Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Candid Photography Using Natural Light

Using natural light has been a technique I've used frequently, and recently I've moved over to natural lighting as my "style of photography". As the candid photographer for our photography team at weddings, I think this style of lighting gives a more natural (ie candid) feel to the pictures.

Getting a lens that allowed for lower aperture was the first breakthrough in not having to use my flash as much. The lower aperture also gave the shots the "blown out" background that brought focus to the key subject matter of the image.

I recently upgraded cameras to the 5d Mark II for the video capabilities. While the video works great, I got an additional benefit. The camera does an AMAZING job in low light situations. So good of a job that I don't even take a flash to weddings any more. While there is definitely some noise using the camera in dark situations, the grain frequently looks intentional - like an effect.

Take a look at some of the low-light images I got at the wedding from this weekend.




Belleville IL Wedding

Don't the bride and groom make a good looking couple? These guys are friends of ours, so it was great to be able to be "behind the scenes" throughout the day. I was going to post only a couple images from their wedding, but I couldn't decide which ones I liked best. Here are a few of my favorites.









Belleville IL Photographer

St Louis Wedding Photographer

Belleville Senior Photographer