Top 12 Tips for Creative Wedding Photos
How to have creative photo ideas as a wedding photographer
August 23rd, 2024.
What is creativity and how a wedding photographer can have it
I have to start this writing by stating that all people are creative. I argue that you are very likely at least as creative as I am. Honestly, I never felt creative until I started photographing. Creative wedding photo ideas can help capture unique and artistic wedding moments, even in challenging environments, while balancing them with classic wedding photographs that resonate with timeless emotions and storytelling.
I still clearly remember what it felt like to go out to photograph for the first time and how I had no idea what to photograph. Along the way, however, I have learned a few things, but most of these things have been intentional learning, not innate creativity.
I feel that creativity with a camera requires not only photographic experience but also a certain kind of mindset shift. Most of my experiments are still experiments. Often I don’t like the photos I’ve taken, and I never even show these photos to the wedding couples.
However, I analyze the reasons why I think a photo “doesn’t work” after the shoot and take the learned lessons with me.
How to Have More Creative Wedding Photo Ideas?
1. Plan the Portrait locations ahead
The indoor locations were not particularly interesting, with natural light flooding in combined with artificial light, so I wasn't very satisfied with the final photos, even though the couple liked them.
On my second wedding gig, I decided to do things differently. The wedding couple wanted urban photos, so I found cool locations and ensured we had enough time. Here is a photo that won me an artist of the year award by Lookslikefilm. I scouted the location before the wedding and it made all the difference!
I liked the symmetrical background of this parking garage. 2015.
2. Remember to Take Wedding Photos in Your Own Style
Later, when you have a distinctive style, you can reverse the percentages because couples will likely want you precisely for the way you shoot, or despite it.
A gap in the fence through which I photographed the couple. I found the location the day before. 2018.
3. Choose the Location Carefully
I found this location the day before, and it was about a 5-minute drive by car. 2022.
4. Remember The Importance of Light in Wedding Photos
I found this location for elopement weddings after a five-hour hike and I chose it because the sun was setting behind the mountains and I knew they were backlighted. Because the place appeared cloudy in the photos I showed the couple, I had to justify carefully why this location would be unique. 2023.
5. Make a List of Creative Goals
However, it's good to be aware that not all couples are the same, and the same things can't always be done, even if conditions are similar.
Wedding portraits with a tilt-shift lens. 2020.
6. Limitations Are Good for Creativity
Shoot portraits using only a 50 mm lens, shoot a moment with only an F8 aperture or with a slower than 1/40 shutter speed. However, remember the 80/20 rule in these cases.
Sometimes limitations allow for unique photos. I shot this wedding day portrait with a Leica M10 rangefinder camera that doesn’t have autofocus. 2021.
7. Use Creative Lighting
I thought the venue's lights were too dim, but the guests saved the first dance when I asked them for help. 2020.
8. Focus on Capturing the Atmosphere
A photo of this couple's engagement session in Norway. The sun had already set when we were searching for a location, so I started shooting with a long shutter speed. 2019.
9. Improving as a Photographer Requires Feedback
The openings in the observation tower created interesting lighting. What could have been done better in this photo?
10. Keep The Inspiration Alive
I got the idea for this from the "window" on the bride's back and decided to try creating the photo in Photoshop. 2019.
12. Use alarm so you Don’t Forget to Take More Creative Photos
I didn't forget to use the tilt-shift in this shoot because I had set an alarm for myself. 2018.
Wedding Photographer, Mentor, and Teacher
Hi, my name is Jaakko.
I'm an elopement photographer, and I have been a wedding photographer for 10 years. Photography has taken me from the fjords of Norway to the mountains of Switzerland and the small streets of London.
My work has been published in some of the world's largest publications. In 2019 and 2023, my photos were selected for the Junebug Best of the Best collection, the world's largest wedding photography competition. I was also named Artist of the Year by Lookslikefilm in 2015 and 2019.
I currently live in the highest hill of my hometown with my wife, Ida, and my children Elsa and Eliel, but I travel regularly across Europe for work.
I'm incredibly excited that at this stage in my photography career, I finally have the time to guide and be a photography mentor for other photographers and entrepreneurs!
Read more about me