Many people say Facebook is being used as a newsfeed – ‘a showreel of wedding photography with the odd image of a baby scan thrown in for good measure’.

People don’t think twice about uploading their memorable moments but should we be sharing our wedding photos on social media sites?

For some, wedding photography is losing its special touch – seeing people’s wedding photos on a daily basis makes people forget how special the wedding photo album is. People are sharing one of the most important days of their lives, not just with their close friends and family, but with people they went to toddler group with 30 years ago or someone they met at a party once and left saying ‘add me on Facebook, yeah?”

Wedding photography has come a long way over the years, and proudly sharing images on the web, is just the next chapter. In fact I wrote a blog the other day about ‘morning after photography’ where the wedding photo shoot is extended into the next day to capture, well, very intimate moments.

On the other extreme, some soon-to-be weds are asking guests not to upload any images to Facebook, for reasons such as “we’re paying a professional to make us look good” – they don’t want to be caught off guard by the pal paparazzi.

Although some may think wedding photography should be kept for private albums or kept away from social media sites entirely, the majority of professional wedding photographers I speak to think otherwise, and recognise the business value of people sharing albums online. Like word-of-mouth recommendations, if engaged couples see shots they like they are going to find out who took them which will result in more bookings.

One photographer said they felt that wedding guests uploading floods of dodgy photos reminds potential brides-to-be how important hiring a professional photographer to do a good job is. So on the whole, photographers seem to be embracing the free advertising.

As always, photographers working in a digital age need to make sure they have insurance in place, just in case any of their wedding shots get lifted from social networking sites and are used elsewhere without any form of consent.

If you have an insurance enquiry, don’t hesitate to give the InFocus team a call.