Wedding Photography Analysis – Volume 1 Dawei Ye - December 2013

www.clartephoto.com

- A telephoto lens and wide aperture was selected to blur out the background, which is often messy during the busy getting ready stages of a Wedding day. - I photographed from a higher elevation in order to use the ground behind the Bride as the background blur. This introduces more colourful elements into the background, rather than a plain white wall. - The makeup artist was used as foreground blur on the left to contextualise the photo, and to allow the viewer to see things from the makeup artist’s point of view, engaging the viewer and making them a part of the Wedding day. The makeup artist’s head is perhaps too strongly blurred to a point beyond recognition in this instance.

85mm | f/1.2 | ISO 400 | 1/250 | Ambient

We start our series with

Simone and Steve’s Wedding at Monstalvat.

A Bride having her makeup applied from the

makeup artist’s vantage point is one of my signature photos. The critical elements for this type of photo are: - good lighting on face

- a high vantage point - a clean but interesting background - a fast telephoto lens It is critical that you do not

take photographs of this nature until after make-up has been completed, as a half made up Bride is an unrealistic portrayal.

- The image was deliberately tilted, and a section of the door frame incorporated on the right hand side, to place the viewer

into a scene as if they had just peeked around a corner and stumbled across this scene. - A telephoto lens and wide aperture was selected to blur out the background and focus attention on the Bride - The photo could have been made stronger by removing the distracting elements in the left and right of the frame, such as the shower device and red flowers (or the latter could have been incorporated into the photograph more prominently, rather than just being a distraction on the edge of the frame)

85mm | f/1.2 | ISO 200 | 1/2000 | Ambient

A Bride having her hair

styled, reflected in the mirror is one of my other favourite “getting ready” photos. The critical elements for this type of photo are:

- good lighting on face - as clean an environment as possible - a fast telephoto lens I recommend that you do

not take photographs of this nature until after the hairstyle has been substantially completed, as work in progress hair style is sometimes

unflattering.

- I tilted the photograph to introduce diagonal lines into the image to break up the horizontal and vertical

lines of the book case and books, and to avoid the foreground wall looking like an accidental obstruction.

- I used the wall as a deliberate foreground obstruction to contextualise the photo and put the viewer in a

position as if they were peeking around the wall to see the dress.

Most dress photos are

taken whilst the dress is

hanging on a window sill,

or against curtains. Due

to the newly constructed

nature of the house, this

was not possible, so

instead I placed the dress

against the a bookcase,

which in my mind was an

appropriate option

because of the Bride’s

love for books.

50mm | f/1.2 | ISO 100 | 1/100 | Ambient

- The primary technical fault with this image is the crop of the Bride’s hand. Additional room should have been allowed on the right hand side of the image. Ultimately, the time sensitive nature of candid photos makes technical perfection difficult, however the issue was exacerbated by the Photographer’s usage of prime lenses. Stepping backwards takes more time than zooming out – time that one often does not have. On the other hand it needs to be noted that whilst Primes may cause suboptimal results compared to Zooms due to the incorrect focal length being used, at the same using Zooms will be suboptimal to Primes when faster apertures are required. You can miss just as many shots by having too slow an aperture, as you can by having the wrong focal length mounted.

This is a candid photo of the

Bride engaging with her

Bridesmaids.

For a candid photograph,

the lighting and background

were both acceptable, and I

positioned myself to take the

photograph from the

Bridesmaid’s vantage point,

reducing myself to her

seated elevation, to again

engage with the subjects

and bring the viewer in as a

participant in the scene.

I tilted the camera to the left

to bring as much of the

Bride into the top 2/3rds of

the frame, without losing the

context of the Bridesmaid

who is blurred in the

foreground.

85mm | f/1.2 | ISO 200 | 1/125 | Ambient

- The Bride’s head was positioned so that the background window was framing it, to ensure that the dark hair did not blend into the background. - The Bride is deliberately looking upwards in response to the lighting profile and angle at the location. - A case can be argued that the background window is an overexposed distracting element, however my counterargument is that the highlights on the Bride’s face are even brighter. This means that the first thing that a viewer’s eyes go to when seeing this image is the Bride’s face. Which is what we want. Try it – close your eyes and then open them. Your eyes will instantly lock onto the Bride’s face.

