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11/16/2012 09:37:36 PM · #1 |
Hi everyone. I just renewed my 1 yr membership - can`t believe it`s been a year already! I've been away from DPC since April because my boss retired rather unexpectedly so I applied for, and was lucky to have been given her job. So, I`ve been on a huge learning curve with that. Also, my husband and I also decided to become weekend warriors this summer and took on some much needed landscaping projects in our back yard. Suffice it to say my camera has suffered some huge neglect - but our lives are returning to some semblance of normality again so I`m finding time to get back to my photography. I have missed it a lot and I`m definitely looking forward to getting back to the challenges.
Now, to my request for help...my husband`s friend who does wedding photography has asked me to send him some of my work because he is shooting a couple of weddings next summer and his back-up photographer is unavailable. I have asked my dear young neighbor if she wouldn`t mind posing for me (in her wedding dress) and she has agreed.....so we`re going to make a day of it tomorrow. Now here`s the problem....we want to do some outdoor shots and there is snow everywhere. I have a location in mind which is an old historical site with old weathered buildings and a church. Doe anyone have any suggestions on how to photograph a wedding dress against the snow? How do I make the dress stand out? I`m not sure of the best metering method to use. It`s supposed to be sunny so it`s going to be pretty bright outside. Some challenging conditions for me to be sure. If anyone has any sugesstions, I would appreciate hearing them! |
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11/17/2012 12:54:31 AM · #2 |
That IS tough. Nothing in direct light. Perhaps use a reflector on her?
Oh and (duh) congrats on the new job.
Message edited by author 2012-11-17 00:55:12. |
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11/17/2012 01:12:09 AM · #3 |
Snow wedding. I m going to assume the Dress is all white? If so I'd try to use a local where there's a contrasting color around the subject (a granite bench or an archway) with some sort of separation between the dress and the snow.
You can try to reflect on her (use foil if you dont have a reflector) but its just going to be difficult to not get the snow to look like fluffy unnecessary cotton. Even a husband with a tux would be excellent.
If the dress is not pure white (some creamish color or so) you can really take advantage of the wonderful colors of a sunset or sunrise with an emphasis on your subject as far as lighting is concern.
If you don't have a traditional flash, bound a flashlight off some foil to get your subject lit. If subject is willing, get a shot of her lying in the snow against a sky backdrop at golden hours.
Contrast is your friend in this case i believe, and you can use it to your advantage. If one of those weird red trees that in bloom or even some well placed evergreens is handy, use that as a backdrop after shaking it down a bit, get some leaves on the ground maybe. or hand her a bright bouquet to make her skin and flowers really stand out against the white.
Keep an eye on your histogram and preserve as much detail in your shot as you can.
Here's a twist, Black n White, and some sepia can help separate the levels of white in dress and snow.
Hope this helps, keep at it and feel free to ask for more ideas.
Message edited by author 2012-11-17 01:13:38. |
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11/17/2012 01:23:32 AM · #4 |
Originally posted by flaherma:
Hi everyone. I just renewed my 1 yr membership - can`t believe it`s been a year already! I've been away from DPC since April because my boss retired rather unexpectedly so I applied for, and was lucky to have been given her job. So, I`ve been on a huge learning curve with that. Also, my husband and I also decided to become weekend warriors this summer and took on some much needed landscaping projects in our back yard. Suffice it to say my camera has suffered some huge neglect - but our lives are returning to some semblance of normality again so I`m finding time to get back to my photography. I have missed it a lot and I`m definitely looking forward to getting back to the challenges.
Now, to my request for help...my husband`s friend who does wedding photography has asked me to send him some of my work because he is shooting a couple of weddings next summer and his back-up photographer is unavailable. I have asked my dear young neighbor if she wouldn`t mind posing for me (in her wedding dress) and she has agreed.....so we`re going to make a day of it tomorrow. Now here`s the problem....we want to do some outdoor shots and there is snow everywhere. I have a location in mind which is an old historical site with old weathered buildings and a church. Doe anyone have any suggestions on how to photograph a wedding dress against the snow? How do I make the dress stand out? I`m not sure of the best metering method to use. It`s supposed to be sunny so it`s going to be pretty bright outside. Some challenging conditions for me to be sure. If anyone has any sugesstions, I would appreciate hearing them! |
The number one thing you will have to realize and remember is that the metering modes of your camera tries to average things out to middle gray. What this means is that will all that white in your frame...the snow and the dress...and very little other color or shades to contrast against...your camera will see mostly white and try to push it towards middle gray. This is the number one reason why winter shots often look dull, gray and grungy.
