I am a great fan of supplementing natural light with studio lighting. Even on a wedding day I will do this for the main bride and groom session. Natural light can be very nice but you have little control over it on the day which can hamper the potential for really stunning shots. A typical example of this is with weddings at very grand venues like Castles and fashionable Hotels. There may be potential for a photograph with a very dramatic background, say the castle itself, but the lighting in that particular spot at that time is perhaps dull and lack lustre.
With mobile studio lighting you have the possibilities of manipulating things to produce the dramatic results you want. The secret is, of course, in the blending, just like a good whisky ;) And it this reason why many wedding photographers shy clear of external lighting and brand themselves as ‘natural light’ specialists. There is nothing altogether wrong with this, especially as external lighting, even from a simple flash gun, can be very unpredictable unless you’ve had a lot of experience with using it. However, if you really want to give your wedding images impact and have them jump off the album pages you simply cannot rely totally on natural light as it just too flat and limp to give the pictures sufficient boost. Hence, why I’m a lover of supplemental external lighting.
However, there are some situations where you can use natural light in a very similar way to studio light with the same dramatic results. One of these is the use of window light, and the photos posted today from Kristen and Glenns Engagement Shoot at Norton House illustrate this.
As a
wedding photographer in Edinburgh I am privileged to work at many of our impressive and grand venues, most of these come with a magnificent array of fittings and fixtures. Huge, ornate windows are a plenty in these establishments and whilst the most obvious use of them is as impressive backdrops they can also be used as a light source itself. On the day of our shoot it was pouring with rain, so the plan for a walk around the beautiful grounds of Norton House for some photos was shelved and we had to stay inside.
I took Glenn and Kristen into an empty room adjacent to the main lounge and simply placed them at an angle to one of the large windows so that they were bathed in the beautiful light that poured in. I moved through several different poses and photographs all the while using nothing except the natural window light. Now whilst these photographs are lovely and I will always look for opportunities like this where I can utilise the natural light to its full advantage the difference is that you have to revolve the subjects around the light source when working this way, where as with external studio lighting I can move the lights themselves so I am not limited or restricted the same.
The last photograph here was taken by the hotel entrance. All
Edinburgh wedding photographers enjoy using this area when photographing
weddings at Norton House Hotel as it is under cover so you can still get some photographs even in the rain, as it was when I took these. Moving outside meant we were now back in flat lighting conditions. Although I didn’t use external lighting for these images I did attach a flash gun and bounced some light into the faces just to lift the flatness.
We are back in a couple of weeks for Kristen and Glenn’s big day and all looking forward to it very much. I have two more Engagement shoots this Saturday and then I am exhibiting at The Roxburghe Hotel wedding fair on Sunday. So if you are planning a wedding and looking for a
wedding photographer in Edinburgh pop in for a chat.
0 comments:
Post a Comment