Bride and Groom and Guests

 If you take a photo of a couple then the chances are that they will stand something like the couple on the left. It is a simple photo to take and almost every photo taken at a wedding is going to be a good one. What makes the photo here is the background. Many photos of the bride and groom have a background which shows none of the guests but sometimes that is what you want. Nobody in the background is posing and those people are part of the memories of the day.

You get a similar photo when the couple are walking down the aisle. Those guests who thought they were going to stay in the background suddenly get to the foreground. One of my favourite parts of wedding photography is passing the photos over, usually around a week after the wedding. Often I hear comment like, "that's the only photo we have of that person!"

A similar pose on the right has the same result at the reception. I don't mind if guests are watching us as they become part of the background. There are lots of opportunities to take the more formal photos so let the guests take part in this type of photo.

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No Tripod

I have recently mentioned the importance of lighting and in particular the golden hour to be found at dawn and dusk. Artificial light is there for a good reason. It highlights what the planners want highlighting so the photo of the Palace of Westminster is ready for taking. I did not carry a tripod with me but this photo was taken by placing the camera on a flat surface and using the timer so there is no possible camera shake from me.

There is a viewing point on the bank of the Thames with a telescope (and a flat surface) so whenever you see any telescopes like this then look for your camera. You are being told to take a photo from this point and no tripod is needed. The other thing to note here is that you do have lights on the building. It isn't completely dark and that means you can still see the clouds and so add interest.

On the right, it is difficult to take a photo of Nelson because the bigger the subject, the further you have to be away. It obviously helps if you can get the whole subject in the frame but it also helps to avoid distortion due to converging verticals. For more  information on this you can take a look at http://photographyfornovices.blogspot.co.uk/2009/03/converging-verticals.html

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Modern Monet

If your eye was not moved towards the reflections in the Thames then you have no option with this cropping. This small section of the photo still shows the Elizabeth and the Victoria Towers even if they are reflections, even if the quality is not high because of the severe crop and even if I have increase brightness and contrast.

It may look like modern art on the right but it helps to know what you are looking at and it also helps to know this when you see any piece of modern art. I am reminded of Monet and his water lilies. He did paint Charing Cross Bridge as well. Now that would have been an exercise to look at his composition and create it digitally.

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Portrait and Landscape

I don't need to tell you what you are looking at here, or maybe I do ( I told you I was full of useless information following a red bus tour). Big Ben is the bell so you can't see Big Ben. What you do see is the Elizabeth Tower. The other tower is called the Victoria Tower. You can also see the time and you know it is morning because there are only one or two photographers and one or two vehicles to be seen.

The obvious difference between these photos is the orientation with portrait on the left and landscape on the right. There is also an obvious change of emphasis within the photo. On the left your eye is drawn to the reflections in the river and if that is your intention then that is how to frame your photo.

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The Importance of Lighting

Lighting is so important and I have written
about the golden or magic hour previously. They are the first and last hours of the day when the sunlight is warmer. Well the photo on the right is just at the start of the morning hour and that explains why you don't see anyone on the London Eye.

I went round the red bus tours so I am now full of useless information. There are 32 capsules on the Eye, each capsule holds up to 25 people, it takes around 30 minutes to get round and each of those capsules represents a London borough.

The photo on the left includes County Hall and this wasn't taken early in the morning but it still shows the importance of lighting. The subjects are well lit but the sky has character because of the shades of cloud. This would have been lost with a completely blue sky and a third of the photo would have been a lot less interesting.

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Look out for flat surfaces

 I spent the last couple of days in London and used the red bus tour as my means of transport.
One of the first photos I took is on the left. I had no tripod and it was taken from the top deck of a bus. It is not an ideal way to take a photo because of the movement involved but that doesn't mean that you can't end up with a good photo.

The night photo of St Paul's was taken by resting the camera on the wall and using the timer, so no need for a tripod here. I decided to leave my tripod at home as I know there are lots of flat surfaces around. There is a lot greater flexibility with a tripod but flexibility isn't everything.

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'Surprise' Gifts

This photo is from yesterday's wedding. It is the same photo on the left and the right and the reason that I am showing you this photo is that I took a 'surprise' 10" x 8" photo back to the evening reception. I also took back some fridge magnets for the couple and their parents and these are 9cm x 6cm so these proportions are on the right. I did print them out in colour but it is an easy click of a button to convert to monochrome and to sepia.

When they collect their photos they will get all the variations in a 6:4 format as they will get so many that this is the easiest format to get them printed. It is also handy as the proportions that work for the photos also work for fridge magnets.

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Joining Two Photos

I don't think you would notice that the photo on the right is impossible unless I explained it to you. The photo on the left is genuine. I took two photos and joined them together for the photo on the right.

It is useful to have a common factor in both photos and that is the floor and that is where the join is made. I have a little room for manoeuvre in that I have cropped both photos a little as both have the floor in the frame.

I did have an idea of adding one floor to the next to the next but it would be a long thin photo. I might go for three floors next time I am there but it will work anywhere you can see the opposite side of the stairs.

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Directing the eye

If I am asking for a photo then I say when I am taking it. There are times like this one when I just wait for the opportunities and this moment is particularly important as it is the first time that the groom sees the bride.

Computer techniques have made photo manipulation so much easier and keeping part of the photo in colour and part in monochrome is one of the easier techniques. As you can see on the right, it certainly directs the eye to the main subjects of the photo.

