Golf Course Wedding Photography Tips and Inspiration

You don’t have to love the game of golf to appreciate golf course weddings. The lush grounds and immaculate landscaping found at most golf courses have made them popular wedding venues. However, photographing a wedding on a sprawling golf course comes with its own set of challenges. From navigating the expansive grounds to working within country club guidelines, it’s easy to feel unprepared and risk capturing images that fall short of your usual standards. To help, you’ll find a number of tips and ideas below to ensure that your golf course wedding photography is better than par for the course.

All of the images in this article are provided by the photographers at Wedding Maps and used with their permission.

Scout the Location

Photo by Holding and Co at Moorpark Country Club in Moorpark, CA

This pretty much goes for any wedding venue, but it’s especially important to scout the grounds before attempting to capture golf course wedding photos. Most golf courses are expansive, with the possibility of the best photo spots located far away from the ceremony site.

Ideally, you’d be able to walk through the venue before the big day, or at least explore its layout via online maps or satellite shots. Arriving an hour or so early might be enough if walking the grounds on the day of the wedding is your only option.

Understand the Rules and Restrictions

Photo by Bob Kniley at Irondequoit Country Club in Rochester, NY

Be sure to communicate with the wedding planner and venue coordinators ahead of time to clarify which areas are available for photography and which are off-limits. Since golf courses must accommodate both their regular members and the wedding event, certain spaces may be restricted. Knowing these boundaries in advance will help you plan your shots without any last-minute surprises.

Use the Best Spots (at the Right Times)

In reality, photographers can use tools and techniques like framing, cropping, depth of field, reflections, and especially lighting to make even drab scenery work for incredible photos. That said, when you have a beautiful location to work with, show it off! Capturing golf course wedding photos at the course’s best spots will make your clients happy and could lead to more referrals from the venue if they like your work. Here are a couple of key spots you’ll want to look out for when scouting.

Bridges and Tunnels

Photo by John Foley at Mistwood Golf Club in Romeoville, IL United States

There are a lot of paths that connect different parts of the golf course, and it’s not uncommon to find a bridge or tunnel along these paths at some point. These structures often lend themselves well to epic portraits, especially when shot wide at certain times of day, which we’ll get into in more detail later.

Photo by Angie Nelson at The Olowalu Plantation House in Kapalua, Maui, Hawaii USA

Tunnels, in particular, serve portrait photographers well in a couple ways. First, they create frames you can use to naturally frame your subjects. They also can be used to great effect for natural light or off-camera flash portraits. For natural light portraits, place your subjects inside the tunnel, but close enough to the edge to be well lit. The natural fall off of light in the tunnel behind will help your subjects pop in front of the dark backdrop. For flash portraits, tunnels work especially well for backlit portraits like the one above. The flash can be focused with a grid to light only your subjects, or the “spilled” light can be used to create a ring of light at the edge of the tunnel.

By the Water

Photo by Belinda Philleo at Coyote Hills Golf Course in Fullerton, CA

It might be the mirror-like reflections that water provides, or maybe it just enhances the landscape, but bodies of water, as well as waterfalls and fountains, help level up the scenery for golf course wedding portraits. Most golf courses include ponds or lakes of different sizes. While some of these water “obstacles” may have originally been intended to be used as a hazard for golfers to avoid, you’ll want to ensure that you hit these water spots for your shots.

Photo by Michelle Jahns at Fox Run Golf Club in Eureka, MO

On the Green for Epic Shots

Photo by Milan lazic at Medinah Country Club in Chicago, Il

Wide open spaces typically lay the perfect setting for epic portraits, and open fairways on golf courses are no exception. It’s not every day that we get to see such grand, manicured swaths of greenery. Wedding photography encompasses several genres, including landscape photography, and this is where those skills will come to use. Grab a wide angle lens, find a unique vantage point, place your couple in an area of interest (the path in the photo above creates perfect leading lines), and capture the grandeur of the golf course. These are the images that create great opportunities for selling large wall art to your clients.

Photo by Picturist Photography at Sleepy Ridge Weddings in Orem, Utah United States

Whenever possible, try to include the clubhouse in the background for outdoor portraits, especially if it looks anything like the example above. As the site of their wedding, the venue is going to take on added significance for the couple, and the clubhouse represents a notable piece of the location.

