Wedding Wednesday -Lighting | Annapolis Wedding Photographer
Today I want to chat about light…. alot of photography especially the technical side of it is built around light. Photography is a lot about how we capture light, and use light, or block light, or change light, and so when it comes to wedding photography, planning around light, sunset times, indoor or natural light is very important. I wanted to use this time to talk about Bridal and Bride and Groom portraits specifically. We plan our wedding days to include guests, and travel, shuttles, and venue prep time… but the portraits of the reason why we are there… the Bride and Groom are so important. These are your memories not only from that day, they hold so much more value then that. These are the images that will be in beautiful frames around your house for years, they will be given to parents, and passed down to children one day. These images may be displayed at your future children’s wedding one day .. they may be printed into canvases, or appear on your thank you cards. These are images you will look at every day once they are prints, framed, and displayed.
When you are thinking about your timeline, make sure that you are choosing a time during the day that will allow you not to feel rushed for your portraits. I generally advise my clients, to hold bride and groom portraits right after the ceremony but to expect to shoot more if that time is prior to sunset. On a day that is clear outside, or even partly cloudy.. the dreamy warm tones that happen during the golden hour are totally worth scheduling some time to shoot your portraits during. It can even sometimes be a nice little break to run out of the reception to grab those portraits, even if you only spend 20 minutes, you wont regret it.
What if your wedding timeline doesnt allow for sunset portraits? Sometimes wedding ceremony’s are earlier in the day resulting in end time well before sunset. There are also inclement weather days, or wedding held late at night. For these situations if you are still wanting those beautiful sunset portraits then I suggest to all of my bridal clients to schedule a bridal portrait session, this can happen before the wedding date or after the wedding scheduled around beautiful light when you will arrive dressed and prepared just as you would for your wedding day and we can focus just on those portraits.
Not every wedding day will allow for “sunset” but there is always optimal time for portraits, especially outdoor portraits. On very rainy days these can sometimes be captured under a covered porch, or even under a clear umbrella. Sometimes a few drops in the air isnt a big deal, but getting outside to photograph those beautiful memories is what is important. The skies may be gray but the images can be amazing when scheduled around available light. It’s usually very important to SMP brides to have these beautiful portraits, and so they are generally laid back and understanding if on the wedding day we rearrange some timelines in order to capture them just right.
I’ve been following you for awhile, but didn’t know you did wedding photography. Wish I lived closer to Annapolis so I could take advantage of your services.