To counter act that effect you can use the exposure compensation on your camera in say aperture priority mode and bump the exposure comp up to say +1 EV to start. This push the grays that will result with what the camera thinks is the correct exposure back to white. You may need more...you may need less, but start with +1 and go from there. If it is really sunny you will have trouble chimping your LCD screen so make sure you use your luminance scale (NOT the RGB scale) to see where the highlights are falling on the right side. You want to make sure they are pushed to the right to keep your whites white, but you don't want to see it all bunched up and clipping otherwise you will lose detail in both the snow and more importantly the dress.
You could also take your initial reading in aperture priority mode and then dial those numbers into your camera in manual mode. Then to add the compensation adjust your shutter speed one stop slower which acts the same as exposure compensation in the other modes such as Av, Tv etc. It will expose longer..by one stop and push your whites to white as well. Once you check your LCD to make sure it's not clipping, but everything else looks good you can leave your setting pretty much where they are unless your lighting and background scene change a lot. Then adjust up and down as you go.
Dave |
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11/17/2012 01:26:06 AM · #5 |
BTW...my comments below are also good for nice white sandy beach shots. It's the same principle.
Dave |
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11/17/2012 04:58:09 AM · #6 |
shoot in raw first off
have you got a light meter?
i always use pattern metering
you could use use some big flashes to over power the daylight, a few 580 ex (sb900) might work, or something like elinchrom quadra ranger with more power. if you havent not access to flashes then youd get really nice results
maybe make a large defusing panel out of whhite sheer fabric and make a frame from light weight pvc pipe and have someone hold it.
//www.flickr.com/photos/mattdewittphoto/page24/
theres a beautiful set here //bridalmusings.com/2012/05/magical-winter-shoot-roses-snow-red-velvet-wedding-dress-ciara-richardson/
dress is lost on this one
//www.samhurdphotography.com/2011/wedding/virginia-wedding-phhotographer-kate-and-greg-leesburg
think maybe to make sure you have something less snowy behind the subject so its not all white
you'll have to show us how you go on
Message edited by author 2012-11-17 05:10:37. |
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11/17/2012 06:06:32 AM · #7 |
1 Take loads of shots
2 Bracket your exposures like mad.
3 Learn loads from the results.
4 Be happy. |
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11/17/2012 06:12:12 AM · #8 |
This would be a great opportunity to get some nice high key portrait shots that still give it that wedding feel. Make the best of it and good luck.
eta: You didn't say but are you going to have a bouquet also? I would recommend it.
Message edited by author 2012-11-17 06:13:12. |
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11/17/2012 09:02:08 AM · #9 |
Depends on the sunlight. You'll be much more challenged in direct light, as was mentioned above. If you can arrange bright overcast, it would be a good thing in helping to manage the exposures. You'll definitely want a good fill flash. Use the buildings as background, as long as you watch for distracting elements and remember to position the people so the flash doesn't throw a shadow and enough separation to allow some DOF blurring. White balance is crucial, but if shooting in RAW, you can always adjust temp&tint after the fact. If it's really cold, you'll have difficulty with expressions/smiles. Avoid using a really wide angle lens close up, as you'll add 10# to the bodies. An image below was one of my efforts at pre-ceremony wedding shots. Not very good, but I'm not a wedding photog.
Message edited by author 2012-11-17 09:02:47. |
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11/17/2012 11:29:16 AM · #10 |
Thank you so much everybody for the replies, and Giles for the links. As it turns out the weatherman was wrong and it is quite overcast and dreary outside. I'm not sure if that is going to make this more or less difficult than bright sun! In any case, there is no groom (he's gone hunting with my husband so I can't even use him as a stand-in). It's just me and her and we've been tossing all sorts of ideas around for set-ups. The idea was really just to provide the photographer with something wedding related.....and I have nothing like that currently.
We're heading out in a couple of hours, really looking forward to this little experiment. I hope to learn a lot today as Tiny suggested. Thanks again for the advice, I will try to put the things people have mentioned into practice. I'm also hoping that if the dress against the snow turns out to be a bit flat that I can add some tonal contrast with my Nik software.
I'll post some results later! |
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