Formal Portraits
Formal portraits don't always need to be formal. If you don't consider your self a formal person, please do not let the term keep you from these amazing possibilities in your wedding photography. Formals is often the term given to staged or planned special portraits. They often do have a formal look to them but that is not crucial.
Just about any time where we schedule a block of time into our day to specifically take photographs can be combined into the term, formals. Sunset portraits are a good example of this. Many of my sunset portraits, I would not consider a formal pose but the lighting, exposure, composition, etc. is still carefully considered and crafted as if it was. I will try to still get in some formal , traditional poses but with a gorgeous sky and loving couple in a once in a lifetime moment, why limit your self to formal poses? Get some fun ones, some action shots, some silhouettes, there are so many options. We are really only limited by our time as the sun is quickly setting at this point. Our lighting is getting dimmer and dimmer and I am constantly having to adjust my settings at this point to properly expose the images and the look that we are trying for. I am trying for.
My couples usually have no idea what look I am going for in the moment their images are being created. They don't understand what I was doing until it is over and they see their pictures for the first time! They are almost always blown away by how many great images we captured so quickly and with so much variety. These types of pictures are almost always selected to be the main, large wall portrait or bridal album covers they quickly get shown to their friends and family!
The most common or typical formal poses are at the ceremony site immediately after the ceremony or alter pictures, when in a church. Many times, I have gone into the “formal poses” part of the day and the subjects pose themselves in a “more casual way”. If we have time, what I will most often do is go ahead and take the photograph they posed for and then ask them to do another in the more traditional, formal pose. Most often, if that is selected for the album or any print, the second more formal pose is selected.
Other classic moments you will probably want professionally preserved could be with the bride's mom or significant person, perhaps in the brides room prior to her wedding ceremony. Having mom adjusting her daughter's veil, zip up the wedding dress, helping to put on jewelry, etc. These classic moments sometimes are completely candid and sometimes may be a bit more posed or staged. In either regard, lighting and composition are critical and great care must be taken to preserve these moments properly. That is why they may be still classified as formal.
Regardless of what you call them or when or how they were created, formals are the odds on favorites to become your main or favorite images from your wedding day! Even if you are not an overly formal person, please allow time for special images to be created and crafted for you. The little extra time they may take will be well worth it!