I have to be honest, when I first opened up Farbklang Fotografie’s website, I gasped. The wedding photography I saw was a stunning mixture of vulnerability, pure beauty, and emotion. As I talked to the photographer couple behind the lens, Julia and Sascha, it became clear that this emotion was intentional.
Based in Stuttgart, Germany, Julia and Sascha are digital and film wedding photographers who have a passion for telling real stories.
Photographing a wedding is not an easy job and if you don’t have the right team member, it can be even harder. However, if you find a teammate that compliments you, the work can be all the more rewarding. For Julia and Sascha, they’ve found that making a little competition for each other is a great motivator. When they’re editing the photos afterwards, they decide on who captured the funniest, most emotional, or most interesting moment of the day. The winner gets coffee.
For them, the hardest part about being a photographer is how flexible you have to be during each photoshoot.
“Every photoshoot is so individual, every wedding is individual and every situation is individual,” they said. “You have to adjust your settings within seconds, get a proper position and still consider aesthetics.”
Along with dealing with the technical spontaneity of it all, human connection is really the most important for Julia and Sascha during a shoot.
“Working with humans also means creating an atmosphere in which your clients feel good. This is the key to authentic photos,” they said.
Creating a comfortable atmosphere can be a hard thing to do when you’re a photographer. It can feel forced and if you’re not careful, your clients will feel that force too. You want to create those authentic atmospheres and connections, not fake ones.
For Julia and Sascha, that genuine atmosphere comes from getting to know their clients before even starting to shoot. If you start shooting right away, there is an instinct to just direct them to pose specific ways that may not be genuine to your clients.
For example, you might be photographing a wedding and ask your couple to stand in that classic prom pose. And if you don’t know your clients, you run the risk of making them take that classic prom photo when that’s the last way your clients would ever interact with each other.
“The photoshoot works best for us when it feels more like having a good time with friends instead of pure posing,”Julia and Sascha said.
When you view a photograph, you can feel the discomfort of subjects literally jumping off of the page or screen. How many times have you looked at a photo and have gone, “Yikes. They look super uncomfortable.”
Most people don’t feel comfortable in front of a camera, that’s just the way things are. But as a professional photographer, it’s your job to help them forget that the camera is even there. Your job is to build connections, make your clients feel comfortable, and therefore create images that are authentic.
Because of these connections that Julia and Sascha have made over the years during their shoots, oftentimes, their clients become close friends. Through capturing emotional moments, Julia and Sascha are able to experience the joy of the day once again during editing and then are able to share the finished product with their clients.
“The feedback of our customers is really rewarding and shows us we’re doing the right thing,” they said.
Like I said earlier, Julia and Sascha’s overall mission is to tell couple’s real stories.
“Real emotions that create a feeling when watching the photos,” they said. “People should get the chance to re-live a moment and should have the chance to stay in this particular moment forever.”
Sometimes, social media platforms can interfere or influence these real moments and emotions. On Instagram, especially in the wedding industry, people are always comparing and trying to compete with photos and other couples.
“This is not what wedding photography should be about in our opinion. It’s important to create photos which have a personal meaning to the clients and which tell their wedding day story and not the ones of famous Instagram accounts,” Julia and Sascha said.
For Julia and Sascha, being asked by a client to recreate a specific photo that they saw on Instagram is a no-go. They have found that if your client trusts you and your work, they will not fall back on wanting to recreate something they saw on social media.
“Trust can be built by a consistent portfolio and confidence when talking to your clients about your vision,” they said.
If you’re a wedding photographer and you have a client that asks you to recreate an Instagram photo, Julia and Sascha recommend reminding the couple that every wedding is unique. They believe that you should use this space to reiterate to your client that their wedding is going to be great on their own in its own special way. It doesn’t need a recreation.
You can find Julia and Sascha hanging out on Instagram and on their website while on their days off (they’re also probably binging “Brooklyn 99” on Netflix).
