Wedding tips
Seattle Wedding Photographer: John Crozier
Seattle Wedding Photography
If you read my last post about shooting in mid day sun you know that there are ways to work around the tough lighting situation that bright sun produces. Today I would love to talk about shooting with heavy cloud cover. We are talking the Seattle gray sky stretching to eternity. If you have visited or live in Seattle you have most likely experienced this. Unlike a bright sunny day where I am letting the sun’s position in the sky dictate where I am positioning my couples, a dark gray day blocks all direct light. This gives me more flexibility where I position people, however it creates its whole new set of problems.
Shooting a wedding in heavy cloud cover. (Shooting a wedding in Seattle)
Shooting in heavy cloud cover does several negative things. It turns everything dull and gray, it removes any sort of beautiful directional light (important for portraiture). However it does do one thing that makes life a bit easier. Essentially every piece of gray sky become a huge soft light source. However you must know how to use it or your work will go down hill fast. We are talking bland, flat, and boring wedding photos, which no one wants. The two major tactics I employ in these situations are to block light or add light. In this post I will explain my basic techniques on blocking ambient light. In an upcoming post I intend on covering the many ways I add light to a scene to enhance it.
Blocking light. Moving close to walls.
What I look for in portraits is to look for some sort of directional light. When the entire sky is producing the same amount of light the ambient light becomes bland and non-directional. Tactic number one is to move the couple near a wall. By positioning a couple near a wall I eliminate 50% of the light source hitting the couple. The remaining light is more directions and hits the couple in a better, more pleasing way. Here are two images shot in the same courtyard. The first sight is out in the open. The light is ok, but mostly coming from directly above the couple. The second shot is more directional, still not perfect, but better.
Blocking Light: Using an overhang
Take it one step further (literally). Placing a couple under an overhang blocks even more light. If putting a couple in front of a wall blocks the soft light from behind, putting a couple under an overhang blocks light from behind and above. Doing this give me a single direction of light to work with. A single source of light is excellent for creating portraits, and it give me some more creative options. I can change the look of the shot depending on where I position myself in relation to the direction of the light.
1. Shooting with the light. By shooting with the light you can get very even lighting on a couple. Here is Matt and Michelle again. Notice the soft light on them and the light falling off behind them. Having the subject be brighter than the background can bring attention to the subject (which is good).
One other example. Here Joel and Lauren are sitting under a porch awning. The effect is soft clean light. Notice how there are no shadows under the eye. Also notice the amount of detail on the bride’s shoes under the dress. Normally there would be shadows there. (p.s. nice Socks Joel)
2. Shooting at an angle with the light. By moving my feet and turning (or not turning) my couple I can affect the quality of light hitting them. Same awnings, same tactic, different effect. Pretty cool. Here are some examples. For those wondering, you can do this in bright sun as well as long as there is shade to work with. The first example is shot on a porch with a large awning. Notice the portrait type lighting on the bride and grooms faces. The lighting also can accentuate a portion of the frame that you want highlighted like Samantha’s face during this first sight.
This next example is more dramatic. An easy way to make things more dramatic is to increase the contrast between light and dark. Post Alley at Pike Place Market is amazing for this. Here are two portraits taken in roughly the same spot. Kelsie and couple are lit from the back and the right. I really like the drama this creates.
3. Backlighting. To gain a silhouette of your couple you need two things. No light on your couple (camera side) and a light source behind your couple. This technique is a little harder to pull off well because it requires a good amount of room behind your subject. For this shot I was indoors at the Skansonia Ferry and had Eric and Haruka walk down the stairs towards the exit which was outside and therefore bright. The light did a very nice wrap around effect on them. Notice how as the couple walked more towards the lightsource the couples backsides became more illuminated, effectively canceling the silhouette effect by the time they reached the bottom of the stairs.
4. Just shoot away and don’t care. Last but not least, sometimes you just have to shoot away and not care. Some times it is best to let things happen naturally instead of stage them. Let the couple provide all the drama the photo needs.
Later in the week I intend on covering how I add light to a scene to enhance rather than block light. Hope you enjoy these, let me know what you think.