London Wedding Photographers – Top 4
Weddings are deeply emotive, magical and often times hilarious, and it’s a wedding photographers job to capture that in pictures. Being an excellent wedding photographer requires skill, patience, integrity, honesty and so much more. It’s a multi layered profession that goes far beyond knowing how a camera works. In this post, I lay out my case for who I believe are the four best London wedding photographers working today who you should consider to take your pictures. Couples expect their wedding photography to display moments that they would otherwise miss and capture the joy and spirit of their day. Here I’ll show you photographers who work in slightly different styles, so you can see how your story might translate when told through the lens of a camera.
Guests often take great pictures, but simply put, there there is no substitute for a professional. A skilled pro will shoot in a consistent style throughout the day so the final set of images come together to form a cohesive narrative, as opposed to a series of snaps that loosely correlate based on a general theme of ‘your wedding’. More and more clients understand the importance that wedding photographers have, seeing their work as pieces of art and appreciating the level of skill and knowledge required to make interesting pictures.
The best wedding photography London has to offer
You need a wedding photographer who understands light and composition, but most importantly, understands people. A wedding is an event that has a predictable structure to it, but it’s the people who provide the real story. How they interact, how they stand, how they move, each of these things creates a dynamic and interesting space to work in. It’s the job of your photographer to capture the quirks of your friends and family and document the day in a way that celebrates them. I believe that photographs are incredibly important, it’s hard to appreciate the value of something in twenty years, but if you look around your parents home, at the pictures they have on the walls and on the mantelpiece, then consider how much time has passed, you start to appreciate what it means to have great pictures of a moment in your life. These pictures that you have already in your home were often taken by friends and family, so choosing a photographer that is able to put you and your friends at ease in a similar way is going to produce beautiful and heartfelt pictures that you’ll cherish.
Awards are a good gauge of the quality of your photographer, but the joy in their images should be most important. Wedding photography awards are awarded by other photographers, so whilst they are able to judge the aesthetic quality of the picture, they often miss what I consider to be the main point of photographs, and that’s to capture something that is only visible to the client. Pictures hold on to emotions for us, that’s something that an award will never be able to convey.
Consider this.
Great design says the same thing to everyone.
Great art says something different to everyone.
If ten judges agree a photograph is worthy of an award, is it art? or does it merely conform to the structure and uniformity of a picture that is ‘technically’ good.
BUT – one thing awards will show you is that the photographer is committed to their craft. Awards are often given to single images, not entire weddings. One good picture in ten weddings is no good to you as the client, you need to know that the entire day will be captured beautifully.
Something to consider is pricing, albums and prints aren’t always included and you may need to change locations during the day, which may add more travel costs. No one wants sudden expenses when planning for a wedding, especially as the day draws nearer and all your invoices have to be paid upfront. Your London wedding photographer should have a clear pricing structure and declare upfront what is and isn’t included.
Wedding photography tells the story of the grooms experience of the wedding too, sometimes there is too much importance placed on the bride when it’s about the couple and their connection. When it comes to additional costs, this is another thing to consider. As the bride often takes precedence, if you want to capture the grooms story as well, you’ll more than likely need a second photographer.
From St.Barts brewery, to St.pauls cathedral and from massive celebrations in The Landmark hotel to micro weddings at old Marylebone town hall, a good documentary wedding photographer uses their cameras to show tell a story, capture excitement, happiness and tangible feeling in every frame.
If you need tips you can always email or WhatsApp through the website, if you need help finding another supplier, I can help with that too.
Here’s a Look at 4 of the Best Wedding Photographers in London
I must confess.
I hate these lists.
The companies and businesses that make them annually have no idea what they’re doing, so I’ve made my own. Naturally, I’ve put myself at the top of the list, because if you can’t love yourself how the hell you gonna love somebody else ammiright!?
#1. Liam Smith
Liam is one of the best wedding photographers London has to offer. Well, I would say that, because he is I and I am he. If I didn’t believe my work was good, how could I expect my clients to?
Documentary photography was my first love. Images that tell stories, either through incorporating multiple elements in one frame that are self explanatory, or by isolating a moment, a facial expression, or a touch between people. I like capturing photographs where the viewer can instantly relate, because they recognise the facial expression or gesture, and it speaks to them in a universal human language. I don’t like to define my style per se, I believe that good photography can take many forms. Whilst my images have a certain photojournalistic leaning, that doesn’t mean I exclude all other genres. Weddings are beautiful occasions, fresh flowers, white linen and often glorious sunshine. To ignore these details and photograph them in a fashion that ignored their style and context would be ignorant of the setting.
