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St Louis Wedding and Portrait Photography

While building the timeline for Cathie’s Wedding, I knew she wanted pictures in Tower Grove Park.  This is a great park for pictures.  I also knew it was going to be dark at the time of our arrival-  as in pitched black.

While the Speedlights flashes (like the 600 for Canon) are amazing in the way they can throw light out, there was no way a camera flash was going to provide enough light based on what I wanted to do-  large group shot of the wedding party (10 People) and cool portraits of the couple.

The studio lights with triggers would be needed as would a large silver reflective umbrella.  In order to illuminate the large party and the couple we needed a large light source.   Hence the studio light.

I am very comfortable using studio lights as I spend a lot of time in a studio for headshots.  On a job like this, you don’t have time to fiddle with manual settings and such while the wedding clients stand around getting bored.  You have to know it.

With the light on a stand at 45 degrees to the couple, slightly above their head and tiled down I knew I could get enough light on them.  But I wanted to also get the spill on the edges of the doorway.  This went moving the light on the plane closer to the wall.

I didn’t need a high ISO for this shot because I would have blown out the dress.  This means the dress would be solid white with no details.  This is a typical problem-  photographers not controlling their ISO or light. As a result you end up with a dress that has no detail.  And that’s not good.

Settings-  F 8 , 1/60 ISO 400  Elinchrom Triggers.  Canon 5d Mk3 70-200 IS 2.8

The shutter speed was the key to getting the fountain light exposed properly.  Shutter speed controls ambient light when using flash.  If you want more ambient light (like the fountain light) then the shutter speed needs to be slower.  If I had pushed the shutter to synch max of 1/200 then the background would have been black.

Overall, I am pleased with how it turned out.  With a little more time, I would have put another light behind them to give more rime lightening on their heads.

Oh well-  next time.

Shari Photography

Our professional photography studio specializes in business and acting headshots. The headshot studio has been going strong for 10 years by proving exceptional headshots , quick turnarounds and amazing customer service.

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