Wedding photography: Night-time city lights & off-camera flash
For the romantic portraits, I often take a couple around the venue - the light is just different than during the day. This is where video light comes into its own. Here though, I wanted some of the city lights and light from the traffic outside the venue to appear in the background. The way I envisioned it, was as a stream of cars behind them, but in the first few test images, the cars were too distinct, even at f2.8 and 200mm focal length. Looking at how the approaching cars lined up at the traffic intersection, I Read more inside...
By now it should be clear that I'm quite a fan of video lights for the romantic portrait session with a couple. The Incandescent WB of the video light usually matches the existing light fairly well. Because video light has a rapid fall-off in light intensity to the edges of the beam, it doesn't "flatten" out the light like bounce flash would. In addition, the video light can seem quite natural in context of the existing light, and not even look like additional lighting. Somehow the light just appears to be great right there.
Here are two Read more inside...
Romantic wedding portraits - more than just the kiss
More frequently than not, when looking at the work of other photographers, I see that the romantic portraits of the couple are just of them kissing. Having worked with a number of photographers over the years, I've also seen how the instruction "and now, kiss", becomes reflexive. Pose the couple; have them look at each other ... *snap* ... and now kiss ... *snap*. And then the photographer takes no other photos of the couple at that specific place. Yet, there are more (and perhaps even better) ways to show intimacy in the romantic Read more inside...
Wedding photography - Tips for detail shots of the wedding rings
In photographing the detail images of the wedding rings, there are a few things to aim for:
- context within which to place the rings,
- a few images with different angles,
- great lighting which is easily achievable.
Then we also have to take care of the depth-of-field and the tricky focusing ... Read more inside...
Weddings are one of those occasions when families and friends come together from far and wide. An opportunity to see people they might rarely see otherwise. So it is an important task of any wedding photographer to record this - to get photographs of the various family groups.
This photo is the pull-back shot from one of the big groups I had to photograph at an Indian wedding this weekend. Now, everyone who has been to an Indian wedding, knows that they are sprawling events. There's lots going on and it can be slightly chaotic at times. Read more inside...
Wedding photography - a photo-journalistic style ... or more posed?
A photographer who attended the recent flash photography workshop here in New York, asked me an interesting question regarding my wedding photography style. His observation was about how I seemed to consistently get such well-timed un-posed and natural looking images with my wedding photography. Since my explanation seemed to surprise him, and even bordered on being a real aha! moment for him, I thought it could serve as an article here which might interest other wedding photographers.
When asked by photographers Read more inside...
wedding portraits: finding something to bounce your flash off
One of the frequent questions that come up, is what to do when there is nothing to bounce your flash off. When working indoors and there are bounce-able surfaces around me, my first instinct is to use on-camera bounce flash. It is easy to use, and the results can look surprisingly good, especially if you consider the minimal effort that went into it. No extra gear to carry around and set up. But when there is nothing to bounce flash off, you have to adapt your technique ... Read more inside...
using video light as fill-light for the romantic wedding portraits
Having just photographed my first wedding of 2011, I'm back in the groove of things. Keeping to the recent theme of showing how video lights are used for photography, I'd like to show a small selection of images of Cherryl and Jim's wedding where I used a video light to enhance the existing incandescent lighting at the reception venue ... Read more inside...
photography - looking for, and using the available light
Let me say this out straight – I hate gazebos. I hate gazebos and fountains and I especially hate having to photograph a couple at whatever landmark/feature that a reception venue has, where every other couple from the last five years has been photographed. There, I’ve said it. I feel better now, with that weight off my shoulders.
Wedding portaits should be about capturing the romance, and capturing the relationship between the couple. I want to show how much they are in love with each other, rather than the wooden structure Read more inside...
