People Skills Not Needed for Photojournalistic Coverage?

Did you know that "true" photojournalistic coverage means that the photographer is not involved with your wedding at all?

To truly cover an event photojournalistically, the photographer should not be interacting with his subjects... he should just documenting what he sees with his camera. Because of this, people skills really isn't necessary because the photographer should not be positioning people or setting up his shot.

Now we all know that this is impossible at weddings. There are times where you do need to interact with people to get a good shot. And if nothing is happening at a wedding, a good photographer knows that he needs to set up situations where people need to respond and then he can take some good photos of what's happening.

So in a sense, is this true photojournalistic coverage?

It's very possible that there really is no such thing as true photojournalistic wedding coverage. To some extent, interaction must be done to move things along and to get the kinds of shots that client today now expect to see. So really, people skills are still needed even if a photographer claims to be a "photojournalist."

All too often, photographers today tend to hide behind their cameras and avoid their subjects. Perhaps this hides the inability to use proper "people skills." Who knows. But regardless, a good wedding photographer should know how to work both sides of the fence. The photographer should pose people when necessary to get good "formal" photos and then know enough to step back to let things happen to get good photojournalistic shots as well.

Being well rounded by offering both styles gives clients the best of both worlds.