Rejected blown and horizon
I was chosen as the photographer for the Wedding Collection fashion shoot at Thornybush Game Lodge near Hoedspruit. The Wedding Collection photographs will appear in the Spring edition of the magazine which will be published in September. Here are a few things I learned that will improve my wedding photography immensely.
The difference between fashion photography and wedding photography can be described in one word, focus. The wedding gown is the focus on a fashion shoot and the bride is the focus on a wedding shoot. I have however seen many wedding photos where the focus has been so absolute that the gown is just a prop and not part of the memory.
Shadow in the background
This article will show you a number of images that I rejected for the fashion shoot and strangely I would have rejected them for wedding photographs for the same reason. The major difference between the fashion shoot and a wedding shoot is the equipment we carried with us. In some instances because of the lights we were able to shoot where I would never have considered posing a bride.
In one particular set of images we used the harshest lighting possible to eliminate contrasts between the shadows and the sunlight. Even with the lighting we still had blowing out where the sun was shining directly on the gown. In another we eliminated the sun entirely by shading the model. Both of these shots would have been impossible at a wedding because we would not have had the same equipment available.
The main difference between the fashion shoot and the weddings I have photographed is that there are no do overs at weddings. Maggie from Wedding Collection was concerned because I shot fewer images than any other photographer she had worked with before.
I tried to explain that I have always aimed for perfection in my photographs and did not see the need to reshoot the same image at the same lighting a number of times. If it was right then reshooting a number of times at the same aperture and shutter speed would just have the same image repeated. I prefer to shoot with the model changing poses once I have tested the lighting and attained the correct exposure.
As with wedding photos, do overs are not an ideal situation, I assume that do overs are just extra work, My aim is thus to prevent do overs. On the shoot we did two gowns over and that was because we wanted to try a different model in the one gown and we were not satisfied with the background in another set of images. It was not interesting enough.
Admittedly this was my first ever fashion shoot and I came with no preconceived ideas and knowledge. I have never worked with a fashion photographer so the shoot a 100 shots in case methodology made no sense to me. Surely doing it right the first time makes more sense?
Tags: Fashion Photography, Wedding Collection, Wedding photographer