Sneaky Bride

Digitalis · Jun 10, 2007

I had the opportunity to shoot a wedding with a fun bride and groom yesterday.

This is a series of the bride sneaking under the glass in the door to the sanctuary so that no one could see her before the ceremony. :lol:

During the ceremony the bride and groom had a little trouble keeping things burning. :blushing:

A few others from the day...

Riggaberto · Jun 11, 2007

Great work, especially the last 4!

Could you post equipment and settings fo the last pic?

Big Mike · Jun 11, 2007

I agree, the last 4 are top notch.

Nein-reis · Jun 11, 2007

Last pic FTW! Nice job!

JimmyJaceyMom · Jun 11, 2007

Very nice!

morydd · Jun 11, 2007

The whole unity candle series is fun. Someone could probably come up with a way it's a metaphor for marriage in general. I like it.

JIP · Jun 11, 2007

I really like the ring shot and the last one. When I was able to do weddings (I have a broken leg now) I liked to do a similar shot to the last one but I liked to blur out the guys and have them pose a little more casually.

jemmy · Jun 11, 2007

the first are great fun captures but the last 4 are STUNNING! great work! i too would be interested in lighting techniques for the last 4

Digitalis · Jun 11, 2007

jemmy said:
the first are great fun captures but the last 4 are STUNNING! great work! i too would be interested in lighting techniques for the last 4

The ring shot was straight natural light. D2X / 105VR macro. The last three were all taken with 2 SB800's connected with pocket wizards. One on the camera and one on a lightstand equipped with an umbrella somewhere between 20° and 60° from the line of site of the camera. The light stand and umbrella fold up smaller than a tripod and you can set them up in under 3 minutes so it is great for this type of portrait. The umbrella gives wonderfully soft light, no hard shadows. Hard to take bad pictures with this sort of setup. They all come out with that "studio" look.

sbranam · Jun 12, 2007

very nice work!

stellar_gal · Jun 12, 2007

Great work. Wish my wedding photographer had been as creative as you! Love them.

L. Wood · Jun 12, 2007

The picture of the rings is the best I have ever seen. Fabulous!

AprilRamone · Jun 12, 2007

I love the little series you have with them having difficulty with their unity candle. It's so funny and cute. If you were going to make and album, I'd definitely have that series in it. The one with the bride crouching down is a little less effective just because I think just one of those images would illustrate what she was doing, you don't really need all of them as a series.
And as said before, in the last images you posted, the lighting is wonderful! I must know more about these pocket wizards! You attach just one to your camera and then one to each light that you are using and they all go off at the same time?

Digitalis · Jun 12, 2007

AprilRamone said:
And as said before, in the last images you posted, the lighting is wonderful! I must know more about these pocket wizards! You attach just one to your camera and then one to each light that you are using and they all go off at the same time?

Pocket wizards are essentially remote flash triggers.

http://www.pocketwizard.com/HTML/plus2.asp

You plug one into your camera (or the flash on your camera) and one into each remote flash. For these shots I used one remote flash but you can use as many as you need. They work similarly to the built in wireless flash system for both Nikon and Canon but they have much much more range and are 100% reliable. I use the built in system on the Nikon from time to time but, like the Canon system it relies on line of site to work and can be touchy until you get used to them. A pocket wizard can fire a flash at 1600 feet!:mrgreen: The only downfall of the pocket wizards is the fact that you have to shoot the remote flashes in manual flash mode rather than iTTL as you can on the on the Nikon and Canon systems.

I generally shoot the camera in manual mode and leave the flash attached to the camera set to iTTL and the remote flash(s) set to manual. I then vary the ratio of ambient to flash light by playing with F-stop and shutter speed. The output of the remote flash (and ambient light) can be varied via F-stop adjustment on the camera. Wider F-stop...more light. Ambient lighting can be controlled by shutter speed as the flash power will not be effected by shutter speed as long as you are below the sync speed for the camera.