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Conscious Manipulation

I like this scene. It is only two minutes from the Ashton Memorial but it looks like we are a long way from it. This also happens to be the photo that I took back in the evening as my 'surprise' gift. Unfortunately I did not have time to take out all the weeds but I really don't think this was the first thing the couple thought about when they saw the photo.

There are a few changes that you can see and some you can't. You'll have to trust me on the weeds because I won't show the original. You also get converging verticals when you are too close to a building. This means that because the top of the building is so much further away than the bottom and this makes the top look narrower. The eye corrects this perspective subconsciously but the computer has to correct the photo consciously.

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Sepia Fridge Magnet

I was back in Morecambe taking photos yesterday so I did get chance to return in the evening and take an enlargement with me plus three fridge magnets. Well the magnets protect the photo and it does mean they don't need framing. I usually take three so that the bride and groom can give them to their parents but it is up to them what they do with them.

I didn't have much time to choose a photo and even if I were given plenty of time and I still chose this photo, I would definitely take out the door closure. It adds clutter to the background and sky would be so much better. I knew this couple liked monochrome and sepia so they received the sepia version on the right.

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Colour and Sepia

This is a contender for the fridge magnet photo. I have converted it to monochrome and given it a little more contrast. I feel this gives the photo a little more impact. Back in the 1970s I used to have my own darkroom and I would choose darkroom photo paper with higher contrasts. Paper was numbered one to five (and still is) with higher contrast with higher numbers. You see photographic manipulation is nothing new!

I also converted to sepia and then finally I gave the sepia version a white vignette around the edge - there it is on the right. Sepia toning was a Victorian technique which meant that photographs took longer to fade and it had the enhanced benefit of making the photo look warmer. It looks like the couple have an instant tan.

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Not the fridge magnet yet

This photo is from yesterday's wedding. I usually show the photo that I make into fridge magnets and it is usually a standard pose (not like this photo). However yesterday I couldn't get home to make the magnets as the wedding was in Blackpool. Some of you may recognise the Norbreck Castle in the background.

Much more important than the background is th foreground and that is why I like this type of photo. If the couple are able to pose like this then I can guarantee natural smiles. Tomorrow I will show you the photo that may become the fridge magnet but I still have a few days to choose.

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Not really cheating

And here are a couple of the backgrounds that I took two days ago. We did look at other backgrounds too but you get the idea that technology really has advanced and we now have so much more control.

One thing you won't see are weeds. I tend to think that the grass could have been cut an hour earlier so taking a few weeds out isn't really cheating.

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Wedding Practice

This photo was taken at yesterday's pre-wedding meeting. I like to go through some different poses and this is one of my favourites. You don't naturally face your partner when you are having your photo taken but it is a nice pose.

As for the bag, well this is a stand-in for the flowers. In the close-up you just get a touch of flowers - well they are practising.

At this meeting I am also concerned with the backgrounds. The couple will walk around the venue with me but I mainly look for their view on the background for the group photo and with the advances in technology I can send them the photos with the possibilities for this background.

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A fairly easy technique

And finally for this pre-wedding meeting I wanted to show you one of the characteristics of my wedding photography - the photo on a photo. It is a fairly easy technique, but isn't anything when you know how to do it.

A photo is much lighter on a monitor than it is when printed so I have to make the photo much darker when it is placed onto a picture frame. In this case it was a mirror but as you don't see what's underneath it doesn't really matter whether it is a mirror or a photo.

The think I like about this type of photo is it looks like you have gone to the trouble of printing a huge photo and getting it framed. It would also work as a billboard or in this case maybe we should wait for a passing tram.

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Similar but different

I mentioned that we look at the different poses at the pre-wedding meeting and this is one of those poses. The photo on the left looks fairly similar to the one on the right but one is a piggy-back and the other is one person sat on a chair and the other standing. Can you work out which is which?

I am guessing that you can see which is which but the giveaway for me are the smiles. It doesn't really matter where this photo is taken. It could be outdoors with a distinctive building in the background or it could be anywhere indoors.

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Background Preferences

Yesterday I mentioned that I like to look for where we can take photos at the pre-wedding meeting. By walking for two minutes we get a good background for the group photo. You have to walk for at least two minutes from this hotel because it is so large. If the photo is taken any closer you get a distorted perspective caused by converging verticals. Basically if you are too close the sides of a building look like they are leaning towards each other. A similar thing happens to a path as it goes towards the horizon. The further the path gets, the smaller it gets.

The couple haven't moved anywhere on the right. I just walked around to get a totally different background. I can tidy up grass on the computer but the pre-wedding meeting taught me that we could walk a few more steps and it would save me some work. It is also worth taking the photos to show the bride and groom and then they can say which backgrounds they prefer.

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The case for a vignette

One of the reasons to have a pre-wedding meeting is to be able to go through the different poses. I also like to see where the photos may be taken. In this photo we are practising one of the poses and there will be flowers between them on the actual day.

I converted to sepia and gave the photo an oval vignette on the right. I thought that this vignette worked well here. Sometimes I use this type of vignette because there are distractions in the corners of the photo but in this case there is no object of interest in any of the corners and the vignette works just as well.

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One line is straight

This is Little Moreton Hall near Congleton and if you compare this blog entry with my last then you may have guessed that I have a National Trust membership. I visited this hall on Friday and despite what you might see it was quite busy.

I could have removed people digitally but I decided to wait a moment. There were some people just out of shot. I converted to monochrome and slightly increased the contrast as that is what I thought the Tudor building wanted. You won't find any straight lines on the building and there is no horizon so I couldn't improve on the orientation but I think one of the lines is straight.

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