We had the opportunity to photograph a beautiful wedding this past weekend, so I thought I’d post a few of my favorite images. Along with the photos, I’d like to share some of my thoughts about why I like the image, and some of the background of how we made the image. I hope you’ll agree with me that the photos are different from a lot of the wedding photography we see these days. I think it’s the difference that make all the difference..
The image on the right shows the bride and groom with the Bible passage from Genesis that was read by her father during the service. Notice also that her wedding ring is sitting in the fold of the Bible, and the ring is casing a heart shaped shadow.
I really like the mood this image captures. The warm tones and contrast between the shadows and highlights gives the image a real sense of depth and dimension. Normally, I’d want to be able to see the subjects eyes, but in this case, I like their gaze directing us to the Bible and the ring.
Pictures like this take some extra work and an understanding of exposure. The light on their faces is from an off-camera flash shooting through an umbrella. The light on the Bible is from an LED flashlight being held above and behind the couple. There is also a fairly strong contribution from the ambient tungsten lights in the chuch, with gives the image an overall warm tone in the shadows. The trick is to balance the two different type of light (one continuous, the other instantaneous) into a single, balanced exposure. There was also a small amount of Photoshop work to balance the colors of the two lights, since the LED flashlight tends to have a blue color cast.
I’ll post a few more of my favorites over the next few posts as I work through the nearly 2,000 frames from the weekend.
