If you’re a wedding or engagement photographer—current or aspiring—you know that one of the biggest challenges is keeping your portfolio and shot list fresh.
During wedding season you may be shooting several wedding and engagement sessions every week, and the last thing you want is for them to all blend together into an unrecognizable blob made up of the same shots over-and-over again.
To that end, we’ve scoured the best wedding photography on 500px to come up with creative ideas that you can try adding to your repertoire. If you find yourself in a rut, try these 7 rut busters!
1. Go Meta
Add a layer of separation between you and the couple. Not every photo has to be a photo of the couple. Why not a photo of a photo, a photo of a camera, or something captured in a reflection. We’ve seen some really creative ways to use this idea on 500px!
2. Put Photos in Your Photos
Especially useful for engagement shoots, we immediately fell in love with this idea when we saw it used in the shot above. The ‘perfect’ engagement shoot is there to capture the couple’s storied history and their bright future.
The future is easy: it’s in their eyes, their expression, and the radiating love they have for one another. The past is trickier… unless of course you literally sprinkle it all over the scene like Antonija did in the photo above.
3. Get Wet
Repeat after me: couples are NOT gremlins. You can feed them after midnight and, more importantly for our purposes, you can get them wet! Some of our favorite wedding shots involve getting wet—be that in the rain (above) or in the ocean.
4. Get Elevated
We LOVE the top-down shot. Get up on a ladder or atop another stable surface (please be safe…) and discover a totally new perspective. Create leading lines and shapes using the bride’s fluffy dress for bonus points…
5. Light Painting
Getting creative with one genre of photography often means mixing in another for kicks. Have you ever captured a steel wool wedding photo? Probably not. And even if you have, there many other creative ideas left to you.
For example, we’ve yet to see a wedding photo captured in the Eric Paré style of light painting.
6. Use the Architecture
Whether it’s a spiral staircase or a beautifully symmetrical building, don’t ignore your surroundings when you’re out capturing wedding photos in the city or a beautifully designed building.
Or do ignore it and regret that decision later when you realize how beautiful the blurry shapes in the background could have been… your choice.
7. Go Prop Crazy
Surround your bride in baubles, or lay them down in a fun make-believe scene created from whatever objects you happen to have at hand. If every one of your shots includes just your bride and groom, you’re doing it wrong.
Bring props, make props, find props, go crazy!
BONUS: Photoshop Madness
This one is a bonus because we realize that not everybody is a digital artist. But even if you’re uncomfortable in Photoshop, we’d suggest you get comfortable… you’ll open up brand new creative worlds.
Plus, it can be a ton of fun for a couple during the shoot, and a huge surprise after. “Oh! So THIS is what you were doing when you had us lay down like idiots on the ground and hold on to some balloons.”
As with every list, this is not comprehensive. The beauty of photography is that you can always try something new; always discover new dimensions that you didn’t know you had in you. Browse through the wedding photography on 500px and you’ll find enough new poses, techniques, and ideas to keep you busy for decades.
And if you have a creative idea you’d like to share with the community, drop it in the comments down below along with a link to one of your photos!