Throughout the world and over the years my finding is that the most treasured photos for any bride are always the Formal/Informal Portrait Photographs. While many people are nervous about posing for the camera and seem a little unwilling to undertake in the construction of such images, ultimately these are the images that most commonly end up in frames in the house of the newlyweds and their family.
While Informal and Formal shots taken and post produced in an artistic manor as opposed to a photojopurnalistic style of wedding photography are only a small percentage of the total images provided, over the years they have proven to be a highly important inclusion in every bride and grooms record of their special day.
A key element in the production of such photos is without question, Natural Light !. Where possible I always try to assist the bride in selecting the time of her event and the chronology of her day to ensure that the timeline of the wedding day matches well with available natural light and with the chronology for the wedding photography. Here in Chile, and in some other locations I work as a Destination Wedding Photographer, the light can be destructively strong at certain times of the day thus not making it suited to outdoor portrait work, therefore I usually advise brides and grooms to try to allocate photography time during the final 90 mins of the days sunlight. This can include about 10 mins of dusk lighting which the camera can still perseve as daylight if the photographer knows what they are doing.
The most common timing for the portrait / retrato session with “Los Novios” (Bride & Groom) is during the Cocktail. With this factor in mind it is very important to work back from the sunset time to plan a 90 minute of availability window to take the formal/informal portraits, then step back the amount of time your ceremony takes to arrive at the best time to start. Also allow for factors like “Distance” and “Traffic” to ensure a safety net of time. The setting sun waits for nobody !
In Chile I constantly encounter couples who adore the artistic portraits and have such dreams and aspirations of beautiful romantic images from their wedding and they swoon over the many images online and in magazines and often point them out saying I want this…always….these images are natural lighting. Often the couples seem to loose the importance of making this part of their chronology happen even after our meetings and me constantly trying to enforce this to them. On average in Chile, the 60 mins schedualed for bridal portraits ends up around 20-25 mins. It makes me sad that in such a wonderful location as Chile about 80% of the coules here miss such a huge potential for images.
With reference to a previous post I made here and to the menu link above “Ten top Tips” I enphasized the importance of planning for sunlight if you require the aforementioned type of weddin gphotography included in your image set. A simple 15 mins late to the ceremony can mean your key wedding photographs are “Shot In The Dark !!”
If you would like any advice (Clients and non Clients) I am happy to assist you to plan your daylight timing to ensure you do not fail on receiving the wedding photographs you dream of.. feel free to EMAIL ME anytime.
Gardner Hamilton
http://www.weddingphotochile.com/
info@weddingphotochile.com
Tel (0056) 9-992 9508
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