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November 2, 2011
wedding photography – looking for those key moments
Wedding photography has become more modern in style over the past decade or so. Instead of overly posed images, the general trend is now more of a story-telling (or photo-journalistic) style. It’s now as important to capture the day’s events as it unfolds, as it is to get beautiful portraits of the couple and families. As photographers we’re now much more focused on the moments and the gestures that tell the story.
With this intent, I really try and observe the day as closely as I can, capturing what I hope are the key moments. With experience, this anticipation and timing becomes second nature. (And as an aside, you can’t do this if you are constantly checking your camera’s preview.)
What we can’t always foresee, is the specific value that some photographs might hold …
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December 12, 2010
using a variety of lighting techniques for wedding photography
I’ve had some questions about specific images posted to the Facebook page of my photography. Since I’d like to keep that page for my clients and potential clients, I don’t want to clutter it too much with photo-geek stuff. I therefore decided to select a few images to discuss here instead.
This recent post on lighting ideas for the romantic wedding portraits, showed that I like to mix it up a bit, and not rely on one specific technique. Not every situation we’re going to encounter can be solved with one specific approach only. Mixing it up in terms of lighting also helps to provide my clients with more variety in the look of the final selection of images. In addition, it also keeps it interesting and fresh for me. Constantly adapting to challenges is part of the process of growing to be a better photographer.
With the image at the top, I wanted something with a sense of the dramatic. I only had my assistant there with a softbox on a monopod. Just the one light. We were freezing, and had to move fast. So no time for more lights. To get this kind of separation between my subjects – the bride and groom – and still get even light on them, I simply made sure that my light was at an equal distance to both of them. This way there is no light fall off and one of them brighter or darker than the other …
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November 29, 2010
lighting the romantic portraits of the bride & groom
Scouting around the location during dinner time, I peered over the edge of this spiraling staircase and thought it would be a good idea to get some light on the couple, seated on the couch. I posed Melissa so that she lounged back with her head on Dennis’ lap. There is no way to get light on them from my position with on-camera bounce flash, and definitely not if my intention is to get light only on them. It needed off-camera flash.
To add some variety, I also thought of a few other things to try with the lighting, using the same set-up and pose.
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November 22, 2010
non-photography goodies in my camera case
Work as a wedding photographer isn’t just about the gear – cameras, lenses and flashguns – and about taking photographs of key moments. Often enough it is up to you as the wedding photographer to help guide the day’s time-line and flow, and also just to help. For me, wedding photography isn’t just a passively observed event where I take photographs in a photo-journalistic or story-telling motif. I’m there to record the day’s events, but also to help, if necessary, making it a spectacular day.
In the photo above, I took over from the maid of honor when her fingers weren’t strong enough for that final button and clasp at the back of the bride’s dress. My fingers were stronger, so I finished the last button. So as a photographer I’m often called on to do more than just take photographs. And in my camera roller case, I keep some extra non-photography related goodies …
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November 2, 2010
Drawing from a story-telling photojournalistic sensibility; and also from the classic style of wedding photography; with a dash of Fashion flair; and Romance … the intention is to give you images that will forever recall this fantastic day. Click on the thumbnail images to see more.
My style as a wedding photographer is flexible – it is whatever we can do on the day to give you the best possible images. We’ll collaborate with ideas you may have – look at clippings from magazines that you like – drawing from any elements that you’d like to see in the photography of your wedding day.
I also photograph weddings in New York, Connecticut and Pennsylvania. So whether you’re from Manhattan or Philadelphia or New Haven, I would love to hear from you if you’re looking for a wedding photographer. Follow the links at the top to the other Galleries or my Contact page if you’d like to have more details about style and pricing and fees.
Neil vN
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October 20, 2010
exposure metering – bride & the bride’s dress
From a technical point of view, photographing a bride in her dress can be a challenge … depending on the lighting. If everything is under your control as the photographer, and you’re lighting the formal portraits with off-camera manual flash, then it is essentially a study of the zone system.
The simplest way for me then to get accurate exposure, is to use the histogram. I place my brightest relevant tone at the edge of the histogram. All the other tones will fall into place. (It is clearly explained in that linked article, and in my book on flash photography techniques.) In using flash like that as your dominant light source, you simply expose correctly for your subject – the bride in her white dress.
Now, when working with ambient light (perhaps with a touch of fill-flash), things are slightly different .. but not really. You still always (or nearly always**), need to expose correctly for the bride’s white dress, making it the brightest tone that you want to capture detail in. For this article, we’re going to look at exposure metering for available light. The same thought-process can be applied to flash or other additional lighting, but just for simplicity of explanation, let’s just stay with available light here.
