The Importance of light in wedding photography

Photography is first about reading the light

It is often recalled that the term photography means etymologically: to write with light. This is true but incomplete to describe what photography is in terms of practice. My experience as a photographer tells me that to make a beautiful photo, you have to write with light but you have to know how to read it. To the drawer, we learn to observe. It’s the same for the photographer. To write, his tool is not the pencil, but the camera.

Modern cameras are concentrates of technologies: High definition sensor, rise in ISO, image processing algorithms … The current photo equipment, which is more of the professional range, are at the forefront of many areas of expertise: optics, electronics, computer science, physics, … Really, the current cameras are very efficient in writing light. And image processing software such as Lightroom and Photoshop wonderfully complete the picture.

A click on the trigger, a click on the mouse. The photo is done. It’s so simple! This is also why an apprentice photographer will often feel flattered by the rendering obtained by his newly acquired reflex. It was my case, of course!

It is also, in part, for this reason that it is tempting for future brides and grooms to think that a person from their entourage, fond of photography and properly equipped will do the trick to photograph their wedding. But having such equipment is vain if you do not know how to read the light! Just like the designer will do nothing of the best pencil if he does not know how to observe.

The photographer knows how to read the light. And that’s why you need him.

The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera. DOROTHEE LANGE

Before being a photographer, I knew nothing about light. When I started studying it, I was fascinated by what she had to tell us, by the diversity of aspects she could take and by the emotion she allowed to convey. It was only by studying it in its smallest details that I began to understand it and to observe it when I was shooting. Before that, I had no idea what I was doing. I suffered it. She slowed me down and brimmed me. Now, she is my ally! I know her, I tame her and I use her!

Knowing the light is also becoming free. This freedom is a breath that allows me to be more daring and more creative on your wedding reports. Before shooting, I mentally describe it in these 4 fundamental aspects and I choose how to exploit them to serve my reportage:

The direction of the light

With the direction of the light, one can enhance a subject or harm it! The direction determines the modeling, the volume of an object, the texture of a skin, the relief of a landscape.

In reporting, unlike studio photography, we do not control the nature of the light. She imposes herself on us. But we can choose our point of view, the place where I place myself to take the picture!

I like to shoot backlit for example, because I like this rendering. In general, I try every instinct to identify the main light and place it in a radius of 180 ° behind my subject.

But the reality of the field sometimes imposes its conditions. I sometimes have to photograph a scene with frontal light, which I do not judge aesthetic, because it must absolutely be told.

It’s a matter of compromise, between aesthetics and narration, between the visual coherence of my report and the story I’m telling.

The intensity of the light

The intensity of the light is its strength, its power. It is a measurable quantity. It is measured in lux.

As an example, an outdoor in full sun is up to 100000 lux. A dimmed interior is 100 lux. A thousand times less!

To bring this example back to the world of marriage, it is the difference that exists between the interior of a church and the sunny forecourt of it!

These differences have a considerable impact on the contrasts and, as a consequence the weather too! A cloudy sky and a bright sun will give two radically opposite renderings. And my job as a photographer is to know how to react according to each situation.

The color of the light

Each source emits with a certain color temperature (° K) which gives it a color. The general atmosphere of the image will be strongly impacted.

At sunset, the light is often orange or pink, warm, reassuring, enveloping tone unlike the cold blue tones lugubrious.

When there is an incandescent source (bulb) and an outside light, we end up with color contrasts that can be exploited on the aesthetic level.

The light takes the color of what it crosses or what it touches. Thus, a couple portrait session in a vegetal environment during a beautiful summer afternoon may generate skin tones that are not advantageous! You do not want to have a greenish complexion, do you!?

The softness/hardness of light

What determines the softness or hardness of the light is the transition between shadow and light. The sunlight is very hard. This can be quite quickly unsightly when doing portrait. That’s why many wedding photographers tend to avoid couple portrait sessions in the afternoon. I tend to do the same.

However, there is no good or bad light as such. The important thing is what we do and how we use it. The hard light of the sun requires more precision in the placement of the subjects. But when we learned to manage it, this type of light becomes a playground in its own right, as shown by the excellent work of Victor Lax.

In the same way, a light too soft can be flat and uninteresting. This was the case during the winter ceremony of Alexandra and Alban. A totally white sky and a cover removing any modeling to the images and the rendering did not seem to do justice to the beauty of this moment.

So I decided to place two remote flashes facing the bride and groom to give the light a main direction and therefore, a little more character.

After this summary on the fundamental characteristics, do you understand better why the golden hour is so popular? Warm colors, grazing light, attenuated contrasts, low intensity. The golden hour ticks all boxes! So much so that some photographers find that it is almost “too easy”! For my part, I like to give in to this facility! We all love that my golden hour!

To practice, I often have fun, in my daily life to observe the light and to dissect its 4 fundamental properties of the light (intensity, orientation, color, hardness). A bit like a musician who amused himself to make a note reading by hearing a piece of music.

Repeat this exercise allows me to spot the light patterns that I like and to try to reproduce them.

I like to look for a silhouette in backlight on the wall of an illuminated castle. I like the soft light of a window on the bride’s face. I like to play with the direct rays of the sun inside a room. I like to position myself facing the late afternoon sun when it passes through the branches of a tree. I like to surprise the newlyweds by creating a festive light atmosphere with my off-camera flashes and colored gels that I put on them.

On your wedding day, from the morning preparations to the opening of the ball, many situations will present themselves with many different and creative lights!