​Techniques for using natural light in wedding photography

Wedding photography is a game of chasing light and shadow, while respecting natural light is an attitude of documentary photography. As a documentary wedding photographer, I always try to combine the beauty of nature with the beauty of art, canvas prints and make full use of natural light and the ambient light of the scene to create works, so as to leave real and precious memories for the couple.

That one ray draws the outline of bride's elegant figure appropriately, make this moment much the beautiful of a few minutes of demure. The choice of shooting Angle is very important; canvas printing australia side backlight can perfectly outline the outline of the character, especially suitable to show the atmosphere, the expression of emotions.

Advantages of natural light shooting

1.Persistent light sources

The greatest advantage of natural light is its persistence, acrylic glass prints which gives the photographer plenty of time to observe the environment and people carefully, and helps to inspire more shots. In a unified and relatively fixed light condition, it is easier for each character in the picture to have internal relations, enter into a certain situation, and form a whole picture story.

2. Restore the real scene atmosphere

Another advantage of using natural light is that it maximizes the original ambience. The most important meaning of documentary wedding photography is to respect the wedding event itself. One of the main reasons why I don't use flash light easily is that when you trigger the flash, the original scene atmosphere has been completely changed. Even though it can take bright and clear photos, it is not what I want.

It doesn't spoil the mood of the character

Using natural light allows the camera to minimize interference with the subject. There is no doubt that the flashing light will attract the attention of all the people in the scene when it works, which will naturally spoil the atmosphere at that time. In fact, what I hope is exactly to hide myself, to hide quietly in a corner, to record those sincere feelings, moving details, quietly blooming beauty. A lot of new people ask me in surprise, when was this photo taken? It was these photos that took them back to their wedding day, with many memories and surprises. This can be difficult if you use a lot of flash.

When photographing a wedding, the most common use of natural light is window light. The light is relatively soft and even, and the transition between light and dark is very natural, which can be controlled by adjusting the relative position of the figure and the window.

2. When the indoor light is not enough, it is recommended to choose the aperture priority mode and set it to a larger aperture value, so that more attention can be paid to the observation of the scene.

3. When the subject does not move too obviously, the shutter speed can be controlled at 1/30s; when the character has some actions, the shutter speed can be controlled within 1/60s.

4. If you want to get a beautiful light effect in a low-light environment, you can adjust the focusing mode to manual, and at the same time, lean on the surrounding stable objects to shoot, the shutter speed can be controlled at 1/15s, or even slower.

5. Side light or side backlight is the most commonly used technique in indoor shooting. Under this light condition, the picture has bright contrast between light and shade and rich layers, which is conducive to the expression of the figure's contour and emphasizes the depth and three-dimensional sense of space.

6. Usually the white balance can be adjusted to automatic or daylight.

Common problems and solutions of natural light shooting

Although natural light photography has many advantages, but in the actual process of operation, you will find that some natural light conditions are not ideal in the imagination, you will often encounter the environment light contrast is too large or light is very flat lack of focus. The core principle to solve these two kinds of problems is to do subtraction to the picture, and then we will introduce some specific solutions in detail.

1. Silhouettes and half-silhouettes

When photographing weddings, we often encounter the situation that the light inside and outside of the house is extremely different, and we have to shoot against the light. At this time, we might as well process the main character into silhouette or semi-silhouette, which can not only increase the artistic effect and imagination space of the picture, but also make the main element highlighted and strengthened. The most common shooting locations are doorways and Windows, and it is important to pay attention to the selection of metering points.

2. Interesting picture brought by shadow

When the ambient light is not ideal or too plain, we can try to use some shooting techniques to increase the sense of interest and artistic sense of the picture. Seeking reflective surface, creating a symmetrical mirror effect is one of the most effective ways. The room's bright wardrobe, glass table top, polished metal surface, marble floor, these can be used as creative reflective elements.

3. Use occlusion to form frame composition

Frame structure is the most commonly used composition technique of photographers, which can effectively distinguish the picture, form a sense of rhythm or play a role in guiding the eyes. When the light is not good, I like to use frame composition to create a sense of visual interest, balance the contrast of the picture and highlight the subject.

4. Juxtaposition space with mirrors

In the early stage of communication, I would tell the new couple to prepare a movable dressing mirror, in fact, in order to shoot some interesting pictures. Mirror element already became the regulation action of wedding photograph it seems that now, want you to observe attentively only, can discover every cameraman can have the work that USES a large number of mirrors to create, gimme although changeable, but core principle has only one, that is the visual freshness that space juxtaposes bring.

5. Use color temperature difference to form color contrast

Observing and analyzing the color temperature of different light sources at any time is a basic skill for photographers. In addition to paying attention to human emotions and physical forms, it is also important to analyze the various qualities of light. Especially when the indoor light situation is relatively complex, it is necessary to skillfully combine the light in the environment with the sunlight irradiated through the window, control their proportion and presentation form, so as to make the light of the picture not appear messy.

6. Use lights to simulate natural light

Although we advocate in the documentary wedding photography, floating canvas frame as far as possible do not use flash to destroy the original environment atmosphere. When all else fails, however, it is important to note that the flash must be used in conjunction with, and in accordance with, natural light. Next we will take a look at the use of flash to simulate outdoor sunlight shooting case.