This was the most popular

photograph I took on the

day, as rated by my

fellow Photographers.

This location in

Montsalvat is famous

amongst Wedding

Photographers – for

good reason!

The location quality was

absolutely sublime, but

extremely volatile – it

was ready to chew up

and spit out any

Photographers who didn’t

treat the lighting

characteristic with caution

and respect!

85mm | f/1.2 | ISO 100 | 1/250 | Ambient

- This image may or may not have been made stronger had the Bride’s left hand been raised to be visible and pushing

against the door as if she was opening it. At the time I chose to ask her to extend her right hand to balance the composition as it is a diagonal line going perpendicular to the door. - The lighting in this situation was quite difficult, caused by the cool shaded sunlight mixing with the warmer brown reflected sunlight bouncing off the wooden door and stone pillars. Extensive recolouring and desaturation was required in post production.

Wedding Photographers

are simple creatures. Give us a spectacular venue and a photogenic Bride and we can create magic.

The difficulty then comes from our battle with the ambient lighting conditions to bring out the best in the Bride and location.

Some photographers choose to use Strobes. Some use reflectors. Some disregard lighting

totally! My approach is to always hunt out the reasonably soft light and let Photoshop do the rest. Easier said than done!

50mm | f/1.2 | ISO 200 | 1/1600 | Ambient

- The unusual settings were due to the frantic nature of this photograph. My camera was still set at ISO 800 which I was using inside the church, when I came outside to quickly photograph the Bride with her father prior to them walking in. Time was so sensitive that I did not think to adjust my ISO downwards and I simply released immediately as I saw the Bride and Father of Bride. - The lighting in this photograph is very good however the composition and background elements could be cleaned up to allow less of the environment to distract from the subjects. - Additional photos of the Bride and Father of Bride gently interacting each other should, and were taken.

A good second

photographer is indispensable for Wedding Photographers, but I am a perfectionist and control freak and insist on running back and forth and taking every

photograph myself. This often will mean hard running on the Wedding day between vantage points and positions!

An example of such a situation is getting the coverage of the Bride and Father of Bride, and then ducking back inside to

engage the Groom and guests inside the venue.

85mm | f/1.2 | ISO 800 | 1/4000 | Ambient

- I chose to respond to the adverse backlight by deliberately overexposing to bias towards the couple, and then desaturated the image and boosted midtones to reduce the harshness of the blown out backlight. Other photographers choose to use flash to fill in, and to avoid blowing out the background. There is no “correct” approach for these difficult situations. - I chose this photograph so you could see my 2nd photographer on this Wedding - Will Chao of Will Chao Photography. A 2nd photographer should always be photographing from a different angle as seen in this photograph, and using a long lens as Will Chao is doing, to avoid being in the frame of the main photographer’s shot (Will was only in my frame for 5 seconds). Otherwise, a 2nd photographer adds zero value when they are photographing over your shoulder and copying your photos.

35mm | f/2.8 |ISO 800 | 1/500 | Ambient

Montsalvat’s ceremony

location is easily one of the most beautiful venues I’ve photographed at, but also one of the most technically challenging with it’s bright backlit central section and lack

of neutral coloured surfaces to bounce flash off.

Some photographers use

flash to overpower the ambient lighting by filling with direct on or off camera flash.

I do not advise bounce flash in this venue as the brown wooden roof causes mixed lighting against the daylight backlight.

- The lighting in this photograph favours the Groom over the Bride, and I had to compensate by manually raising the exposure on the Bride’s face in post production - Camera tilt was perhaps unneeded in this case, but was done to add additional dynamics into the image - The position of the stone pillar behind the Bride’s pillar was unfortunate but can be cloned out if required with some Photoshop work.

85mm | f/1.2 | ISO 100 | 1/500 | Ambient

This was a dynamic and

candid photograph of the

Bride and Groom

immediately after the

Ceremony

Natural moments like

these are spontaneous

and are difficult to

execute with technical

precision, but with

experience, Wedding

Photographers set

themselves up as best as

they can to respond to

the events unfolding

around them with speed,

agility and adaptability.

