Ask a wedding photographer (Official Thread)! The place for brides and grooms to ask anything they would like from the wedding photographer community

is it wrong to ask someone to emulate / recreate a shot by another photographer?

more context: I am between 2 photographers. person #1 has shot a wedding at our venue and she has some really beautiful artistic / creative shots utilizing the lighting and architecture of the space. however, this wedding was only 1 out of the 3 galleries she sent and fiancé and I felt the other two were just meh. I also felt like while her artistic/creative shots were stunning, some other parts of the wedding day (ceremony, portraits, candids) were inconsistent - some really great photos, some not so great. so my worry with her is that while I love these "trendy" photos now, maybe in 10, 20, 50 years I will just wish I had nicer formal portraits.

person #2 has shown us 5 full galleries and we felt like they have all been consistently good. however, she has never shot a wedding at our venue before, and she has less "creative" or editorial-style shots. given this, I am wondering if it would be ok for me to show her some images from the 1st photographer that I would like for her to try and recreate? for the record person #2 has stated they are definitely open to us creating a mood board together and us providing her with a shot list, but a part of me feels a little icky about telling her that I like these specific shots by this specific photographer (whereas a mood board of Pinterest photos--most of which were likely taken by photographers not in our area--feels a little different)

/r/WeddingPhotography Thread