Why You Want Candid Photography in Your Wedding Photos

Recently I spoke with a couple about their goals for their wedding photos and it turned into a great conversation about what’s really important in documenting something momentous like a wedding day and even what’s important in life more broadly. As an artist, I love finding the perfect lighting, creating compelling compositions, minimizing distracting elements and using my own previsualization to direct people into flattering ways of interacting with each other for photos. And those elements are critical to creating timeless photography.

But there’s one more piece that is the real magic that will make your wedding photos meaningful and enduring. Authentic emotion. While I love sharing those perfectly crafted and curated details, there’s nothing that’s going to be more meaningful to you than those real, candid moments. 

If you’re not familiar with the term, candid photography is a type of photography that captures real-life, unposed moments as they happen. It's a style that prioritizes capturing real emotions, reactions, and interactions over formal and posed portraits. 

While my overall style is a blend of directed and candid, I often hear from couples that including those candid, authentic moments of a wedding day is what really makes the overall visual narrative so impactful for them because it provides a personal and intimate perspective of the couple's special day.

Weddings are emotional and joyous events filled with meaningful moments and memories. Documenting those memories in your photographs is essential because, while you want the context of your wedding day with all the details, those candid images will likely be the images that transport you right back to how you felt in that moment on your wedding day.

Including candid photography allows me as your photographer to capture moments that the couple and their guests likely would have missed otherwise. Being able to observe and document the subtle moments, gestures, hugs, tears, smiles and everything else that make the wedding day so special doesn’t happen on accident. 

For example, while all eyes are on the person giving the toast, as a photographer, I’m also noticing grandma wiping a tear or your maid of honor clapping and cheering. These details give you a perspective you may not even have noticed on your wedding day. These are the kinds of moments that can be easily missed or forgotten but will be cherished for a lifetime when captured through candid photography.

One of my favorite things about candid photography is that, because the subjects are not aware that they are being photographed, these images also provide a more natural and relaxed feel to the photos and a more authentic representation of the couple's personalities and their relationships with each other and their guests.

So, while I’ll still be directing plenty of images at weddings, this recent conversation really inspired me anew to embrace always being ready to document as things unfold and giving people the space to enjoy being present while I document. As you’re looking for a wedding photographer, I hope you also consider the importance of having those candid photos in your wedding gallery.