Vintage Wedding Photography Tips: How to Give Your Wedding Photos a Retro Look.

Everything old is new again, and that is especially true with vintage wedding photography. Nostalgia for years past is evident with the popularity of costume dramas like Downton Abbey, Mad Men and Boardwalk Empire.  Many brides now want to include a vintage flair to their wedding photography. Wedding websites and wedding blogs like the knot and wedding wire have great examples of real weddings that use a vintage look to their wedding photographs. Researching vintage wedding inspiration pictures is a great way to brainstorm but it takes hours to do. So, to make things easier for couples planning their wedding, we have complied an easy to read list of tips for vintage wedding photography.

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  1. Include Film Photography with the Regular Digital Wedding Photography- Although you may choose to shoot your wedding ceremony and reception with digital cameras, have some Polaroid cameras around for some great vintage wedding photos. Your wedding photographer can use the Polaroid camera occasionally for some vintage looking photos and your guests can take their own personal snaps during the wedding reception.  This is a really fun way to give your wedding photography a vintage look and wedding guests love being amateur wedding photographer too!
  2. Consider Shooting Using Black and White Wedding Photography– If film photography is too much for your budget, you can still use digital photography for your wedding but have the wedding photographer change the images to black and white when they retouch it. Simply changing the colors to black and white will not give the photo a real film look, so make sure you chose a wedding photography company that is very skilled at balancing out the tones and lighting of the wedding photos on Photoshop. Our New York Wedding photographers often shoot weddings in color and then show the bride and groom what the wedding photos would look like if they were changed to a black and white film photography look. So don’t feel like you have to be definite on shooting the wedding in black and white during the wedding planning stages, it’s an aesthetic that can be investigated after your wedding.
  3. Mix Tradition with Contemporary- If you do plan on using a vintage aesthetic with your wedding photography, don’t worry about stressing a retro theme in other areas of your wedding or it will appear more like a costume instead of vintage inspiration. What makes using vintage wedding photography look fresh is the mix of the old with the new. In New York, many of the wedding venues are very old and coupled with a vintage wedding photo look, the photos already have the perfect amount of tradition without needing the bride and groomed to be dressed in vintage wedding outfits. With vintage wedding photography that old saying, “less is more”, definitely applies.

 

We hope you found this how to for vintage wedding photography helpful and we wish the best to all the couples out there busy planning their wedding.  Congratulations on your upcoming wedding!

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