SGirimont Photography Blog: The Stories Behind the Images

Father-Daughter Reception Dance

I love the effect you can get with this type of reception lighting.

Here we have Kelli, the subject of my last two blog posts, but this time dancing with her father at her wedding reception. I’ve positioned a remote-activated flash on a light stand in the far corner of the dance floor. I’ve got another flash on a bracket over my camera. Both flashes are gelled for full tungsten, and the camera is set on tungsten white balance, but the fact that the facility has dimmed their lights, means there’s still a nice amount of warmth in the shot (because dimming tungsten lights just makes them appear even warmer).

The flash just off camera on the bracket is connected with a TTL sync cable and is on TTL auto-exposure. The camera is on manual exposure (15th of a second at f/4.5. ISO 800) with the aperture and ISO set for an appropriate exposure from the remote flash, which I had metered previously.

The result is a nice cross lit scene, with the flash at the camera providing a nice general exposure and the flash in the background creating a rim light along the dancers and shadows on the floor. I’ve positioned myself to catch the shadows cast by the people in the background, which lead the eye down into the frame where the bride’s white gown leads you to the pair of dancers. In all, a very nice father-daughter moment and a great memory to keep. I chose this image to appear as a two-page spread in their book and it looks wonderful.

I will admit that I had no idea where everyone was going to be standing during the dancing when I set my lighting up. It was luck that this scene presented itself, but it was preparation that permitted me to be ready for it and catch it.

A Bridal (Family) Portrait with a Train

I’m happy I can finally show you this image! I have an unwritten rule with the images I take for my clients: I never show any images publicly until after the wedding. That way, if the couple is hoping to surprise anyone with an image (say, the printed portrait displayed at the reception, like this one was), I won’t spoil the surprise by showing it early on this blog.

This image was shot last fall. The groom works for the railroad and wanted a portrait with his fiance and his son, dressed as they would be for their wedding, with a train. Unfortunately, the railroad companies have these all-too-serious regulations against using their equipment for something like this. Fortunately, I knew just where to go: The Science Museum of Virginia! If you’ve never been, the Science Museum is housed in what used to be a very large railway station. They still have the tracks in the back and some nice trains to show off too!

For this image, I have a polarizer on the lens to darken the sky and increase the contrast with the clouds. I’m shooting with a Canon 5D and a 16-35mm f/2.8 lens at about 20mm. ISO 400, 160th of a second at f/5.6. There’s a Canon 580exII flash on a light stand just out of the frame to the left gelled with a 3/4 CTO, creating the warm pool of light falling on the subjects. the flash was triggered with Pocket Wizards.

The couple had me print this up as a 16×20 and they had it framed beautifully. The wedding took place at Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens and the reception was in the dining room of the Robins Center there at Lewis Ginter. Wonderful location for a wedding. I’ll be showing more images from this portrait shoot as well as the wedding itself soon.

Lest you think I’m spending all my time shooting and processing landscape photographs, I thought I’d scatter some of my recent wedding work in here too!

I’d never shot a wedding at the Elk River Touring Center in Slatyfork, West Virginia before, but I made the most of it! This place is wonderful and has it all: great grassy field for a terrific background to the wedding? Check. Fantastic food? Check. A stream to cool your heels (well, freeze your feet off) after a long bike ride through the woods? Check. Wonderful rustic barn and completely rusted wheelbarrow perfect for a quick portrait? Oh most definitely check.

This wall of the barn and the rusty wheelbarrow are the first things I noticed as I pulled up in my car the day before the wedding and I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it. Since the bride and groom were being traditional in that she didn’t want the groom to see the dress before the wedding, I knew I’d have to do this shot after the ceremony, but before the couple got too involved with the reception. I also knew that the sun was going to be behind the wall when I’d have the opportunity to shoot this image, so I also planned the lighting in advance. (It helps to know where to expect the sun at a given time of day!)

This was a simple shot to set up: I knew I wanted the bride looking at the groom. In my imagination, I pictured her more face-on to the camera, but with her head turned. When I suggested she look at her new husband, she turned her body and I knew I liked the reality I was seeing more than what I had pictured in my mind.

The light is coming from not from the sun but from a single flash unit mounted on a light stand off-camera to the right and triggered by a wireless remote.

Interesting tidbit about the making of this image. When I first saw this wall, the wheelbarrow was leaning against it exactly as you see it in the picture. It was so rusted, I thought it was really a prop set up by the location to enhance the look of the site. Turns out they really use this wheelbarrow and it was missing when it came time to do the shot! A quick search discovered it not too far away and I was able to put it back, but I have to admit, I got worried for a second! The thing’s so rusty, I couldn’t imagine anyone actually using it without breaking it!

Turns out it was sturdier than it looked. I even did a picture with the groom pushing the bride around in the thing later! (We put a towel under her to protect the dress).

Oh, and the picture has been processed using a modified black-and-white conversion technique I’ve been working on. I like it. Toned black-and-white with hints of color under it.