WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY LIGHTING SKILLS
I’ve yet to meet a bride that doesn’t dream of a bright sunny wedding day. You may be surprised to know that lots of wedding photographers are secretly hoping for an overcast day. Why?
The simple answer is that an overcast day gives you more even lighting on your subject and it’s much easier to photograph people in even light conditions.
So, if your photographer is a “natural light wedding photographer”, i.e. they don’t like flash or they have limited wedding photography lighting skills, the last thing they want is a sunny day because sunny days give you contrasty, unflattering shadows that make your eyes look like a raccoon’s.
At least they do without flash.
But in my view, even a cloudy day needs flash to look its absolute best and here’s why.
Without masses of post production, photographs taken on a cloudy day will look flat and one-dimensional. The sky will look one shade of grey and you’ll still have raccoon eyes (to some degree) because even with cloud cover the light is still coming from above your head.
With flash, a cloudy day has dramatic skies, rich colours and a wonderful dynamic range of shadows, highlights and mid-tones. And, of course, no more raccoon eyes.
Sun or cloud, you can always get great shots if you’re working with someone with good wedding photography lighting skills
Personally, I’m happy either way as I’ll always use flash unless natural light works better for what I want to achieve, but I do love a sunny day for wedding photography.
Here are a couple of wedding portraits I took recently on hot sunny days using off-camera flash; coincidentally, both secured a bronze award from the Guild of Photographers earlier this year.
If you’d like more information on my wedding photography or would like to check my availability for your wedding date, drop me a line.
Visit my wedding photos gallery to see more examples of my work.