Coping with Light

It has been a little time since my last blog post, and given the rubbish weather we are currently experiencing I thought I would take  the opportunity to write a follow up on from my previous post Why hire a professional Photographer. This time round I am going to talking about why it is important to hire someone who knows how to deal with constantly changing lighting conditions.

Light, it either makes or breaks a photo. Not enough of it and you have an underexposed image, too much of it and the image is overexposed. Getting the right balance of light is critical in producing a fantastic photo. Now there are photographers out there who claim to only use “Natural Light” and whilst this is a very flattering way of lighting your subject it is not always a viable option. Take today for example, grey sky, no visible sun, and constant snow. A photographer who purely uses available light would struggle to get any usable shots in this kind of lighting. Obviously today’s weather is somewhat of an extreme, but when you think about it in terms of your wedding day the weather can change quickly from one minute to the next. The day of your wedding arrives and its a grey dismal day and the rain is pouring, the service is being held in a dark Church and is only being lit by candles…how is the natural light photographer is going to struggle in these conditions? Don’t get me wrong I am not criticizing, or dismissing using the ambient light, I enjoy using it as much as possible but in order to get consistently great results you need to have the ability to control the light yourself.

So what do we do when the lighting is against us? We bring our own! Most professional photographers have their own lighting kit which then can easily and quickly set up and dismantal in order to get great looking photos. The age old argument of Flash v Natural Light is an old one and the truth of the matter is that it all comes down to whether you, the client is happy. But enough of my chit chat, It’s time to put my money where my mouth is…

Natural Light

Here in this first photo, my very unwilling model (who I dragged out into the snow), is demonstrating the use of natural light. Here I have set my camera into a priority mode and let the camera work out the settings for itself. As you can see it is not a very inspiring picture. The lighting is flat, and nothing about the picture really “pops”.

For want of a better way of putting it, this is a snapshot. This sort of shot is a familiar site in a lot of wedding albums I have looked in. You can normally see these types of results when a family member has been entrusted with the photo duties, and I have even come across this type of shot in a lot of professional photographers portfolios.

The thing that annoys me the most when I see this kind of thing, is that there is such a simple solution to create a far more interesting picture.

Using a Flash

Now in this photo, all I have done is to add a small speedlight and used a softbox to diffuse the light. It took me approximately 20 seconds to set this up and I am sure you will agree there is a real difference between the two photos.

This time, rather than using one of the priority modes on the camera, I have shot fully manual and my flash is in manual too. What this means is that any pictures I take will be consistent and will not change from shot to shot. Unfortunately the same cannot be said when you use a priority mode or Auto, a slight change in your models stance can confuse how the camera “See’s” the scene

As you can see, by using a bit of extra controlled light, our model has real separation from the background and the whole photo no longer looks like a snapshot. This photo is far from being technically perfect, and if I had been so inclined I might have gelled my flash etc, but as an example of flash usage I think it has certainly served its purpose.

In Conclusion

There is a time and place for everything, and sometimes it is not possible to use flash. However having someone who knows what to do when the light is against them is critical. This is why as tempting as it can be to get a friend or family member to take your photos, your wedding budget would be better spent on hiring a professional photographer who you know will be able to cope and get consistent results.

When looking for a photographer it is a good idea to ask them how they cope with different lighting conditions and to ask them what they would do in case of the worst weather conditions. More important than anything is that you hire someone you get on with, someone who is there to photo your wedding and will leave their ego at home. Far too often I hear of couples whose photographer was bossy and wanted everything done his way. My best advise is to make sure you try and schedule in at least an hour during your day, that way you get quality time together for photos and a chance to relax a bit before the evening reception.

But most of all, relax and enjoy yourself!