Photographing Veils for a Great Picture.
Taking pictures of veils is great fun. There are so many options and they can all look great.
I remember the first one I did and it was awful. The room was dark, I had no flash, and the 85 mm 1.2 was focusing so poorly in the low light.
I wanted the brides eyes in focus but at 1.2 all I was getting was the material and not the eyes. From an artistic shot, it was cool! blurry eyes and sharp veil.
Now as a seasoned photographer I have a few tricks up my sleeve that lets me get the shot the way I want.
In the previous scenario, I would have used a fasted focusing lens, opened the app to F 2.3 and thrown more light in to get the focus around the eyes.
But the shot still worked even if technically I sucked! I tend to spend more time on the veils to get a variety of different looks. I especially enjoy capturing part of the veil and a body part- so not the whole face or whole cloth.
So how to get the eyes in focus and the soft?
Easy, have the bride lift it. lock focus on the eye closest to the camera, let her drop the veil and snap the shot. As long as you have the focus point locked then you have the eye in focus and the Veil soft.
Makes for a cool shot.