Scroll through enough wedding photographers on Instagram and you’ll notice something. A lot of them look the same. Every wedding has the same orange skin, the same teal shadows, the same faded blacks. Snow in Tahoe, a vineyard in Napa, a beach in Maui. Same look.
That’s because a lot of photographers put one preset on everything. It makes the feed match. It’s good for the photographer’s brand. It’s not always good for your wedding.
I don’t do that.
I came up in newspapers.
Before weddings I shot news. In a newspaper you don’t change what happened. You don’t make the sky a different color because it looks cooler. The job is to show what was there.
I still edit that way. I fix exposure and white balance, I clean things up, and I make the photo feel like the moment felt. But your day stays your day.
Every wedding has different light.
A September afternoon at High Camp. A smoky backyard in Truckee. Pine shade and string lights at Clair Tappaan Lodge. A still evening on Donner Lake. These don’t look the same in real life, so they shouldn’t look the same in your gallery.
If I made all of them match, at least some of them would be wrong. So I edit every wedding on its own. Some come out warmer. Some come out cooler. Some get more black and white because that’s what fits.
Your colors are your colors.
You spent a long time picking things. The dress. The bridesmaid dresses. The flowers. Your partner’s suit. When you look at your photos, those should be the colors you picked, not something a preset turned them into.
Skin should look like skin. White should look white. Green trees should look like the trees you were standing under.
Trends don’t last.
Remember selective color, where everything was black and white except the bouquet? Or the heavy HDR look? They were everywhere for a while. Now they look dated.
The orange and teal look will go the same way. True to life color doesn’t go out of style, because it’s just what it looked like. Your kids are going to look at these someday. I want them to see what the day actually looked like.
It’s not for me.
This is the whole point. Your gallery isn’t my portfolio. It’s your wedding. I’m not trying to make your day fit my Instagram grid. I’m trying to make photos you’ll still love in 30 years.
If you want to see what that looks like across very different days, look at Taylor and Marie in the smoke, Jess and Parker at Clair Tappaan and Jacqui and Anthony on Donner Lake. Same photographer. Three different days. They look like three different days.
If that’s what you want for yours, send me your date.
Keep reading: Lake Tahoe Wedding Light: What Your Photographer Should Know, The Wedding Photography Industry Has an Honesty Problem, Hiring a Photographer vs. Hiring a and The full portfolio.