Traditional wedding photography usually refers to photography that is dominated by posed portraits of the bride, groom, families and wedding party. Such portraits are not intended to be spontaneous or candid, but they are beautifully set up with lots of attention to details of clothing and lighting. Before the advent of medium format photography, this was really the only type of photography available for a wedding since the large format cameras required so much set up time and are anything but portable. Once medium format cameras, such as the Hasselblad, were developed, wedding photographers began to have the freedom to move a little away from rigid traditional wedding photography.

In traditional wedding photography, the photographer retains a lot of control over all of the poses. This is to be expected because the photographer has planned out a whole set of photographs that do not vary from wedding to wedding.

In today's' world of mostly digital wedding photography, it is somewhat rare to find a really pure traditional wedding photography, but you can if you look hard enough. Most couples are more interested in a combination of various wedding photographic styles.