Picture taker or image maker: your wedding photographer

Is your wedding photographer a picture taker or an image maker - in an ideal world both!

“You don't make a photograph with just a camera. You bring to the act of photography all the pictures you have seen, the books you have read, the music you have heard and people you have loved.” - Ansel Adams

There are those who say that they make a photograph and you probably thought nothing of it. But making a photograph is a hugely different approach to photography than merely taking pictures. Taking pictures would indicate stumbling upon or discovering something or waiting to grab or trap an image. When you take photos, you enter the world and find scenes to capture. Making however, would suggest the construction of a scene from parts. Creating an image from nothing, choosing the elements to include and exclude.

There are of course a wide number of intermediate steps between a taker and a maker. At one end you have takers who go everywhere shooting anything and everything around them on the grounds they will get something to show for it (and they will) however these people will have little no regard for composition, lighting, timing and no expectation. They simply shoot whatever takes their fancy or what happens to be in front of them. At the other end of the scale you have makers who won’t press the shutter release on a scene unless every single element has been precisely arranged to a preconceived plan, even the lighting. Still life photographers fit in this category of extreme makers.

Most photographers and all wedding photographers should fall somewhere in the middle. There must be a large element of making the pictures but you also need to be ready for the grab shot of the unexpected. The difference between taking and making a photograph can be as subtle as waiting a few seconds for the right moment or just moving a couple of steps to the right to improve composition. This is thinking ahead you are pre-visualizing what you want the resulting photograph to be. When you begin to do this you are no longer just taking photographs, you’re making them.

A huge difference between takers and makers is intention. A maker will be trying to get a message across to the viewer. Possibly a very simple message such as, “the bride is beautiful” to something much more complex, attempting to tell a story in a single picture. But whatever it is, a picture maker is trying to get viewers to see in a particular way - the way the photographer wants the world or event to be seen. Another difference is consistency; both takers and makers create beautiful, profound and moving photographs (some of the most famous war photographs are obviously by takers). However it is only fair to say only a maker is able to produce consistently memorable pictures.

So when looking for a wedding photographer which sort should you seek out? Someone with some element of both skillsets, but tending toward a picture maker. Coming upon an unexpected, beautiful or strange occurrence at a wedding is a great treat but you cannot rely on it. You don’t need to plan every photograph, but before you pressing the shutter - slow down. Your photographer should check the composition, angle, and lighting? Is this the right moment? Not just take what is given. A photographer can bend what he sees before you into a shape you wish for, altering how it is perceived, and making it your own.

This way you will end up with a unique and beautiful memory built from images made especially for the purpose...

Adam Szczepanski - Wedding Photographer London