results you want, but hopefully I gave you some ideas if this was something you wanted to try for yourself!