irynaphotography
FollowThe idea to take this picture came when I stepped outside the wedding tent for a moment, and saw that the only lit place was this meadow in front of the big old...
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The idea to take this picture came when I stepped outside the wedding tent for a moment, and saw that the only lit place was this meadow in front of the big old tree. So I grabbed the bride and asked her circle around in her dress a bit. Here's the result!
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Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens
Location
This photo was taken during a real wedding at Montpelier Mansion, MD.Time
It was around 8:00PM. By this time all formal portraits were done and the dinner was about to get served.Lighting
It was already dark outside. I stepped away from the tent to catch my breath and was immediately drawn to the beautiful sight of oak tree light by the street light. I rushed back in the tent to beg the bride to pose to me for one more shot.Equipment
I shot with Canon 5D Mark III. At that time, I didn't owe this camera but borrowed it from my friend to see if it really was better than my Mark II. The lens I used was Canon 16-35mm f/2.8L. I was hand holding the camera and didn't use any additional light.Inspiration
The inspiration to this photo came from how magical the landscape looked in the light of the street light. With this fairy-tail kind of setting the bride's pose needed to be straight out of Disney animation movies too. This is why I asked Lara to twirl. The trick was to try and make the photo be still sharp, considering the bride was moving. I normally shoot at slower shutter speeds at night but in this photo I went all the way up to 1/200.Editing
The major thing that needed to be done with post processing in this photo is making sure the blacks are not clipped. The area behind the tree wasn't light up with anything, so the fact that Mark III has such a nice dinamic range came in handy.In my camera bag
I normally carry 2 camera bodies to a wedding: Mark III and Mark II. Lenses (all cannon): 16-35mm f/2.8L, 24-70mm f/2.8L II, 70-200mm f/2.8L, 50mm f/1.8. Flashes: I have 3 Canon Speedlite 600EX-RT + transmitter + magmods. I also carry a video light (Lowel GL-1)Feedback
Shooting after the sun has set could prove tricky. The key is finding the sources of light (street lights, lights from windows or car lights) and carefully balancing ISO, shutter speed and aperture. Aperture: I recommend having it wide open. Shoot at 1.2, 2.8. Shutter speed: if your subject is not moving you can go all the way to 1/80 or even 1/60 ISO: the highest usable ISO is different in every camera. But just know this, after you chose your shutter speed and aperture just set ISO to the value that makes your photo look bright enough. Experiment with this and see what works the best.