If you want to improve your wedding photography this year, here is a great place to get inspiration. These are the winning photos from this year’s International Wedding Photographer of the Year.
There is an abundance of wedding photo competitions out there, and in my mind, this is one of the best. The International Wedding Photographer of the Year, or IWPOTY, has several different categories that feature unique styles, a $30,000 prize pool, and is judged by some of the world’s premier photography talent, including last year’s winner Erika Mann.
This year’s grand prize winner was Australian fine art photographer Dan O’Day for his bride and groom portrait featuring dramatic lighting and the use of colored smoke bombs. For his award-winning image, O’Day will receive $3,000 cash, a Nikon D850, a Hold Fast Money Maker, and several other items from companies such as Smart Albums, Think Tank, Tave, and Kodak. In total, the grand prize value comes to $11,135.
The competition featured 11 categories: photojournalism, from above, black and white, epic destination, solo portrait, dance floor, bridal party, wedding album design, couples, engagement session, and film photography. Below are the stunning images of each category’s winner. To see the rest of 2018’s top wedding photos, check out the IWPOTY website.
Image by Dan O'Day, Grand Prize Winner, Coupe Portrait Winner
Image by Jason Tey, Grand Prize Runner Up, Engagement Session Winner
Image by Chris Glenn, Black and White Image Winner
Image by Celestine Aerden, Bridal Party Winner
Image by Aditya Mahatva Yodha, Solo Portrait Winner
Image by Divyam Mehrotra, Dance Floor Image Winner
Image by Tara Lilly, From Above Image Winner
Image by James Simmons, Single Capture Winner
Image by Felix Barra, Epic Location Image Winner
Image by Alain Schroeder, Film Photography Winner
Images by Linda Lauva, Wedding Album Design Winner
Wow, some glorious images there, but for my money some are a bit impersonal. While they're great art they don't all celebrate what it means to unite a couple.
The last one fits that bill but really is common looking to be in a list like this.
My rating: (as in same order as from the top)
1. way too dark, unusable for a wedding, arty however.
2. Overly Photoshopped and stitched image.
3. again way too dark for a wedding photo, it's artsy however but not great.
4. You can hardly see the faces, corn infront of most of them
5. Too soft, a tad out of focus.
6. Seems like a bachelor party more than a wedding...
7. Way too soft, out of focus.
8. This is a staged photo, was definitely not a natural wedding.
9. 100% certain that was a staged shoot of a women in a wedding dress, not a wedding shot.
10. The first photo (seamingly screenshot from a video)that captures an actual wedding, love the story it tells. Not great however.
11. Nice wedding photos, but nothing special.
2018 International wedding photos is definitely not impressive.
I assume you have far greater work to show right?
https://fstoppers.com/photo/182405
If someone could post the next PTWBTS episode, that would be great.