If you’re looking for a wedding photographer to capture your upcoming wedding day and have been researching for any amount of time, you’ve likely noticed a few keywords that keep coming up on different photographer’s sites and wedding blogs. I’ve written two posts defining editorial and documentary style, and on this post, we’ll be discussing what people mean when they describe their style as “editorial” wedding photography.

So, what does editorial photography mean?

In the wedding niche, editorial photography is a stylized, posed approach to photographs that are directed and created by the photographer or creative director. They don’t leave much of the photograph to chance and take control of every element such as colours, posing, and background to create something specific. The reason behind the name “editorial” is this style of photography is traditionally accompanied by an article or publication in a magazine or online. Of course, that is an incredibly broad definition by itself, so when you see that description used in the wedding industry, you can safely assume it means the photos will have a magazine-worthy look and feel.

What else does this mean for your wedding photography?

If you hire a photographer that describes their style as editorial, you should expect to receive photos that are creative, intentional, and dramatic. Your photographer will be giving you lots of direction — where to stand, where to put your hands, where to look, etc. These will not be candid photos, though sometimes they can end up looking candid if the posing is natural. Some photographers will blend this editorial style with a candid approach in order to create beautiful, flattering photographs that still hold natural emotion.

Most often on a wedding day, the editorial approach is used during the formal portraits such as wedding party photos, family photos, and bride and groom photos. These portraits are created with more direction than other portions of the day where your photographer should be fairly hands-off, such as the ceremony and reception. In these parts of the day, I find a documentary style approach is more suitable. If you’d like to learn what documentary style photography is, you can read about it on my other post here: What Does Documentary Style Photography Mean?

Learn about my blended approach here