Irrespective of whether you have planned an expensive and elaborate ballroom wedding or a simple backyard wedding, wedding photography would hold great importance for you.
This makes hiring the best wedding photographer extremely crucial. Relying on a reputable company like Lavan Photography will make the job a lot easier for you. Such companies will ensure that highly skilled and qualified photographers click all your wedding photos.
There are certain factors that top photographers keep in mind to ensure that every photo at the wedding venue turns out to be valuable. One of the most important ones among them is lighting. Read on to know about some amazing lighting techniques used for wedding photography.
Backlighting Technique
Photography primarily involves the use of two light types, main or key light and backlight. Photographers tend to use backlight mostly as a subject separator. Additionally, like the key light, the backlight also creates dimension. This adds depth to any given image.
Top wedding photographers are usually great at applying innovative backlighting techniques. This allows them to experiment with lighting and come up with magical photos.
Bounce Method
The best thing about this technique is that despite creating breathtaking results the process is very easy to set up. Your wedding photographer should be able to use it even if the wedding venue is not very spacious.
The bounce method requires just a handful of external lights. If the photographer is skilled, just a single light would be sufficient to use this technique. The built-in pop-up flash on a camera can also be enough.
If the wedding venue has a room that features a white ceiling or wall, the photographer would just need to point the flash in the direction of that ceiling/wall. This will allow the light to bounce back and give birth to some flattering results.
The bounce method helps in creating a uniform and soft light, which is usually ideal for portraits. At times, photographers also use this technique when capturing preparation shots.
The Use of Studio Strobes
Wedding photographers are big fans of strobes. The use of strobe lights is common particularly when it becomes difficult for the photographer to create the perfect white balance using ambient light. For those who don’t know, the combination of fluorescent and tungsten lights often prevents the creation of a perfect white balance.
At times, photographers also opt for strobes when using smaller speed lights is impossible. Using strobes is a great option when the bounce method doesn’t work. This happens primarily when there’s no white wall in a room or when the ceiling is too high.
Photographers love to use strobes mainly because they are more powerful compared to speed lights and more durable. What’s more, their recycle times are also much shorter.
Combining Ambient Lights and Artificial Lights
Indeed, strobes come with a series of merits. Still, certain situations demand the use of the combination of ambient lights and artificial lights. To put it bluntly, some effects can be created only by combining ambient lights and artificial lights.
For instance, this combination should be the way to go when capturing images of the newlyweds against the setting sun. For getting the best effects, you should shoot when the sun has gone down. This will allow you to create the best possible mix of artificial and ambient lights. According to experts, both strobes and speed lights can deliver amazing results. Continuous lights can also be a great option.
Trying this combination is also common when shooting in rooms with big windows on any one side. In such cases, the side of the subject (a guest or the newlyweds) facing the windows will appear bright, while the other side will look pale. So, to click a good picture, the photographer will need to mix artificial lights with daylight intelligently.
Applying Colored Gels
For most, the idea of using colored gels for wedding photography might appear slightly weird. However, the fact is that the use of these gels has become extremely common nowadays.
There are a series of advantages of applying colored gels. They can create dreamy settings without adding too many elements to a photo. Photographers use colored gels in wedding photos to spice things up slightly. On most occasions, colored gels help in creating light that appears cool blue or warm yellow in the photo.
Final Words
Using the above-mentioned techniques appropriately is not easy. Proper application of these techniques is possible only if the wedding photographer is qualified, skilled, and experienced. So, if you want these techniques to enhance the quality of your wedding photos, hire a trustworthy professional photographer for the job.
