The Best of Wedding Photography.pdf - Free

the light, you’ll find that it is falling off at the ends of the
area—despite the fact that the strobe’s modeling light
might trick you into thinking that the lighting is even
throughout. Feathering the light past the area you want
illuminated will help more evenly light your scene because
you are using the edge of the light. Another trick is to
move the light source back so that is less intense overall
but covers a wider area. The light will become harsher and
82 THE BEST OF WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY
Parker Pfister created this lovely portrait of a
bride using diffused tungsten illumination. He
photographed the scene with a Nikon D1X and
24mm lens at 1/30 second at f/2.8. The backilluminated
steps add a cool graphic element to
the photograph.
less diffused the farther back you move
it. Triggering is best accomplished with
a radio transmitter set to fire only those
strobes.
Handheld Video Lights. Many
photographers use small handheld
video lights to augment existing light at
a wedding. David Williams, for example,
glues a Cokin Filter holder to the
front of the light and places a medium
blue filter (a 025 Cokin filter) in it. The
filter brings the white balance back
from tungsten to about 4500K, which
is still slightly warmer than daylight. It
is the perfect warm fill light. If you
want a warmer effect, or if you are
shooting indoors with tungsten lights,
you can remove the filter.
These lights sometimes have variable
power settings. Used close to the subject
(within ten feet) they are fairly
bright, but can be bounced or feathered
to cut the intensity. David uses them
when shooting wide open, so they are
usually just used for fill or accent.
The video light can also be used to
provide what David calls a “kiss of
light.” He holds the light above and to
the side of the subject and feathers the
light back and forth while looking
through the viewfinder. The idea is to
produce just a little warmth and light
on something that is either backlit or lit nondescriptly.
Sometimes he will use an assistant to hold two lights,
which cancel out the shadows of one another. He often
combines these in a flash-bracket arrangement with a handle.
His video light has a palm grip attached to the bottom
to make it more maneuverable when he has a camera in
the other hand.