This week’s image of the bride getting her make-up done offers a nice contrast to my last post and comes from a wedding I photographed last weekend at The Carolina Inn just down the road in Chapel Hill.
If you’ve read my blog before, you may well be aware that I really don’t like to direct the wedding day at all, but just let it happen and focus on documenting it honestly. With this image, however, I did provide a little bit of direction in order to get the most from the environment we were in. What was the direction? I closed the other blinds in the room and moved the chair 90 degrees and to the side so the bride was lit with some beautifully soft rim lighting and we could get a bit of mood in the image. Once that was done, I could then compose to bring in the elements of the window and the paintings and provide a sense of place.
So you can see that on those rare occasions where I do step in and influence the setup of the image, I do it for a reason and I keep it very minimal. The moments are still real, I just set up the image to make the most of the room and get the best possible picture.
Geek info: Canon EOS 5D Mark III with EF 16-35mm f/2.8 L USM @ 25mm, f/2.8, ISO 400, 1/50 sec
