I mentioned in yesterday’s post how, in the last couple of years, I’ve been invited to many weddings. Today’s post is from one of those weddings almost two years ago, and I’m posting it today to mark the fact that the happy couple in this photo, Claire and John, are today celebrating the arrival of their new daughter.
When Claire and John celebrated their wedding day I was using a Nikon D50 for my photography. I had a single SB-800 flash that I didn’t really know how to use, and consequently only used it when I really had to. In general I was an available light photographer.
On this particular day, the available-light approach was fine for the church ceremony and the drinks reception. Most of the time flash is a no-no in the church anyway and even when it can be used, there is a very limited range of shots that are suited to it, mainly due to the fall off in light over distance. A better option for the church ceremony is to have fast lenses with the ISO increased to give hand-holdable shutter speeds. (Or sometimes you can slow the shutter speed down and get creative).
The drinks reception for this wedding was being nicely lit by the sunshine that came out for the afternoon, and so taking photographs at that were easy. It was when we retired to the reception room in the hotel for the dinner, speeches, cake cutting and dancing that my desire to shoot in available light was challenged.
Back then, when light levels got too low for handheld available light photography, I did what I thought was best, and put my flash on the top of the camera. That, in itself isn’t so bad, depending on where you point the flash, but when it came to the cake cutting, I pointed it straight at Claire and John – again, not fully understanding the control required for flash photography, and so not knowing any better.
So what was wrong with this? Well as I have since discovered, taking the flash off the camera is better than leaving it on the camera – that off-axis light will add dimension and texture to a shot, the on-axis flash, if it is the sole source of light, leaves things looking flat, and with big shadows behind the subject (especially a problem if they are close to a wall). You can get away with on-camera flash if you bounce the light off a wall or ceiling (back over your shoulder into the corner of a ceiling is a good trick), as that makes the light come from off axis.
If you look at the photograph as it is straight out of the camera, you will see the problems that on-axis bare flash directed at the happy couple caused. For instance, look at the shadows behind their heads. Look at the shine on Claire’s face. Both are due to the very powerful light source coming straight from the camera.
I also wasn’t paying any attention whatsoever to the background in this photograph. In my defence, I was amongst a group of fellow guests who all wanted this shot, but I could have moved to the left and tried to remove the fire escape from the background.
Thankfully, while getting these things right in the camera is the desirable option, with post-processing it is possible to alleviate the problems. So you’ll notice from the main photograph above that I’ve removed that fire exit by cloning some of the dado rail on the right into the left. I’ve also done the monochrome conversion so that the wall and the door are close to the same tone. I’ve straighted the shot a little, I’ve cloned out the “Push” sign and the notice behind John’s shoulder. And I’ve taken a stab at removing the shadows behind Claire and John’s heads.
It was a quick attempt at improving the shot, mainly to illustrate what can be done in software, and if I was preparing it for printing I would spend more time and pay more attention to detail on it. I rarely do this type of manipulation on an image, but the tools are available, so where they can save a shot, it’s always worth a try.
Claire and John will be busy today enjoying the company of their 1-day-old baby girl Anna, who I look forward to meeting soon. I might even get to take a photograph of her. Congratulations to the three of them.
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