Hi, this is the Vanessa Joy with AdoramaTV
and today we are going to look at how I
photograph bridal details.
Photographing details the morning of the
wedding is truthfully one of my favorite
times of the day. I like getting in there
and focusing on the details first.
It allows me to give the bride and the
bridesmaids a little bit of time to get
used to the fact that there's a photographer there
and typically I'm not
photographing them right away anyway
because they're still getting their hair
and makeup done and while some of those shots
might be cute I tend to wait till
most of their makeup is done, and do fake
shots so that they're not getting
photographed with half the faces makeup on.
Typically I'm looking for a place
that has a fairly simple background and
a background that is contrasting to the
details that I'm photographing. In this
case my details were fairly
light-colored so I chose the wood that
was on the floor in the bridal suite
because it was a nice wood tone as well
as being dark, so that the details really
popped. I typically shoot the details with my 50mm
f/1.2 lens and I do this because it's a versatile lens that
lets me get close enough to an object
and still keep it in focus as well as
pull back for some of the wider shots
like the shots of the invitation. I don't
particularly like switching lenses a
whole lot so if I can while using primes,
I'm going to choose one that is fairly
versatile and can be used for the
different types of photos that I know
that I'm going to get in that moment.
The only time I change that is when I'm
photographing things like the ring, or
the earrings, and I'm going to get a macro
lens. In this case I'm using the Canon
100mm f/2.8 macro lens, and it does a
beautiful job compressing the
image nicely and also by the way it does
work very nicely for a portrait lens, and
everything is tack sharp. Particularly with
the macro photos, I'm holding my breath
when I photograph them because even
though I'm trying to shoot at a smaller
aperture, a higher aperture number. The
plane of focus is very, very small when
you're shooting macro shots. It's a huge
pet peeve of mine to not have the ring
in focus. At the very least the whole
whole entire main diamond of the engagement
ring in focus. For the invitation I like bringing
in other elements, like the jewelry, or
the shoes, just so it's not a pile of
paper in the image, it's nice to have the
invitation there, but then also use other
elements from the wedding. All of the
details I typically will photograph in
the same place - from the shoes, to the
flowers, invitation and ring. I do this
because they will likely go on the same
spread in the album and if I shoot them
in all different places while it might
be creatively intriguing, they probably
won't mesh as well, matching and looking
cohesive on the same piece of paper, on
the same page in the wedding album.
Shooting them all in the same place
allows me to create a nice consistent
look for lighting, aesthetic and colors.
Most of the time I am shooting the
detailed pictures fairly wide open,
around f/3.2 on my aperture. Sometimes a
little bit lower just depending on what
I'm photographing. I want a good part of
the detail in focus, but I also want to
keep that soft look that most of my images have.
I usually have a reflector
present because I'm typically shooting
next to a window and having the window
come in with the light from the side. By
using a side lighting pattern it allows
the detail to really come out in the image
because the light and shadows are
going across my image. Here I'm using a
42 inch reflector made by Glow by Adorama,
it's the five-in-one, 42 inch reflector
and then for the macro shot I actually
have little 12 inch reflector that works
perfectly to just give the ring a little
extra sparkle. I hope you enjoyed how I
shoot details. Make sure you hit the
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see you all next time.