Fine Art Wedding Photography

The advent of mirrorless cameras, and ability to capture the infrared spectrum of light is allowing couples to have incredibly artistic photographs captured at their wedding...

I am currently in the middle of a wedding film for my nephew, which I shot entirely on a single camera, handheld, in black and white on a mirrorless camera we converted to infrared. We were excited for our nephew, and it was simply wonderful to have all my family together for such a special occasion. It's rare that we get to do something completely artistic in nature without expectations of "what it is supposed to look like". The results of being able to work this way can't be overstated. The film is unusually artistic, and in 50 years when the couple looks back at this, they are going to be wowed.

Now that mirrorless cameras have proven to be every bit as good as a DSLR, if not superior, for professional work I decided it was time to spend the money to convert at least one camera and dedicate it to infrared photography. My excitement for mirrorless cameras technology, and how it relates to infrared is what inspired me to share this post along with some creative photographs you will see below. 

Back In The Day...

We haven't worked in infrared since the film days, and back then it was quite a burden. Infrared film was notoriously grainy unless processed to perfection, and you had to load the camera completely in the dark, which meant we had to carry around a black bag for changing film canisters.

However, mirrorless cameras make capturing the infrared light spectrum a breath of artistic fresh air because we see can see the image in infrared right in the viewfinder. Compliment that with the fact that digital cameras are so light sensitive the images don't have the grain associated with film processing. This creates new looks that we can capture that simply couldn't have been done a few years ago.

Lately we have been incorporating infrared photography lightly into our wedding coverage and the results are beautiful. In some cases you would be hard pressed to tell the difference between a traditional black and white image and infrared, but the differences would be staggering if set side by side. Infrared works incredibly well outdoors, as well as indoors with candlelight. Outdoors it makes trees and grass have a snowy quality as it captures foliage white. Indoors it has a soft glow, and is radiant offering the images a dreamy and romantic look and feel.

Our couples have been enjoying the fine art feeling this gives their story... Can't wait to wrap the infrared film. For anyone who is looking for fine art wedding photography or filmmaking as opposed to traditional color or black and white this is truly a creative idea that speaks volumes.

You can check out some of the photographs below we captured with in infrared converted camera at real weddings over the summer...

Wedding Photography by Maring Visuals

Charles Maring is a photographer and filmmaker at Maring Visuals, and a co-host / creator of the Together In Style talk show.