Using Available Light at Weddings

I’d like to show you two photos from a wedding I shot and why they work so well — using just the light already there. In the first one you see the cake lit by a light from above. The cake was on a counter with inset lights in the ceiling. This worked nicely as it created a sort of spotlight effect. If you notice the tint of blue on the left side of the cake, that’s some light coming in the windows.

This next photo shows the area where the reception was held. What makes the lighting so interesting is that the table closest to the front is warmly-lit while the rest that you immediately see are more blue/cold. The first table is lit from a tungsten light from above (if you look at the next row over they are all illuminated as such). The rest of the tables in that first row are lit by the slightly opened windows. The repetition of the tables plus the contrast of the white balance are make this work.

DIY Light Reflectors

Stack of Snapple

I came up with this cheap lighting set-up the other night that works really well for little product shot/stock photography type photos. It’s really simple, but as you can see to the right, you get some pretty cool photos out of it. You can read my write-up on how I did it here.

Introduction

This blog has remained dormant too long – I’m bringing it back to life. The main idea is to give you an idea of my life as a amateur-going-on-professional photographer at fifteen years of age. (Read the about page for my story.)

MRP will be built on three main words – life, ideas and thoughts. I will write about my life as a photographer, my various ideas (DIY projects, photo ideas, set-ups, etc.) and I’ll throw in my thoughts about the current photo industry as well as whatever gets my attention.

I hope you follow me and get something out of my writing. It will probably be somewhat sporadic as I am a student, but I’ll do my best to put some thoughts out there. If you want more reading about my photography and ideas check out Capturing Your World. Farewell until next time!