Aperture, Lets the Light In: What Harry Styles Gets About Wedding Photography
When Harry Styles released Aperture and sang “aperture, lets the light in”, I laughed.
Then I paused.
Because that’s… Literally my job. But also… Not literally at all.
Yes, aperture is a camera setting. It controls how much light hits the sensor. But if you strip it back, aperture is really about openness. And that lyric? It hits because it’s not about cameras. It’s about permission.
Permission to be seen.
Permission to soften.
Permission to stop performing.
And honestly? That’s where the best wedding photographs live.
Aperture isn’t about numbers. It’s about trust.
In photography terms, a wider aperture lets more light in. The image feels softer, more dimensional, more alive. A tighter aperture gives you control, sharpness, predictability.
On wedding days, I see this play out in people all the time.
When couples feel like they have to do it right… Pose perfectly, smile on cue, hit every expectation… Everything tightens. Shoulders rise. Laughter becomes polite. Moments pass without landing.
But when people feel safe enough to open up?
That’s when the light floods in.
The deep breaths.
The teary laughs.
The messy hugs.
The moments you don’t plan for… And couldn’t recreate if you tried.
Harry Styles energy is documentary photography energy
Harry has built an entire career around being unapologetically himself. Soft when he wants to be. Loud when it matters. Rejecting boxes. Letting love win. Letting people exist as they are.
That’s exactly the energy of documentary wedding photography.
No rules about how things should look.
No forcing emotion.
No performing for the camera.
Just presence. Observation. And space.
Because when people aren’t being watched too closely, they become themselves. And when that happens? That’s when photographs start to feel like memories instead of images.
Letting the light in on a wedding day
For me, “letting the light in” doesn’t mean chasing perfect sun or aesthetic moments. It means:
Letting moments unfold instead of interrupting them
Allowing silence when it wants to exist
Not correcting how someone laughs or cries
Trusting that real beats perfect every single time
It means your wedding doesn’t need to be a production. It doesn’t need to be polished within an inch of its life. It just needs to feel like you.
The irony? The more freedom people have to be themselves, the better the photos become.
This is why nostalgia can’t be staged
So many couples tell me they want their photos to feel nostalgic. And what they’re really saying is:
“I want to remember how this felt.”
Nostalgia isn’t an aesthetic. It’s not film grain or trendy edits. It’s the emotional weight of a moment that mattered.
And that only happens when you let the light in.
When you stop trying to make something look like a wedding and allow it to simply be one.
Final thought
The best photos don’t come from perfect light.
They come from people who feel safe enough to let it in.
So if you want wedding photographs that feel honest, emotional, and unmistakably you… Not a performance of you… That’s exactly what I’m here for.
And honestly? Harry would approve.