The Best of Wedding Photography.pdf - Free

LEFT—There is something special about a portrait where one person turns back to the camera. The wry grin tells you she is very happy. The tonality
is made richer by the use of a vignette added in Photoshop. Photograph by Joe Photo. RIGHT—Charles Maring created this head-and-shoulders
portrait using a Nikon D1X and 85mm f/1.4 lens. The exposure was 1/250 second at f/1.4 and the focus was on her eyes, letting almost everything
else fall out of focus. Notice how many diagonal lines are introduced by the angle of her shoulders and the tilt of her head and veil.
If this happens, there is nothing you can do about it during
the photography, but the eyeglasses can be dodged
during printing or in Photoshop to restore the same print
density as the rest of the face.
Any type of “photo-gray” or self-adjusting lenses
should be avoided. Outdoors, they will photograph like
sunglasses. Indoors, under normal room light, they won’t
present much of a problem. A trick is to have the person
keep their glasses in a pocket until you are ready to shoot.
This will keep the lenses from getting dark prematurely
from the ambient or shooting lights.
PORTRAIT LENGTHS
Three-Quarter and Full-Length Poses. When you employ
a three-quarter-length pose (showing the subject
from the head to below the waist) or a full-length pose
(showing the subject from head to toe), you have more of
the body to contend with.
54 THE BEST OF WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY
As noted above, it is important to angle the person to
the lens. Don’t photograph the person head-on, as this
adds mass to the body. Also, your subject’s weight should
be on the back foot rather than distributed evenly on both
feet—or worse yet, on the front foot. There should be a
slight bend in the front knee if the person is standing. This
helps break up the static line of a straight leg. The feet
should also be at an angle to the camera; feet look stumpy
when shot straight on.
When the subject is sitting, a cross-legged pose is effective.
Have the top leg facing at an angle and not directly
into the lens. When posing a woman who is seated, have
her tuck the calf of the leg closest to the camera in behind
the leg farthest from the camera. This reduces the size of
the calves, since the leg that is farther from the camera becomes
more prominent. Whenever possible, have a slight
space between the subject’s leg and the chair, as this will
slim down thighs and calves.