I frequently post a favorite image from the past weekend. This time, I’d like to post a few images. All are portraits of the bride, Denise, on her wedding day. This might show some of my approach and style in wedding portraits …
portraits of a bride
This first photo was an impromptu photo of Denise as we were going down in the elevator. I turned my flash around and bounced it into the elevator above and behind me. I asked her to lean back into the corner of the elevator. The composition was purposely diagonal to make use of the strong lines in the frame.
camera settings: 1/160 @ f4.5 @ 1000 ISO; TTL bounce flash
Nikon D3; Nikon 24-70mm f2.8 … at 26mm
A more formal portrait from earlier the day in her bedroom. I aimed for a classically elegant pose. The lighting – daylight from camera left through the window; TTL flash bounced to my right and slightly towards the bride. The flash was flagged with the black foamie thing.
camera settings: 1/160 @ f4 @ 800 ISO; TTL bounce flash
Nikon D3; Nikon 24-70mm f2.8 … at 50mm
A similar pose – again aiming for the classically elegant – but in an entirely different setting and with different light. To counter-act the bright sunlight as much as I could with a mere speedlight that I am bouncing into the large room, I went to 1/250th immediately, and set my flash to full power. Doing both those things meant I had the most output from my flashgun, and using at best efficiency.
1/250 @ f4.5 @ 200 ISO; manual on-camera bounce flash at full power
Nikon D3; Nikon 24-70mm f2.8 … at 24mm
A portrait of Denise just before she entered the church. She requested this photograph, and walked towards the door and turned around to the camera.
I used flash as the merest touch of fill-flash, at -4EV FEC.
The post-processing is via a few of the actions in the Totally Rad action set, layered at different opacities. The ‘Beer Goggles’ action gave the selective softness, controlled by a Layer Mask.
You can order the Totally Rad action sets, or other goodies offered, via this affiliate link:
camera settings: 1/250 @ f4 @ 200 ISO;
TTL flash, straight-on, with FEC set to effective -4EV
Nikon D3; Nikon 24-70mm f2.8 … at 24mm
Equipment used for these images:
Nikon D3; Nikon 24-70mm f2.8 AF-S (B&H); Nikon SB-900 (B&H)
other articles on wedding photography
Simply amazing.
Superb set of portraits, Neil.
I really like your use of diagonals and very tight composition.
I do like when you show straight out of the camera files too, I’d like to see her face at 100%(3rd or 4th photo), just to see what it compares to some of my shots with a similar setup at 100% and a little higher iso.
Great shots! I always love the classsic poses.
Thanks for sharing the set.
Who’s the Man? “Awesome” wedding photographs and Thank you for sharing your wisdom and creativity with us. Let your Light shine, Gregory
Nice set Neil, you are so good a finding the best lighting in tricky situations. What is the name of the material the black foamie thing? It looks velvetyish…
All great shots but I just LOVE the last one!! Everything about is wonderful and the tones are amazing!!
The elevator shot is great example of always keeping on the lookout for an opportunity, love the texture and geometry. Regarding the window shot, I’m curious if you considered simply letting the windows blow out to simplify the composition?
Excellent shots, coupled with a beautiful bride.
I’ve only recently discovered your website and it’s such a wealth of flash knowledge! I’m very grateful!
Great photographs as always! How do you use the flash for fill flash outdoors? Is it still flagged with the BFT, is it pointed straight at the bride, or at an elevated angle?
An amazing set, my favorite of yours for a while, amazing work.
“To counter-act the bright sunlight as much as I could with a mere speedlight that I am bouncing into the large room, I went to 1/250th immediately, and set my flash to full power. Doing both those things meant I had the most output from my flashgun, and using at best efficiency.” — Neil v N
After I read “at best efficiency”, I had to backtrack to find a mention of “TTL” somewhere. Neil, what did you mean by “at best efficiency” above?
“I didn’t mention TTL flash anywhere for that photo? It was manual flash. … Back to my comment about best efficiency.”
Neil, I was thinking that TTL use might have not caused flash to dump at full power while still giving you desired exposure. Thus the efficiency. It did not occur to me that you were comparing HSS with regular maximum sync speed (not manual or TTL settings).
I get your other point too about flash not providing proper exposure at smaller aperture.
Thank you for the explanation.
Thank you for sharing these. I enjoy everything you post, but since I like to focus on wedding photography… this glimpse into some of your wedding stuff is great.
Greetings Neil,
I have been avidly perusing your blog for the past 8 months now. I can’t begin to tell you how much the information you put up here has helped in improving my photography.
I just finished reading your book on On-Camera Flash Techniques. I was wondering if you have plans in the near future of making a video that will detail the whole gamut of your shooting techniques(composition and lighting) and of course the thought processes that informs the decisions you make as you shoot. That will be a valuable tool for all of us that are learning so much from you.
Thanks
Hi Neil,
With the shot of the bride in front of the window, I get why you chose 1/250 and a wide aperture to get the most power out of the flash, but do you meter for the ambient light first to get a rough idea of exposure. eg How did you ‘know’ the window light wouldn’t totally blow out at those settings?
Thanks David
Hey Neil
I was just curious…. how many weddings do you shoot a year?
Hi Neil,
Can you tell the opacity of Grandma’s Top Shoes layer in your last photo ?
Thanks.
Hi Neil,
Did you gel your flash for these shots? I imagine the elevator lights were florescent but the colour balance looks good.
Thanks
Great shots. Love the first three. For the second one (with the window), would a ND filter help counter the incoming sunlight, or would that unbalance the colors of the room?
Donald R
“I used flash as the merest touch of fill-flash, at -4EV FEC”
??? My Nikon 800 & 900 flash only do -3. I was wondering in the past how to get lower – could you explain please? THANKS!
Thanks for a a really interesting set of articles. I see that the lovely portraits above are all with the 24-70 lens. I use this for wedding and other work (on D700/300) as its the obvious workhorse. I do find that at the wide apertures necessary to get subject isolation and use available light (in church especially) that it is easy to get less than perfect sharpness, either because the lens is softer away from centre or there is marked field curvature away from centre. I see that in all your portraits above the subject is quite central in the frame. Are you framing thus to hit the sweet spot of this lens? Sometimes its nice to get the subject off-centre, but I find the hit rate less than ideal, whether using the centre focus point and reframing or moving the cursor to where I want it within the frame in single point AF mode. I much prefer the 50 F1.4G in this regard but obviously want some variability in focal length too. How do you find the 24-70 and what do you do to achieve best focus for off-centre subjects? Regards, Cliff
Hi Neil
I read that the window shot (bride on purple seat) was in fact manual flash. Taking this away, you indicate “I did want to expose properly for her where she was sitting in front of the window”. Is it safe to say that you still exposed for the correct tone (dress or skin) and then added manual flash. If so, it looks like the dress is cream and not white. So im curious to see if exposing correctly for this tone (dress or skin) did make the dress white, or is the dress just cream to start with. Hope you understand what I mean.
.
Also in this shot, would exposing for the outside ambient light and then using flash as a predominant source, would give a pleasing result. Or did you decide that fill flash was all the shot needed.
Cheers
Angelo (Australia).