A collage of various wedding photos featuring couples, decorations, and guests involved in celebratory activities, arranged in a diagonally staggered pattern.

HOW TO CREATE A MOOD BOARD

I love to create personalised engagement and wedding photography. Photographs that show your personalities, your hobbies and your relationship as a couple.  To help me get to know you, I ask you to create a ‘Mood board’.

So what is a Mood board?

A mood board is a set of ideas and inspiration. Couples add their favourite images to a mood board to visually communicate to me, the photographer, their style preferences.

For example, you might love a certain pose, an angle or compositions or a type of lighting and post processing. By placing your photo ideas onto a mood board I can very quickly get a feeling of the sort of imagery that resonates with you both as a couple.

What’s the difference between a Mood board and a Shot list?

A Mood board is not a shot list. A shot list is a detailed list of must have photos that the photographer works their way through on your wedding day. Whilst I actively promote brides and grooms to give me a short shot list for the groups at your wedding e.g. mum, dad, bride and groom, grandma etc. a detailed list of must have shots inhibits my creativity.

Why do I need a Mood board for my engagement photos and my wedding? 

Your pre-wedding photoshoot will be the first occasion you and I will meet, see my article on ENGAGEMENT PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS It is vital that I have an understanding of the type of couple you are, and the Mood board that you provide will help to clarify this. For example if you love the beach or the woods etc.

Engagement photos

Your engagement shoots mood board is likely to look very different from that of your wedding. In a pre-wedding shoot we have the luxury of time to get to know one another, time for you to relax into having your photos taken, dispelling those nerves of being in front of the camera and time to take some gorgeous sunset, engagement photos that your friends and family will adore.

Wedding Mood board

Your wedding Mood board will look very different. Your wedding Mood board really needs to drill down to the things that are important to you, remembering of course that these photos will be taken during your wedding day so light conditions will not be the same as on your engagement shoot. Also time for your wedding photos will be limited.

The Mood board should include some photos of the reception venue and any particular areas around the venue that you would like to include in your photos.  But the mood board can also help to ensure that we spend the time you have for your wedding photos in the right way, for example if eight out of your twenty images are of family groups, than that tells me that we need to protect that part of your wedding day timeline ( Wedding Timeline) in order to ensure you capture all the family photos you want.

How to Create a Mood board for Photography

  • Create a Pinterest account (or sign into your existing account)
  • Create a Board called “Engagement or Wedding Mood board”, whichever one is applicable (be sure to leave it as public).
  • Visit Helen Chapman Photography, Client resources pages and “Pin” images that you like, making sure you add a few words to describe why you like the image. e.g.. the pose, lighting etc.
  • Add in a few more photos that you like from around the web (along with descriptions).
  • You can highlight a couple of the photos you love with a ‘must have’. These are the photos were everything is perfect the pose, lighting, setting, post production etc.
  • Once complete, send the Mood board URL to me.
  • The Mood board can tell me a lot about you both as a couple but it cannot tell me everything, that’s why it is essential that we review the mood board together on a conference call. At that point I can dig a little deeper into your wants and needs, both as individuals and as partners, as well the details for your event.


Features of an Ideal Mood board

Here are a few features of a good Mood board:

  • It does not have too many images (20-30 is just fine)
  • It is NOT a shot list
  • It has good descriptions
  • Wedding Mood boards includes shots from your wedding venue or similar wedding venues

About Helen Chapman Photography

My philosophy:

“To provide excellence by placing YOU, Your dreams, Your wants, Your needs in the heart of everything I do”.

“To create beautifully, naturally, authentic, fun, romantic heirloom photography, that YOU are guaranteed to love and that will be cherished by future generations to come”.

“To provide YOU with a truly exceptional service through following my core beliefs of honesty, fairness, integrity, determination and creativity.”

I have been helping couples plan their weddings in the stunning natural landscape of the Devon countryside, rugged moorland of Dartmoor and spectacular seascape of the coastline of Devon, Somerset, and Cornwall for years and I’m using that experience and relationship with a great network of wedding vendors to help you plan your special wedding day. Why not take a look at my Client resources pages & Check my availability for your wedding and book a call today.