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History & Future

Wedding Photography as we know it began when couples went to the studio for the traditional portrait. On-location photography flourished after World War II with portable sheet film cameras and flashbulb lighting . Typically,  a horde of Army-trained photographers converged on a wedding and photographed on speculation.

Hired photographers posed the so-called candids so that the obligatory formals and all else fit within the limited number 4x5" film holders and flashbulbs they carried. The stitched-celluloid-enclosed albums had a limited number of same-size black & white photographs. An engineering flaw in early color print papers caused their colors to shift after a short time.

Rollfilm cameras, interchangeable lenses, color film, and electronic flash expanded the creative possibilities, but it took years for practice to catch up. Standardized photography gave way to a variety of styles, ranging from on-location romantic portraiture, to abstract effects, to spontaneous photojournalism. The Professional Photographers of America, Wedding and Portrait Photographers International, and industry leaders have done much to advance the art and science through conventions, seminars, publications, print and album competitions, and ethics codes.

Much of the credit for the growth of quality wedding photography goes to teacher-photographers like Bill Stockwell, Don Blair, Monte Zucker (romantic portraiture) and Denis Reggie (photojournalism). We now have excellent materials and products, such as new high sensitivity portrait film, library-bound albums with creative mounting, compact high power portrait flashes and light controls, and advanced medium-format reflex cameras with ultra-sharp lenses, and now digital imaging. 

While most wedding photographs are still created with traditional photographic materials, digital technology has greatly increased the portability of the images for website and email distribution, CD-ROM display and archiving, computerized album design, online ordering, and digital compositing and retouching. Now digital photography is being offered by some as an add-on and novelty, with the capability of creating instant prints right at the wedding. Eventually digital imaging will take over from film origination, but technical advancements are needed for digital to match the quality and versatility of film.

Another important development is the ever-improving quality of prints from video. This began with image capture devices like Snappy, affordable higher-quality digital video formats, and the move from linear analog videotape editing to digital nonlinear editing (NLE). There are numerous DV-format camcorders that have memory cards and disk drives for photo capture in addition to their digital videotape. The Sony TRV-900 is an example. That camera is currently part of our video arsenal and enables us to provide on-the-spot digital images on disk for the bride's newspaper announcement! So far these video-originated prints so far don't match their film-originated brethren. When high-definition video recording systems become the norm, video-originated stills will equal the current 35mm technology in quality.

Even with these electronic innovations, there has been a resurgence of interest in black&white, hand-coloring with photo oils, and antique photo processes.

No matter where technology goes, there will always be a demand for a wedding photographer who can flatter a wedding couple, conduct business with integrity, and capture an event with sensitivity, alertness, and professionalism.