- Lighting is absolutely critical for group photos – I ensure all group photos are taken in perfect,

flattering light. Whether that means ambient or flash is irrelevant, however ambient generally allows

you to be far more mobile, but much less flexible with your environments.

- Straighter alignment of Bridal Bouquets could have been implemented for this image.

85mm | f/1.2 | ISO 100 | 1/800 | Ambient

What surprises some

photographers is that I photograph all my group photos wide open at f/1.2 in order to maximise background blur and to induce a nice natural vignette into the

image (fast primes generally heavily vignette wide open). Please note I only photograph group photos

at f/1.2 after a lot of practice and with the aid of supplementary techniques such as focal plane alignment and focus stacking (if

required).

- The lighting and background for this photograph were flawless, helped by the deep shadow cast by the main Montsalvat building. - Additional alignment of the Bouquets and the Groom’s feet being slightly closer together would have increased the symmetry of this photo - Manual stretching of the stone feature to straighten the lines in the top left of the image would have improved the symmetry of this photo

85mm | f/1.2 | ISO 125 | 1/800 | Ambient

For each “formal” group

photograph, I also take a full body photograph to ensure I capture the details and dresses. I usually do this in portrait orientation for small groups, and landscape

orientation for larger groups, in order to reduce the negative space. I generally take this

photo on a 2nd camera for efficiency reasons (fast switching between dual cameras), and also as a backup to my main camera, as the formal

group photos are some of the most critical!

- Lighting is absolutely critical. Most available light Wedding Photographers prioritise lighting over background.

- After choosing an angle with optimal lighting, I tried to incorporate as much different textures and colours in the

background as I could into the photo. Such an action would be inadvisable when using a slow, wide lens, but the 200mm

f/2L IS obliterates backgrounds and turns anything I throw at it into a creamy mash of colourful texture and shapes.

- For Wedding couples, I only ever take upper body, or full body photos. Any other point of crop (e.g. thighs or shins or

chest is unflattering in my opinion).

200mm | f/2 | ISO 200 | 1/200 | Ambient

I call this my “cookie cutter”

shot, but it is nonetheless

important and a very

classical and conservative

photograph of the couple.

As the concept is extremely

straight forward, the

execution must be

exceptional for the

photograph to shine.

Using a long lens at wide

aperture is a double edged

sword – on one hand any

background can be made

into a beautiful

kaleidoscope of colours. But

on the other hand, too much

blur can cause a photo to

lose context and

environmental information.

- In retrospect, the Bride’s shoes are hidden in the frame and could have been elevated to be more visible. As it is, the position of the Bride and her missing shoes may not be aesthetically pleasing to all viewers. - I like how the veil is blowing in the direction opposite to the direction the Bride and Groom are walking, adding an additional dynamic to the photo. - I quite like the composition of this image and how the many lines and shapes fit together

85mm | f/1.2 | ISO 100 | 1/1600 | Ambient

Montsalvat is a heavily

regulated environment,

but it’s understandable

why Photographers get

over excited about it.

Its locations are simply

amazing.

With good lighting, the

ball is entirely in the

Photographer’s domain to

execute.

- The lighting was quite patchy as evidenced by the specular highlights sporadically appearing on the wall, roof and

Groom’s suit. I carefully positioned the couple to ensure their faces were not affected by the sporadic spray of harsh light filtering through the trees. - Less tilt may have assisted the image in this instance. - The shape and lines of the (camera left) right hand side of the house, and the lamp, all serve to balance the exposure. The object in the top right can be considered slightly distracting, or balancing in nature, depending on personal taste.

85mm | f/1.2 | ISO 400 | 1/1600 | Ambient

Not much else to say

other than I love

Montsalvat!

I often like biasing the

composition towards the

background to allow the

textures and shape of the

background to balance

the composition and the

positioning of the couple.

Many photographers like

to avoid negative space

like this, but my counter

argument is that the

background patterns and

shapes supplement rather

than distract from the

photo.

- This photograph used a relatively affordable crop Tokina 12-24mm f/4 lens on a full frame Canon 5D3 body. I mention this

to encourage you think outside the box and use whatever tools you have at your disposal to get the results. Non EF-S crop lenses can be used on Canon full frame cameras (as a last resort), but the substantial vignetting needs to be cropped out. - Ideally more of the building should be included. The reason for the shortfall is due to a stone staircase blocking the bottom right corner of the building. If you look closely at the bottom right you’ll see where I had to clone out part of the staircase. - Ideally additional perspective correction could be actioned for the right hand side of the image, but will result in loss of the right hand side of the building, or heavy clone work.

