Gary will be speaking at the Regional MPA day on 26 April. He will discuss his recent MPA Associateship Award, outline how he achieved it, and his overall approach to the art of wedding photography. The Regional Day is at Rowfant House, Sussex - and places can be booked by contacting johnhallphotography@sky.com
I have been approached by a few photographers recently asking about photographing in low light, and in particular, shooting winter weddings late in the afternoon and evening.
The common mistake many photographers make in low light conditions is shooting in Programme Mode with an on-camera flash gun. On a lovely diffused-light summer day, a decent SLR in this mode will often give you perfectly acceptable results. But in winter it can make the results look amateurish.
The primary reason for this is that Programme Mode essentially uses the Flash to do all the work in lighting the subject. The result? A flat, sometimes over-illuminated, subject with a very dark background: the sort of result you might expect from wedding guests using their compact cameras.
If you are shooting indoors a good low-light shot needs to pick up the ambient light in order to give the picture more depth; and it is often important that the image picks up the richness of the surrounding colour temperature to avoid the atmosphere being killed (eg festive candlelight).
So this calls for shooting in Manual or Aperture Priority Mode, using a very fast lens (some of the prime lenses are capable of an aperture as big as f1.2), and using a high ISO. So as a photographer you are back to creatively “seeing the light”. But whilst it is true that the amount of light you need to shoot with this combination can often be criminally low, I do not suggest that you then necessarily disregard equipment providing artificial light sources. In fact images without them can often look a little muddy and discoloured in very low light conditions.
Flash guns can still have a large part to play in cleaning up the light and helping to freeze movement (eg during dancing). The important thing is to use them when you are exposing for the ambient light, so that the flash light does not dominate the scene and kill the atmosphere. This image of a first dance was taken using a 50mm lens at f1.8 at 1/125, ISO 3200 and a blip of flash (-2 stops). Using off-camera flash will also help to add depth and ensure that the subject is not flattened by the light.
Video lights are also an excellent light source for wedding weddings – though these are more likely to be used for creatively directed shots rather than reportage photography. The same principles apply with video lights: they can help provide subject contrast and illumination, but such light needs to be balanced up with the available ambient light sources (eg tungsten wall lamps) in order to maintain atmosphere and image-depth. The advantage of video light is that you can see the result immediately – so it is like painting with light. The disadvantage is that you invariably need assistance!
In summary, these are my tips for shooting winter weddings:
At weddings I often get asked by enthusiastic photographers about equipment, and in particular what their next piece of kit should be. Noting that they already have half decent digital SLRs, my usual reply is that the equipment is much less important than the photographer. It is much better to develop style through a better understanding of composition and lighting than worry about a marginal gain in sharpness that an expensive lens might offer you for example. One thing that really strikes me is that many photographers have not grasped the difference between the quantity and the direction/quality of light. The quantity of light can easily be adapted to (especially with digital cameras) by changing the exposure.
But good photographers must be able to “see the light”. Assessing the direction of light is not always obvious in non-sunny conditions but it is important for making an image more visually interesting (eg more contrast on the subject’s face); or helping ot model the poses outlined in section 1 above; or avoiding ugly shadows in the eye sockets from toplighting. Not understanding the difference often means flat pictures and/or overuse of flash lighting. On a grey day, you might need to “create” direction by placing your subjects under the edge of a canopy or tree. But seeing the light does not just apply to posing either. It also has important consequences for where you should position yourself, for example, during documentary shots.
That is not to say that equipment is not important, because it is. But good equipment will always get overshadowed by lack of technique and creativity. I sometimes use a fisheye lens to add drama to my photos.
For the record, my principal equipment is a Canon EOS 1D Mark III, Canon 24-105 F4L IS, Canon 70-200 2.8L IS, Canon 15mm, Canon 50 F1.8 MkII and a Speedlite 580EX. I also have back-up equipment on standby.
The first thing to stress is that I don’t advocate a day full of posing people; and I certainly do not encourage excessive groups shots. Good photojournalism has its place for large parts of the day because a good photographic narrative of a wedding day is important. So here I am discussing posing for the artistic shots with the bride (before the ceremony) and with the couple (30-45 minutes after the ceremony). These are the shots that dominate my portfolio (and many pro photographers struggle with!).
My main advice here is to NOT to look at bridal magazines. In fact do not look at typical wedding shots for inspiration. Most traditional wedding shots of the couple make them look awkward or embarassed (how many shots have you seen of the bride smiling inanely at the camera with the husband placed clumsily behind for example). Instead ditch the flowers for most shots and look at good editiorial and fashion magazines such as Vogue. Now what I am not suggesting here is that you start asking the bride to pout and perform model poses with which she is uncomfortable. You should be looking for ideas for poses that do not rely on the couple looking at the camera. These are the questions you may wish to keep turning over in your mind:
- Which poses flatter the couple/woman. Why?
- How does the pose help the couple connect?
- What type of mood does the pose convey?
- Under which circumstances (eg in front a church) might the pose work in a wedding context?
- What type of light do you need to model the pose and what image enhancement would you need? (more on this in forthcoming parts 2 and 3).
It is also important to assess realistically whether a particular wedding couple would be able undertake each pose. But with trust, a good wedding photographer should be able to lead the bride and groom into an exciting/emotional/dramatic pose with good explanation and gentle handling. Wedding photographers are not really getting paid to stand the bride and groom next together and asking them to grin at the camera.
A number of people have approached me recently about wedding photography training. As a result I have started offering one to one training on all aspects of wedding photography including posing, image enhancement, workflow, marketing (the mix would depend on your bespoke requirements). The training would also involve ongoing mentoring. If you are interested, please contact me via gary@garyroebuck.co.uk.
There has been much debate in recent years on the merits of documentary wedding photography (often called reportage or photojournalism) versus staged/posed wedding photography. At these ends of the spectrum www.jeffascough.com (reportage) and www.jerryghionis.com and www.gordonmcgowan.com are amongst the world’s best wedding photographers.
In many ways though the debate is fairly pointless. A good wedding photographer needs to be able to adapt his or her style for nearly all weddings. Whilst couples will often have preferences for the actual mix of photography, photographers cannot for example, start posing couples – or ask them to move to a better light – during the wedding ceremony. Equally, it is very rare for a couple not to expect some photographs within a formal framework which shows them in their best light. These are the obvious examples, but the point is that during the wedding day, photographers will typically need to draw on both skill-sets.
Many photographers will of course excel in one type of skill over the other and indeed emphasise and market it. My objection is though is where the debate reaches a level where professionals argue that one style is superior to the other as a matter of principle. (Interestingly the combination of digital technology and rising popularity of documentary photography has led to the flooding of the market with fairly unskilled “documentary photographers” who simply shoot everything and everybody to death on “auto”. The photography is often flaccid and more importantly, these photographers become unstuck when the weather and other circumstances are not ideal).
My own style is very much a mix genres, but I do not try to play down the importance of staged photography. Within the very tight time scales of a wedding, I think that it is important, for example, to spend at least 20 minutes partially directing/posing the couple away from the attention of the guests. The key objective for me here is to give the couple innovative photographs that they will probably never have taken again – but in a way that they do not feel is too forced. This often means the couple finding their own natural level within my framework and lighting.
all images copyright Gary Roebuck AMPA ABIPP
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