I started taking photographs when my art teachers in college told me my work was too conceptual and didn’t meet the brief set by the exam board. It was at this point that I decided (in protest) to move to the most literal depiction of the world I could think of, Photography.
After studying at Nottingham Trent University for three years I of course learnt that my initial conceptions of photography were entirely wrong, but I found a deep love for the subject, one that pushed me to turn my artistic interests into a career. I’ve been photographing weddings ever since I graduated, and whilst I don’t have an inspiring backstory that involves me winning a Pulitzer prize at nine years old, I have, over the years, steadily built a confidence and expertise that means I can shoot in any condition you can think of, and still produce quality photographs.
Ultimately, my philosophy is that wedding photography should be candid, honest and have integrity. There are lots of laughs, often tears and plenty of off the cuff moments throughout the day, you just have to be paying attention to see them. Photographs are incredibly personal mementos of an event, it’s my job to show you just how much fun your wedding day was, so you can enjoy the pictures for generations.
#2. Naomi Goggin –
I only recently discovered Naomi’s work this year, and I was immediately hooked. In a sea of wedding photographs and endless scrolls on Instagram, her work stands out by an absolute mile.
If I were planning my wedding now, I would hire her in a heartbeat.
Her images possess that magical quality of being removed from the present moment. The style, the composition, the moment capturing – they have a real sense of being of that time and nothing else, I find this instantly ‘transportive’. Because Naomi shoots on a variety of film formats, they form a narrative that is as if multiple guests have taken photographs throughout the day and presented them together to form a complete narrative. This makes the images feel incredibly intimate, as you feel like an insider flicking through someone’s personal family album.
Ethereal, elegant, timeless. Naomi is (as of this moment) my favourite wedding photographer. If you look through any London wedding photography competitions you’ll see endless images that all look the same. They are super sharp, often over processed and look hyper real. Naomi’s work reminds me of what I first loved about photography, and that’s intimacy.
They show you another world, one that is never the same as the present moment. A photograph should aid your memories and help you conjure sounds and smells associated with the scene depicted. The problem I have with modern photography is that it often seeks to replace memories. The depictions are so heavily curated that the meaning and emotion of the image is lost, it’s all about spectacle and not enough about the tactile nature of a memory.
#3. Alan Law –
Alan makes the list because his style of documentary wedding photography is entirely unique. His crops are tight and really draw the viewer into the action. The result is images that can be quite intense, that pack a punch and truly extract the emotional content out of a photograph. What I particularly love about Alan’s work is the layering he uses in order to tell stories.
A tried and tested tool of the photojournalist, layering a photograph to give context creates a much more dynamic image, one that fits into a wider narrative but also stands alone and contains its own unique story. Alan’s work is bold, in your face and brave, but having met Alan, he is personable, calm and an all round nice guy. It’s easy to see the trust his clients have in him, you really have to buy into what your photographer is doing, and trust them implicitly to get within a few feet of you whilst you’re experiencing an intense moment.
#4. Josh Gooding –
Josh has a unique ability to create stylish and cool photographs, without making everyone look bored. A huge problem I have with the sleek, city, lifestyle style of photography is that in an attempt to make the aesthetic of the image fit a certain mould, it results in images of your guests where they look incredibly bored. Weddings in my estimation, are anything but boring, so to have stale faces and no movement doesn’t appeal to me at all.
Josh however, makes edgy, sleek and sophisticated pictures and captures the magical emotional content of the day as well. Images that are so cool you’ll want to print and put up around your home, but enough lols to be able to remember how much fun your day was as well.
London does have a wealth of talent in the wedding photography department, but the above, in my opinion at least, represent the cream. It’s not a difficult task to put together a portfolio of couple portraits, because you’ve had a direct relationship with them as the client, and they are easy to direct, because you know them. What is incredibly difficult, is to walk into a room full of complete strangers, photograph them at their most vulnerable, AND not make it feel like you’ve stolen a moment from them. You have to be so much more than a photographer. Empathetic, compassionate and personable. The above have this in abundance, so book one of them!