20mm | f/9 | ISO 400 | 1/60 | Ambient

Whilst I favour telephoto

lenses, wide angle photos are also important on the Wedding day to capture the environment and context.

Wide angle lenses are wild. They are extremely difficult to tame, and they will chew up beginner photographers if they are not used properly.

There is an adage: “Whatever doesn’t add to an image detracts from it”. Because of the

amount of data captured by Wide Angles, they are extremely unforgiving of peripheral distractions and messy backgrounds.

- The lighting profile is quite harsh and could have been softened by the Photographer shifting further to camera right, to make the lighting more front on. - The background is quite underexposed by necessity to avoid overexposure of the foreground – this results in lost context and environmental aspects - The background pillar nicely balances the couple composition wise.

85mm | f/1.2 | ISO 100 | 1/250 | Ambient

For natural light

photographers like myself, we are at the mercy of the existing lighting conditions. But tools we have at our disposal to aid us in our fight is our mobility, reflectors/scrims and

Photoshop, but sometimes we do have to photograph in adverse lighting conditions.

Some Wedding Photographers favour adding strobe lighting to counteract or supplement limitations in existing light. This comes at the cost of

speed and mobility, but results in far greater environmental and background flexibility.

- This is one of my favourite images from a technical perspective. My 4 “L’s” – lighting, subject, composition and background all come together. - This photograph was taken on an older Canon 5D, which is not as punchy straight out of the camera as my newer 5D3 series cameras. In hindsight, my editing could have added some additional punch to the image. - I used an exceptionally long lens (200mm) to induce the flattering telephoto compression and background blur. I asked the Bride and her friends to turn around to face me, rather than photograph them front on, to utilise the soft light that was coming from the setting sun behind me.

200mm | f/2 | ISO 200 | 1/800 | Ambient

The reception is the time

for the couple and friends

to relax, but also an

excellent opportunity to

take what I call

“facebook shots” – the

types of photos that

people like to put up on

facebook showing

themselves and the

couple.

Whilst posing is less

critical, lighting,

background and

composition is no less

important.

- The key subject in this photograph is candid photograph is a Bridesmaid and her partner in a genuine and warm moment.

This is juxtaposed against another couple in the background also enjoying each other’s company.

- Generally my lens of choice for candids is a 85mm f/1.2L II but in this instance I had a 50mm f/1.2L, which is a faster

focus lens and also is wider therefore shows more of the background for any given framing of the primary subject.

- I like how the blurred lights in the top left balance the frame of the primary subjects, who are biased towards the right of

the frame.

50mm | f/1.2 |ISO 400 | 1/50 | Ambient

Capturing moments is

90% hard work and 10% anticipation. Anticipation is developed through experience but nothing will get you the other 90% other than hard work.

I am constantly alert like a sentry, with my camera being my sidearm. Within a second of

something happening, my camera is at my eye rapidly firing. Like a sentry, I focus on “key targets”, that is, the

Bride & Groom, their family and Bridal party.

- I composed the image with an unusual upward bias to show more of the pattern in the roof, to balance against the couple

as they were giving the speech. - I took many, many photos (over 80) of the Groom giving a speech to ensure I had one that told a great story and had great expressions. - The photograph could potentially be made stronger by reducing the tilt, and include more context, such as photographing from the reverse and getting the crowd in the background

50mm | f/1.2 | ISO 400 | 1/160 | Ambient

I like to avoid what I term

“Mickey Mouse” photos when I photograph speeches. “Mickey Mouse” (from the term “Mickey Mouse degrees”) speech photos are the type where it’s a close up

of the speaker, usually with an unflattering expression, and devoid of any context or environment.

I like to take a Speech photographs that show: - flattering expressions which show emotion - photos which engage the viewer

- photos which show the venue and context

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This slide pack presents a set of photos from an actual wedding, with commentary and detailed critique from the Wedding Photographer:

Dawei Ye of Clarte Photography

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