On Sunday I joined a small group of Colorado’s premeire wedding photographers in Denver to discuss and share evolutionary ideas emerging in the wedding photography and fashion industry involving the use off camera lighting. I employ off camera lighting for my weddings to help make more dramatic images as well as help light dark reception halls and sometimes ceremony venues.
My friend Joe Keum organized the event. After hanging out at Joe’s studio for a couple of hours and discussing various lighting techniques we went outside with two lovely bridal models and experimented with our own personal ideas. I worked with a wonderful model, Avelina, who braved the cold and late day rainy weather to play along with my ideas. A challenge was keeping her borrowed $2900 wedding dress from getting too messed up. Attached are some of my favorite images of the day. Yes, Avelina is the same model in all the pictures. We really got some different looks.
My number one choice for a light source is natural light and my last choice of a light source is light mounted on the camera. In between are options for using artificial light, often controlled by radio transmitters mounted to my camera and radio receivers attached to remote lighting sources. Most of the time I don’t want the light to be an overbearing element in the image. But sometimes…it can contribute to the overall effect. A good example of my using artificial light to dominate the image is the rather stark, gothic looking B&W image of Avelina holding a tumbleweed bouquet, per my request. The harsh light I used to light Avelina I think works well in adding to the starkness of the image I was looking for. This shot was taken late in the day when it was pouring rain and so we retreated to a parking garage to create this image. The tumbleweed was blowing around on the floor of the garage.
