Images: emilyjayneweddings and dueyphoto
How to deal with “Bad Ceremony Light'“
Copy/Paste Lightroom Gamechangers
A 2 Hour Wedding, Featured from Matt Godkin
Way Up North Ticket Winners!
Let’s go ⬇️
NEWS
The News this Week
Hasselblad Leaks. For the medium format nerds, we just got word, and first images, of the new Hasselblad X2D II 100C and an insane 35-100mm lens. All details and images here.
Window Light in a Bottle. Dawn Charles shares a secret lighting weapon.
Linking Reels. Instagram just announced an update that lets you link your reels together.
New Large Format. This company is bringing large format cameras back. With a new kickstarter project to make new ones.
Haus of Scorpio Workshop. There are workshops and then there are unapologetically different workshops. Haus of Scorpio firmly is the latter. Bold, beautiful and maybe just what you need to kick you out of your creative rut. Happening 27-30th of October in Italy, you can get 20% of with the code LENSEL20.
Nikon’s New 24-70mm! Lighter, faster, AND internal zoom?? Nikon is under the radar upping the level. The new 24-70mm 2.8 released this week is a complete redesign. And no moving zoom element? Amazing.
Harlowe x Corbin Gurkin Lighting Kit. Curious about constant lighting at weddings? This new offer from Harlowe in collaboration with Corbin Gurkin looks incredible. See an intro video here.
THE BIG IDEA
☀️ Stressful Ceremony Light
Images: vlasta.weddings and jackhenryphoto
Bad Light.
You know the moment. You turn up to the ceremony location, see where the couple will be standing and you just know. THE LIGHT IS GOING TO BE BAD. Full midday sun, patchy blue shade, mixed, spotted sun across the bride’s face? Yes, it’s all part of the wedding ceremony light package… and YOU cannot control it.
And that’s what makes it stressful. Every photographer wants to deliver their best work for their couples. But sometimes the light just DON’T care about your photos…
And yeah… it’s a wedding photographer’s job to deal with it and still make magic.
So today we talk: how do you deal with it? How do you shoot a ceremony in less than ideal light and still create your best?
Images: hayleighmckayphotos and gregfinck
The golden rule. Expose for the skin tones. ALWAYS. Shoot for the light that is falling on your couples face, even if it means the background is a little blown out, or there is a big light line going through her dress. Yes, grab that wide shot that balances the exposures in the best way, but then go focus in on that skin tone. Manual mode on your camera is going to help SO much here, giving you full control of your exact exposure in a tricky light situation.
Be real and shoot anyway. Sometimes you just need to accept the light the way it is, do your best.. AND shoot it anyway. The couple and planner chose that spot, that time, that light. It might not always look perfect, according to your vision. But you still need to capture the moments, no matter the light it’s happening in. The couple will remember the MOMENTS - their looks to each other, their vows, and the special moments not the patchy shade or ever so slightly off colours. Find your best exposure balance and get the moment!
Images: (right cinziabruschini)
(Right - Contrasty light on the grooms face from the front) (Left- exposure opened up for the skin tone and a little back lit works very nicely).
Find the pocket. The front and centre shot might not have the best light, so move yourself! The light will usually fall better from one direction or on one person - that’s where you focus in on. Maybe it’s a side angle. Or from the back. If it’s directly on their face from the front, it’ll be back lit from the back. Maybe there are a few certain guest in great light. Find it and shoot it more! Use those ‘good light’ pockets to build the aesthetic and feel of the gallery.
Try a tighter focal length. Often a couple standing at the ceremony might be in shade, but it’s the sky that’s super blown out, causing your image to look off. Try using a longer focal length to compress a darker part of the background closer into your couple.
Wait for the right moment and plan ahead. Walking up or back down the aisle in patchy, hard light is challenging to photograph. With exposures changing quickly. SO plan ahead. Think about which point of the aisle will look the best to capture the bride coming down. Or the couple celebrating back down the aisle. Vlasta Weddings showed this masterfully in this wedding, featured over on lensel.com
REAL WEDDING FEATURE
🥖 2 Hours Only: How Matt Godkin Captured this Elegance Parisian Ceremony
In case you have seen it yet, at Lensel, we have started to feature weddings but from the photographers perspective. AND the insights?? They are amazing. In the wedding, come see how Matt Godkin captured the magic in Paris in only 2 hours. Get all the inside words and experience….
“How I Shot this? It might seem like an obvious choice, but I wanted the first kiss to have some context rather than just a close-up of the moment. Shooting with a wide-angle lens in landscape orientation helps include the whole scene, capturing the space and how the guests are reacting. This way, the shot tells the full story in one frame.”
WINNER
🇸🇪 Way Up North Ticket Winner!
The Winner Is….
We’ve entered all the entries from the email replies and Instagram story replies into a ‘random winner generator’… thanks internet.
Congratulations to Zai Laffitte!! x2 tickets to Way Up North Stockholm are coming your way!
For all other entries… thank you so much for your responses! You’ll receive an email with an exclusive offer so you can also get along to Way Up North this October.
See all the conference details and INCREDIBLE speaker lineup here.
INSPO THIS WEEK
⬇️ There’s film and then there’s film with SOUL. Loving this work, and wedding styling, from Kindred Weddings.
⬇️ COLOR! Do wedding photographers dull down their colors too much? A sneaky bird said it’s because everyone uses strong presets. BUT, Bottega 53 is out here making color centre stage and it looks amazing.
⬇️ @sarbostudio out here with a delicious mix of film and digital work, along with a feeling of calm in the images. See if you can spot it.
⬇️ Pastel, yet clean and vibrant colours. Plus the post mixes in video and bts in a unique and interesting way.
Till next week,
