Lighting in Photography Part 6

Evaluate Your Options

Weddings involve almost every kind of light you can imagine open shade, bright sun, dusk, dim room light, and every combination in between. Savvy wedding photographers must feel at home in all these different situations and know how to get great pictures in them.

For example, imagine a courtyard where the main light is diffused daylight coming in through an archway. Here, the ambient fill level would be very low; there may be no auxiliary light sources nearby. Unless your goal was to produce high contrast lighting (not great for brides), you would need to raise the level of the ambient or fill light. You might add light locally (i.e., on the subject via a silver reflector).

This is a quick solution that could be ideal if you are pressed for time or only need to make a couple of shots in the area. Alternately, you might add some fill universally, raising the overall interior light level by using ceiling bounce strobes. This solution involves more setup time and effort, but it could allow you to shoot in a number of locations within the location, not just the one closest to the archway.

Learning to control, predict and alter whatever type of lighting encountered will allow the photographer to create great wedding pictures all day and all night long.


Find and Use Open Shade

Open shade is soft light that is reflected from the sky on overcast days. It is different than shade created by direct sunlight being blocked by obstructions, such as trees or buildings. Open shade can be particularly harsh, especially at midday when the sun is directly overhead. In this situation, open shade takes on the same characteristics as overhead sunlight, creating deep shadows in the eye sockets and under the noses and chins of the subjects.

Open shade can, however, be tamed and made useful by finding an overhang, like tree branches or a porch, which blocks the overhead light but allows soft shade light to filter in from the sides, producing direction and contouring on the subject. This cancels out the overhead nature of the light and produces excellent modeling on the face.

If forced to shoot your subjects out in unobstructed open shade, you must fill in the shade with a frontal flash or reflector. If shooting the bride or the bride and groom, a reflector held close to and beneath your subjects should suffice for filling in the shadows created by open shade. If photographing more than two people, then fill-flash is called for. The intensity of the light should be about equal to the daylight exposure.