Lighting Portrait Photos: Two Primary Choices
Long ago I operated a wedding/portrait studio. During that time I photographed around 250 weddings, over 100 family portraits and numerous assignments involving schools, kindergartens and debutant balls.
None of these jobs were easy and I worked tirelessly in an effort to control a wide variety of difficult situations through smooth, highly organised and technically controlled work practices.
However, despite the very best of intentions, the reality of the day would present unexpected and, often quite unique problems.
With time, weather and extenuating circumstances conspiring against you, there’s no option other than to adapt and find solutions to get back on track, in a way that keeps your customers calm and confident in your ability to resolve the situation.
The great lesson here is to be as organised as possible, while staying flexible and adapting to changing circumstances.
That’s the reality of a professional photographer, particularly when you’re working on location.
A lot of studio based photographers prefer the control that comes with working in an environment they know and can control, which includes the use of artificial studio lighting.
I never did.
I found portrait studio environments, including painted and paper backgrounds, to be artificial and the images that resulted to be contrived.
What’s more, when photographing little kids, their dad’s always seemed on edge. No doubt they were worried about their kids getting hurt, knocking into expensive studio lighting, and the potential financial cost incurred in doing so.
Worse still, the hassle involved in bringing studio lighting out on location.
I know of professional portrait photographers who do it, but it’s hard to manage all that extra gear on your own. I’ve worked very successfully with assistants in the past, but I prefer working alone.
That’s because the creation of beautiful portrait photos requires trust and a certain level of intimacy, that’s much easier to establish and maintain when there’s no one else looking on, particularly a stranger who doesn’t share the same level of commitment to the process as you or the bride.
While I’ve made lovely portrait photos in a family home, with the aid of studio lighting, more often than not there just wasn’t the room to set up the lights where and how I wanted to.
Needless to say, it’s a very rare day for a bride to be on time on her wedding day.
Fine, but that delay can substantially reduce the time the photographer has at the bride’s house to make beautiful and meaningful photos.
What’s more, losing even more time packing up studio lighting and moving furniture around, all in a suit and tie, can create a cascading degree of pressure for the photographer.
As a result your well thought through plans become a mad rush to pack everything up, get back to the car and find a park at the church in time to meet the groom, groomsmen and minister and, finally, get into position to meet and photograph the bride as she arrives at the church.
I tell you, it can be a nightmare. One that, through no fault of your own, reoccurs week after week.
You’re probably thinking, why not push everything back and get to the house 30 minutes earlier?
Unfortunately, brides often book hair dressers before photographers. What’s more, for a variety of reasons, brides are often kept late at hairdressers.
And there, your honor, is where it all started to go wrong.