I was quite excited to shoot this wedding. Though i've shot weddings before this was my first opportunity with an entirely new kit from my last wedding. I had lenses which with low aperture values and a camera with better ISO handling meaning I could shoot more with ambient light.
ISO400 f2.8 1/60 70mm
Starting the day at the Bride's house, I found everyone was in the kitchen. The kitchen was light and airy with huge french door letting in a lot of light, with the white walls allowing the light to bounce all around the room and keep it's natural daylight colour.
Here, the bride and her granddaughter have their backs to the french doors (the light source) which you can see from the directional lighting hitting their head and shoulders.
However, thanks to the light coloured walls there was enough light in the room to light them with a reasonable ISO and have the directional light act as a nice rim light.
Due to the being the only uncluttered place available a lot of portraits were taken against the french doors. However this means people are being back lit which would typically result in silhouetting of the subject.
However, I metered for the subject's face, this resulted in her being a bit washed out however thanks to the light walls again, there was enough light to ensure she was not silhouetted.
I then, in post, reduced the highlights slight, added some contrast which gives her back the warmer skin tone present on the day.
ISO400 f/2.8 1/60sec 62mm
I also experimented a little with detail shots and light. When it came to the wedding dress it was interested to see how the light acted when shot through the lace with different layers of fabric.
This image is also backlit, however as the material is translucent rather than being silhouetted or washed how it is instead lit up with each new layer of lace diffusing and slight decreasing the exposure thereby adding depth and form.
The white wall to the right is also reflecting light from the window onto the dress helping balancing the light.
ISO400 f/2.8 1/100 55mm
Further into the day, at the wedding venue, I was presented with a grand manor house which presented very different light to that in the Bride's house.
In this image, taken while the Bride was talking to the registrars, hard sunlight is streaming in from the south facing windows. The bride is positioned in front of a wall, simply being lit by the reflected light within the room and very slightly by the indoor room light present out of frame. Her bridesmaid behind is being narrowly lit from the windows due to standing on a slightly different plane to the bride while her broad shit is being lit by the ambient reflected light around the room along with the indoor lighting in the room chandeliers.
Here I find the focal point and light to work well with each other. The aim when capturing this image was to highlight the emotion and expression the bridesmaid is conveying with the bride in focus to add context. Typically, I would have the bridesmaid in focus, however I find as the bridesmaid is a few tenth stops brighter than the bride and is highlighted with the rim lighting of the window light, that this is enough to keep the bridesmaid as a primary subject along with the bride.
ISO100 f/2.8 1/320sec 40mm
Something I still need to develop with my portraits is paying careful attention to detail in composition.
In this portrait of the Bride and Groom, I now see that their placement in relation to the 2 bushes at the bottom of the frame is not even and symmetrical. This may be emphasised by the brides dress trailing behind too but I feel if I asked the bride to take 2 small steps forward, compositionally this would make a better photo.
Lighting in this picture I find to be nice and soft thanks to the misty weather of the day and that the sun was low enough throughout the day, thanks to the time of year to provide a directional light that still ass contrast, shape and depth to the image.
ISO400 f/2.8 1/250 70mm
Here is my favourite image of the day taken in ambient light. The bride and groom at stood in a woodland area. The light from the open sky infront of them is spilling onto the floor and is highlighted by the vignette caused by the lens making it look like a pool of light which I think enhances the tone. I exposed for the brides back which seems to be a middle value in exposure between the darker areas in the grooms clothing to the bright sky they're being backlit by. I've lot detail in the grooms jacket, however i've preserved the more important detail in the brides dress while allowing for a lovely rim light to surround them.
Are the background is in an open environment, it's brighter than where the Bride and Groom are standing, for me this works really well in the image as it reflects of story of newly weddings taking steps into a bright future but metaphorically and quite literally. You can also see the couple's dog highlighted thanks to his white coat waiting at the top of the steps, though not an important part of the image I thought it would make a nice picture for the couple personally to have their pet waiting for them in the story the picture conveys.