Shot of the Day: Looking for Locations
A lot of the time when I’m shooting a wedding I’ll go out to the venue with the bride and groom ahead of time to scout the location. We walk around, I take notes, we chat about what they like, about what I like, what they’d be comfortable doing. It’s a bit time consuming but from a shoot point of view it’s absolutely brilliant. I try and go to the venue at about the same time of year and the same time of the day as the wedding will be to get a sense of the light. Failing that it’s useful just to get a sense of the place and, if you’re prepared to spend a bit of time and wonder off the beaten track, you can find the spots that other wedding photographers haven’t actually shot to death! And it’s a bit of bonding time with my clients – a chance to chat and talk rubbish. Normally I’ll earmark ten to twelve spots that we can shoot in, and on the day of the wedding we might only do five or six. It all depends on time, on light, on mood. But at least we know what our options are and it makes such a difference to being calm and relaxed on the day.
There are, of course, times when this isn’t possible. Times when I arrive and it’s time to start shooting!
Stefan and Julia’s wedding was like this. They had hired me just to shoot their couple pics. Theirs was a small wedding with friends and family out from Germany (Stefan and Julia had come to South Africa on holiday a few years ago and decided that this was where they were going to get married) and there simply wasn’t the time to go scouting with them before the wedding. For their reception they had a picnic on the beach – beautiful, but because the wind was out, covered in kite surfers, and sand. Sand is not the friend of the photographer! The beach that they were at is also next to a main road and is surrounded by houses and buildings – generally not the sort of thing that I want to be photographing. So when I got there and I saw their picnic stuff blowing away and I saw the kite surfers with their gear sprawled out all over the beach, I have to admit, I had a little (internal) hissy fit. And then I remembered: this is Julia and Stefan’s wedding, not mine. My job is to give them the best possible photos under whatever conditions. So I stored my internal hissy fit . . . for after the shoot ; ) . . . and I got on with the job of shooting. First thing I did: find a spot where I wanted to shoot. I looked around and realsied that I could shoot them at the top of a dune without kite surfers, without road, without houses. Just the two of them. A bit of fill flash to soften the sun’s harsh shadows and hey presto – beautiful blue sky, golden dune and the whisp of little reed like plants in front of them. I shot away. Then I put them in the shadow of the dune so that I could get some soft natural shots without the harsh late afternoon sun. I shot away. And then I was a bit out of ideas and luck. There was nothing that I could see that I wanted to shoot or that I thought would make a good photograph
So I asked Julia and Stefan what they wanted to do. They wanted to get in the water (you can tell by Stefan’s pants that they did just that – most people don’t realise just how cold the Atlantic is in Cape Town!). The water, when the wind blows in Cape Town, is gun metal grey, the sky over the sea is shallow – I suppose that’s the best way to put it. Instead of that forever blue that goes on for infinity it’s this thinly scratched half blue half grey mess. I did what I could and Stefan and Julia had fun in the water. And while I didn’t like my wide angle colour shots of them in the water, I really liked my telephoto black and whites shots and I could see what a great time they were having. So while I didn’t get the exact location that I wanted, the bride and groom were happy and it was showing in their faces! With them smiling and in love half my job was done. Taking photographs of happy people generally makes for happy photographs.
Out of the water and my next question: where to next? They wanted to get the houses and the kites in the background! I smiled and said, with pleasure, thinking all the while of that scratched out sky and all the bloody kite surfers with their evil, ankle tripping cables spread across the beach! But I thought, the last shots weren’t too bad and shooting telephoto made sense because it would help to seperate them from the background at a reasonably large aperture and I always have my telephoto set to black and white (RAW) so I thought, what the hell, the sky really won’t look that bad in black and white. And then some magic started to happen. The houses which generally so annoy me because I want to see natural beach, took on a California like quality. The kites began to create beautiful patterns and shapes in the sky, and the bride and groom looked at each other and you could see how much they were in love.
After that we carried on shooting: me finding places where I knew the light was right, where I knew that I could create an image that I was comfortable with, and Julia and Stefan unknowingly pushing me out of my comfort zone into places that didn’t come naturally to me but which worked none the less. Or at least, most of them did ; )
So what’s the moral of the story? Well, there is more than one:
- Pre scout your loactions where possible, it’ll make your life, and the lives of your clients, so much easier
- If your location is filled with clutter (in this case buidlings and kite surfers) look for spaces with in that that exclude the clutter and that focus just on the couple
- Look for lighting conditions that are soft and even, especially when outdoors with harsh sunlight. Shade or reflected light is good for this and they mean that you don’t have to use fill flash all the time and that your clients don’t have to squint because of the harsh light
- Let your clients guide you out of your comfort zone. Location isn’t just about what the space looks like (though you need to get this right before you start ignoring it) it’s about a space in which your clients feel happy, a space in which they are free to express themseleves and enjoy the moment
If you have any comments, thoughts or suggestions I’d love to hear them!
Here are my shot settings:
Shooting Mode Manual Exposure
Tv( Shutter Speed ) 1/640
Av( Aperture Value ) 6.3
Metering Mode Spot Metering
ISO Speed 100
Lens EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM
Focal Length 148.0mm
Image Size 4368×2912
Image Quality RAW
Flash Off
White Balance Mode Auto
AF Mode AI Focus AF
Picture Style Monochrome
Sharpness 6
Contrast 1
Filter effect R :Red
Tags: Shot of the Day
