The lovely Jess on her wedding day
This shot of Bride Jess on her wedding day was taken at about 2:30 in the afternoon on a bright sunny day. Out in the open we had strong contrasts between the sunlit areas and the shadows – a photographers nightmare. Especially for wedding photographers!
Bride Jess standing in the doorway of the family “pizza hut”
To get around the problem with Jess I stood her just inside the door of a small building in the garden of the family home. Often a wedding photography shoot will start at the Bride’s home with her portrait shots and some family groups. This particular home happened to have a very cool “pizza hut” built in the backyard which had quite a rustic look to it. Although in this photograph of our bride – the actual building is really not much of a feature. I thought the window at the back might be a distraction, but I think it creates an interesting look in this shot.
I exposed the image for the light on Jess’ face, which has made the wedding dress over-exposed slightly and the window at the back is also, but it works well. I also had my camera set with a small aperture, which has thrown the background nicely out of focus and kept the viewer’s attention on the bride’s face and eyes in particular.
When you work with any portrait model, you will find as you move them around, that there are angles that work better with their face. With Jess it was a case of just dropping her chin very slightly, which gave her face beautiful lines.
This image of the bride and groom was taken at about 4:30 pm in full shade. The light was cool and a bit blue in the shade so I used a gold reflector (held expertly by my wonderful assistant) to bounce some warm sunlight into the scene. The rustic old wood on the sides of the farm shed make an interesting texture. Old farm buildings are great locations for wedding photos – look for peeling paint and aged wood to add texture and contrast against beautiful wedding gowns and sleek suits.
The positioning of bride and groom was simple – Kade was not terribly excited about having many photos taken so I had to work quickly. And the light was fading fast. Having Jess lean in toward Kade with her hands on his chest makes an intimate pose. Jess is a statuesque beauty and so I had Kade stand on an old plastic container that we found lying around so that he was standing a little taller.
In all I spent about half an hour with the bride and groom as they were eager to get back to their guests and the party, but we ended up with some lovely shots.