The Evolution of Wedding Photography: From Traditional to Trendy and How AI is Changing Wedding Photography

This article discusses how wedding photography has changed over the years, and how it will likely change moving into the future with the introduction of AI tools in wedding photography and how this will impact the wedding photography consumer market.

The Origins: Classic Portraiture

The earliest wedding portraits were a luxury, symbolic of status and wealth. As the field of photography emerged, these posed images represented a couple's bond in a formal manner. These images are known as studio photography, formal wedding portraits, and vintage wedding photos.

Mid-20th Century: The Wedding Album Emerges

With the boom in consumer culture, wedding albums became a staple. The focus was on traditional wedding shots, with the photographer capturing planned poses and essential moments like the first kiss, cake cutting, and bridal portraits. This era introduced terms like wedding ceremony photography and reception photography into common parlance. The wedding album was a financial asset for high end photographers that were able to use their expertise in design and insider knowledge of print labs to build relationships with vendors and provide custom wedding albums to their clients.  As this service expanded into white labeled labs that provide services for professional wedding photographers, they also competed directly with photographers while also marketing directly to consumers. For the clients that want a curated experience, wedding photographers work with industry leading labs to produce some of the most exquisite work, while at the same time consumers that are not able to afford the higher end services are able to self service through a multitude of online print labs. The quality and affordability of these services are wide ranging, some are as good, or close to the quality of photographer prints, while others leave much to be desired.

The Shift to Color and Candid

The introduction of color photography brought weddings to life, and with it, the rise of candid wedding photography. This less formal style included spontaneous shots, capturing the real emotions and unscripted moments of the day. Candid shots and vibrant wedding photos are key terms from this transformative period. While the wedding market exploded in technological tools for photographers, the digital photography age brought in more technology to assist photographers in using advanced cameras. Consequently, there was an influx of new photographers entering the marketplace to meet rising demands, and some of these photographers were less focused on posed images of the past, and more on candid moments unbeknownst to the subject. These images are sought after by consumers because with the ability to take a photograph at any time with a smartphone, photography became more about the moment, and less about the posed group shot on a particular day.

The Modern Digital Revolution

Digital wedding photography brought about a significant shift in how wedding stories were told. With the ability to take unlimited photos, terms like photojournalistic wedding photography and contemporary wedding photos began to trend. This era is also defined by creative wedding photography and innovative wedding shots. Consumers wanted to relive the day, not just to have documentation that it occurred. More and more artists, less focused on the technical skills needed in photography entered the market and pushed the market forward into an artistic art form.

The Modern Narrative: Storytelling and Authenticity

Today, storytelling in wedding photography is pivotal. Natural wedding photography and documentary-style approaches are all about authenticity. This is defined as modern wedding photography, emotive wedding storytelling, and authentic wedding moments. These are the portfolio building images that photographers love to share with their clients of their loved ones, and closest family members. Catching the brief moment where a groom brushes away a tear is something that was never the focus of the wedding photographers of the past.

The Trendy Twists: Drones and Smartphones

The latest trend includes drone wedding photography, offering aerial wedding shots that provide a grand perspective. Smartphone wedding photography is also on the rise, emphasizing user-generated content and social media wedding photos. There is even a twist of the past with a resurrection of potoroids for wedding guests to take of themselves. This includes both photobooths and 360 video booths.

The Future: Technological Advances, Artificial Intelegnce in Wedding Photography, and the end of an Era

Looking ahead, we anticipate the emergence of terms like augmented reality wedding photos and virtual reality wedding experiences. These will define the innovative edge of futuristic wedding photography. The tools already have begun to transform the editing process, and edits that may have taken two to four hours to perform can now be done within a few minutes.

AI editing will undoubtably transform wedding photography and advance the quality of images that consumers receive from their wedding photographers. There is a downside to the use of these tools however, the way that AI generates content, and edits, is based on norms, averages, and data banks, even copyright infringement. Part of what has made wedding photography an art form is the entire process of capturing moments, and editing them. What if your edits are what make you different, but AI simply learns what you do, and then makes that accessible to others that simply paid a subscription. This takes away the creativity, and devalues the human that originated something others find valuable. At the same time, we no longer have artists blow glass pieces, we have industrialized commodities we can buy off hardware shelves.

The style of an individual artist made high end wedding photographers unique. If AI simply copies editing styles from the norm, and the elite, and the work load decrease can be as much as 90% in some cases, wedding photographers will undoubtably rely on these tools more heavily, which will result in less creativity, and less uniqueness. It is likely that the overall effect of AI in wedding photography will be two-fold. Firstly, wedding photography will improve as a whole, as substandard, and novice wedding photographers will be more able to produce excellent work without having to understand editing to the level of an experienced wedding photographer. This is a positive thing for consumers, but this will also undoubtably industrialize what was once an artform. Would you want AI to make a painting for you? And if so would that fetch the same as if it was Picasso? In some ways this will end this artistic niche of wedding photography.

However, on the other hand it will improve the quality of work for consumers that cannot afford the most premium of wedding photographers. The second way it will impact the wedding photographer marketplace is that large companies will thrive in being able to afford the most advanced AI services, and be able to eliminate editors, and photographers that are more experienced. If AI replaces editors and photographers are nothing but an hourly employee, this will reduce wages and subsequently reduce the quality of life for an entire industry of people, until it is nonexistent. This is the way of advancements, and this change will take years, but AI will replace photographers as costs will propel larger companies forward, and consumer demand for lower prices, faster delivery times, and standardized results.  

Despite these changes that we will see in our lifetimes, there will always be industry leaders that will still remain profitable despite the industrialization of wedding photography, and this is because the highest end photographers will be the mavericks, the artists, and those with exceptional skills that will remain to be sought after for the highest end customers.