Photo by BYC Photography at Palos Verdes Golf Club in Palos Verdes, CA

Near the Trees

Photo by Aidan Dockery at Palm Hills Golf Club in Hua Hin, Thailand

Take advantage of the trees you’ll find lining the fairways at most golf courses. They offer plenty of open shade, which is great for capturing midday portraits, and they also provide a number of compositional elements. Branches on larger trees, for example, can frame your subjects, create leading lines, or even add patterns and texture to negative space. Look for unique perspectives and use trees to create incredible golf course wedding portraits.

Use Golf Carts and Gear as Props

Photo by SMJ Photography at The Belle of Blue Bell in Blue Bell, PA

If the couple golfs together, it’s almost obligatory that you work golfing elements into your golf course portraits. This includes everything from the smallest pieces, like using a tee to hold the ring for detail shots, to taking a ride across the course in a golf cart.

Photo by Andy Sidders Photography at The Club at Mill Green in Hatfield UK

Capture the Landscape During the Ceremony

Photo by Roc Focus at Mill Creek Golf Club in Rochester

It’s always wise to cover wedding ceremonies from multiple angles with wide, medium, and tight shots. Some locations, like churches with balconies, offer an additional vantage point from higher up. This is a perspective you’ll want to combine with wide shots to capture the full ceremony scene at golf course weddings as well. Top-down shots are great if you have access to a drone, but you can always stand on a chair in the back (or just hold your hands up as high as they’ll go), throw a wide-angle lens on your camera, and capture as much of the grounds as possible in a single frame during the ceremony.

Take Advantage of Golden Hour and Sunsets

Photo by Roddy Chung at Golf Club at Newcastle in Newcastle, WA

Golden hour lighting, that magical light that falls across the sky during the last hour or so of the day, can make any location look better. For golf course weddings, however, golden hour offers photographers an opportunity to capture epic lighting over epic landscapes that your clients will swoon over. The same goes for sunsets.

Photo by Lazzat Photography at Breakers West Country Club in West Palm Beach, FL

This goes back to scouting, but it is worth using an app like “Sun Surveyor” while scouting to pick out the best spots on the course for shooting both golden hour and sunset portraits. Apps like this will allow you to trace the sun’s path across the sky so that you know exactly where it’ll be when you need it to be, and you can choose a spot that will allow you to frame the shot against the perfect background.

Mix It Up with Standard and Candid/Action Poses

Photo by Charles Moll at The Ranch Club / Barn on Mullan in Missoula Montana

It’s a given that you’ll capture standard, traditional poses throughout the wedding day. Hopefully, you’ll also be able to work in plenty of action and candid shots as well. An outdoor venue like a golf course will give your subjects plenty of room and opportunities to run wild with ideas. Or, they can also tone it down and walk or naturally interact with one another in a scenic environment.

One thing that many photographers, especially newer photographers, don’t realize is that great action and candid shots can be (and often are) directed. In other words, photographers can create authentic looking portraits by giving subjects cues that initiate an action sequence that allows for fun, interesting photos.

Photo by The Greens Photo at Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, NJ

One simple example of this is asking your couple to do a twirl out on the green. It looks like they’re just enjoying themselves on their special day, which hopefully they are, but the moment likely wouldn’t have happened without direction from the photographer. Other examples include “candid” photos of the couple walking or laughing.

Get Creative

Photo by Nix Weddings at Northstone Country Club in Huntersville, North Carolina

Get creative with techniques you’ve learned during your photography journey and work some creative portraits into your couples session. One popular go-to involves creating silhouettes with your subjects. Bonus points if you can work in other elements in the scene to frame your couple or balance out the composition. Other ideas include capturing reflections (using a smartphone or other reflective surfaces), double exposures (in-camera or in post), or color gels and off-camera flash to fully transform the colors in a scene, including the color of the sky.

Have Fun!

Photo by Jason Montoya at Rolling Road Golf Club in Catonsville, Maryland

Most importantly, have fun, and make sure your clients are enjoying themselves as well. At the end of the day, you’re there to document this momentous occasion, and there’s no need to make it tedious. This includes the types of images you capture. Sure, go ahead and get your safety shots, but explore other options as well, and get the wedding party involved. Make sure that in addition to providing great photos, you also provide a great experience.

Conclusion & More Inspiration

We hope you found these photography tips for golf course weddings helpful. A little preparation and planning can go a long way to help you make the most of this specialized venue. To help fuel your inspiration for your own golf course wedding gig, be sure to check out the photos below. Enjoy!

Photo by Jessie and Dallin at The Ledges in St. George, UT United States