Bridal portrait – Working with the available light
This striking portrait is of Rachel, a bride whose wedding I photographed yesterday. Yes, a Tuesday wedding! The prep was at a hotel on the Jersey shore, and when Rachel was ready, I wanted to shoot a few straight-forward portraits there in the hotel. There was a lot of light in the hotel room itself, but the decor was white – which helps for high-key portraits. But I wanted some variety.
So I scouted around, and decided to do some photographs in the passage outside her hotel room. Since it was a wedding on the Jersey shore, and we did other portraits later on, on the beach, I thought this bright wallpaper wouldn’t be too inappropriate as a backdrop. Now it was just a question of light …
This pull-back shot shows the setting. I really prefer to get as simple a background as possible. An f2.8 telephoto zoom lens is essential here in compressing perspective, and eliminating clutter in the background.
It’s a technique that has been discussed several times:
- Making your images pop – through choice of lens
- Wedding day portraits – simplifying composition for effect
- Wedding day portraits – bride & bridesmaids
Now, even though the light here was soft, with the large panels of fluorescent light, the light is still top-heavy. So then it became a matter of directing Rachel’s gaze slightly upward so there are no shadows under her eyebrows. Clean open light. Just the way I like it.
It’s a specific approach, that helps in defining a specific style that I have – aiming for both simplicity and elegance.
Direction & Quality of Light
I wanted to distill the essence of what we, as photographers, work with – light! Before we can truly grasp on-camera flash and off-camera flash, and really, any kind of photography, we have to be aware of the direction and quality of light. We need to observe the light that we have, and then decide how best to use it, or enhance it.
With this book, I try my best to share those “aha!” moments with you, and I do believe this book can make a difference to your photography.
The book is available on Amazon USA and Amazon UK, or can be ordered through Barnes & Nobles and other bookstores. The book is also available on the Apple iBook Store, as well as Amazon Kindle.
Camera settings & photo gear (or equivalents) used
- camera settings for the main image: 1/100 @ f2.8 @ 1600 ISO
- Nikon D3s
- Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 AF-S VR II /equivalent Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II / used at 130mm
Related articles
- Photography: direction of the light – using available light
- Even with high ISO settings, you still need great light
- Flash photography basics
- More articles about wedding photography
You work inspires me so much
Something so simple and elegant
Neil,
Great article as always. If the lighting from the tubes from the ceiling were not bright enough or created too harsh of down lighting for the situation, would you add flash with the “green” gel to match color temperature of fluorscent as you often due with CTS gels with Tungsten lighting.
More reinforcement of your philosophy that “available light is not random” (this time, indoors).
I actually really love this background. It’s unexpected. The one question that I’d have for you is this: Why don’t I get hotel hallways with skylights? Great job.
Beautiful image, Neil! The while balance and skin tones are bang-on… May I ask how you determined your white balance settings? I always struggle with florescent lighting both in camera and in post.
Thanks Neil. Did you arrive at 3250k from eyeballing a test shot on the LCD or did you use a grey card or some other tool? I shoot with a D700 and Auto WB would almost never work out for me in this circumstance. P.S. – thanks for all the knowledge you share on this site… I have no idea where I would be today without it… Particularly with respect to bounce flash! Cheers!
Stunning shot.
I know it’s an illusion, but where she is leaning against the wall, with the wallpaper pattern it looks like she has indented a soft fabric.
Looks great.
Trev.
Wow, I thought that was daylight coming through those panels! Almost like a big softbox.
Great tips on not only finding a location, but posing the bride appropriately to open her face to the light. So often we forget that second part.
The image looks fantastic, Neil. The hotel decor looks really nice too, except for those large white numbers in a jersey font painted on the wooden door!
Great photo. At first glance, I thought the light was from a big skylight!
Hi Neil,
I heard that flourescent light can cause some random and ugly color casts due to flicker frequency that does not match with the shutter speed. Do you have any suggestions which shutter speed to use to avoid such problem? I heard about the very expensive kino flows for studio lighting that have very high frequency to avoid such problem.
mhazer if u shoot at 1/60 of a sec. or slower u should have more consistent color, i would shoot at faster speed though and fix it later, its raw ;)
neil great pose! is the bride resting her front foot on something to get up higher or is she just bending her toes down, or is her foot up against the wall ?
simply beautiful and I love how you share what it took to get the shot, I look forward to seeing the rest of the images :)
I have never encountered such a well lit hallway. Nice :-)
neil, did you shoot this at 200mm? Just curious…
Hi Neil, I wonder: how do you get those nice and soft colors on the skin of persons you photographed. What kind of post processing do you do ? I hardly can imagine that the softness and colors come out of the camera’s just like that :)