A New Focus for Wedding Photographs

S ometimes the old standards just seem, well, old, says photographer Bob Ortiz. At his Irvine studio, he’s bringing zip to weddings by taking more candid shots and tinting the formal portraits for a softer, more romantic look.

Ortiz says if the photographer has a great personality, he or she can make people at ease and unaware of the camera.

“I approach it in a psychological way,” he says. “I don’t just say, ‘Tip your head. Look here.’ I don’t want to shoot the old standard way, but with more elegance, flare, romance and excitement.”

He has photographed celebrity weddings, including ones for the Nixons and Ueberroths, as well as football and hockey players.

“Some spend $600,000 to $1 million on the wedding, and it’s over the next day,” says Ortiz. “But the photographs are forever.”

This is another in a series of first-person columns that allow people connected to the fashion industry to talk about their encounters.

*

Society is conservative as a whole, and people still want to see the traditional wedding shots, but 50% to 60% of our photographs are fun, exciting, more photojournalism shots of not looking into the camera. We still want a good portrait of the bride, groom, parents and grandparents, but it doesn’t have to be static.

I’m speaking to a lot of photographer associations, and I tell photographers that they just can’t be shooting as they did five years ago. Brides are seeing in bridal magazines the sepia tones and black-and-white and creative photography.

In the past, photographers used to just stop the action and take a photograph and lose the moment, the excitement, the expression, the mood. We try to capture that moment. If the bride is kissing her grandfather, we don’t interrupt and say, ‘Look here’ and take the picture, but take it as it’s happening.

Brides like the nostalgic look; that will never go out of style. They want that different approach. We do black-and-white prints and sepia-tones portraits, especially for the carriage trade, rich and famous, creme de la creme weddings.

Sepia is not as harsh as a black-and-white, and it gives it that ‘40s and ‘50s look, more so than a black-and-white. It’s totally different. We shoot them in black-and-white and process it through a color processor and print it on color paper.

The most satisfying customer to work with is a bride who loves her family and friends and who is enjoying her wedding. Some weddings are like a business affair, and they are harder to work.