So, looking at this portrait above of Jill, a gorgeous bride whose wedding I recently photographed …
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October 11, 2010
favorite image from the weekend – the moment after the kiss
I’m normally in the center aisle when I work as a solo photographer at a wedding. But with the wedding on Saturday, I knew I could trust my 2nd shooter to nail the photographs I needed. This allowed me the opportunity to move around, looking for other angles. I was hoping that Lori-Ann would hug her husband, George, in the first seconds after The First Kiss. I was hoping to get her expression in that hug. She did hug him, but with her face over his other shoulder. I had a 50% chance of guessing that right! So I didn’t quite get the image I anticipated …
… but in those moments right after the first kiss (and hug), she leaned back and just threw her head back, looking up .. over-come with emotion. And I knew I had a compelling image, showing all the emotion and joy.
Timing is essential. And just as essential, is the ability to resist the urge to compulsively check the camera’s preview. There could be something happening while you, as the photographer, is scrutinizing that LCD screen.
Image details:
1/125 @ f2.8 @ 2000 ISO … (no flash)
Nikon D3; Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 AF-S II (B&H)
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October 2, 2010
The bride and groom at last night’s wedding are veteran burners – people who attend Burning Man – and several of their guests are fire performers. Later the evening during the reception, four of the guests showed their skill in juggling and dancing with fire.
Photographing fire performers
Photographing the fire performers, especially in such low light – i.e. near darkness – was a challenge. A slow shutter speed to show the movement of the fire, would cause the performer to be completely blurred. But a fast shutter speed would not show enough movement in the fire. A fast shutter speed would also necessitate a wide aperture, which causes depth of field problems as the performers move.
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April 17, 2010
style in wedding photography – anticipation and timing
I’m sure every photographer has this experience, where your shutter trips, and you just know you have the shot. Something that you see – whether anticipated or just lucky timing – and you capture it. This is how I felt when I captured this moment between Marie and Andrew at their wedding this weekend. I got it!
A bit of background to this image:
During a Catholic wedding service, there is a short time after the exchange of vows and rings, where the couple are seated again for the Mass. With everyone’s attention now on the priest and the rest of the proceedings, this is usually the moment where a couple have their first nearly-alone time. From experience, I know that invariably the couple will then steal glances at each other, or lean in to each other to talk. Or they might reach out with a momentary fingertip touch. Just a little something where they spontaneously show their connection with each other.
And this is how I was ready for this brief moment where Marie shaped an I-heart-you with her hands for Andrew. 
In that sense this then is not a lucky shot. When you are photographing a wedding, or any other kind of event, whether news or sports or whatever it might be … the key to getting images that capture something essential about the event, is to be prepared, to observe, anticipate, and ‘read’ the event. It’s all about anticipation, awareness and timing. Those moments are there.
other articles on wedding photography
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January 11, 2010
flash photography in low ambient light
I’m often asked what I would do when I encounter a situation where you need to use flash, but there is no easy way to bounce flash. My answer invariably is .. you’re screwed!
Well, not really. My advice is that you have to improvise and find some way of finessing your light. In tough situations, you still want to try and shy away from using direct on-camera flash whenever possible. Direct on-camera flash as the main source of light rarely looks good. And I only use the word ‘rarely’ there as a hedge against someone finding that single rare moment where direct on-camera flash actually was aesthetically the best choice.
As an example of what I meant by improvising, here is a wedding I photographed at the Pleasantdale Chateau – a top venue in New Jersey for any wedding photographer.
Earlier in the day, working outside with the couple, we had great light. There was a changing mix of dramatic light and soft light, which made it easy getting beautiful photos of the couple:
Later in the evening, just using bounce flash was enough to work with:
However, the outside ceremony was scheduled for early evening. I knew that even if the ceremony started on time, the light would gradually fade into darkness as the event progressed.
I now had to balance the practical consideration of getting sharp images, with the artistic consideration of retaining the mood of the setting and the mood of the ceremony. I couldn’t rely on there being enough available light to carry myself and my second photographer through the time of dusk setting in. Direct on-camera flash just doesn’t look that good, but there really was no way to bounce flash there .. we were outside next to a lake.
This is where panic set in. I desperately want to give my clients images that look as great as those they saw in my sample albums or on my website. But there were the practical matters to consider.
I wanted both these things - sharp images, but also images that retained the mood …
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