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The Light Fantastic - part 2 of 1 2

by Stuart Wood Published 01/08/2016

Not only that, I get my wedding commissions directly as a result of my ability to give my clients images that are straight from the national magazines, which is my particular and very unusual USP! So when I returned to the trees, now devoid of any hint of daylight and aided purely by that wonderful invention of the 'torch' facility on my iPhone, (take another bow Steve Jobs), I ignored the rain that had now swiftly followed the darkness and began to plan my picture.

For me, these sort of pictures are all about proper preparation. Like my editorial and TV subjects, most of whom will not stand in front of my lens for long anyway, I want everything to be in place and every detail sorted before we call my bride and groom. We later discovered that our wedding party had been treated to their very own November 'firework' display through the dining-room window, as the deep-black velvet of night time was momentarily defeated by the odd vibrant burst of purewhite light that silhouetted two shadowy figures in the rainy wood, as I and my intrepid assistant worked through the inclement conditions. I always pack two Elinchrom Ranger RX units and a spare battery. My picture would need both of these units - one to backlight my couple and the other to light the beautiful trees and the carpet of leaves. The trick would be to make it look like only one light source was achieving this.

I knew from experience that the Elinchrom Rangers would be absolutely fine in the rain, as their rugged build has seen them perform in worse conditions than those that currently faced me, so I concentrated on using my assistant as the 'stunt double' for my couple and we placed both flash heads low, on stands, and fitted them with standard reflectors only.

One head powered by the first Ranger was pulled slightly behind the trees and aimed upward to light them. The head on the second Ranger was placed directly in front of the first (nearer to the couple) and aimed straight at them, so that they would be perfectly backlit. As the trees and leaves were physically nearer to the lights, the power of the second unit was pumped up to around a stop brighter and this backlit my couple perfectly. As the evening was still misty and rainy, we achieved a pleasing 'halo' around the couple as the light was diffused slightly around them; that would only normally have been possible with the aid of a smoke machine and a windless location. The individual rain drops are also still clearly visible, having been frozen by the flash.

As ever, we prepared the image first and then went and collected our newly-weds. The final stage was all about keeping them in the unpleasant conditions for as little time as possible, while still getting the picture perfect for them. For obvious reasons, it was vital to avoid any glimpse of the flash that was literally staring straight down the lens and the plan was to have my couple to be directly between me and the lights. Lens flare can look wonderful and creative at times, while for the rest of our imagery, it is our sworn enemy. I sat down on my waterproof jacket (always pack that in the car, even during the dog days of summer) and fired off a few tests to ensure all was in place and then concentrated on the pose and the 'look' between my subjects. I even managed to talk my bride into placing her precious dress on the rain-covered grass!

Within a couple of minutes the picture was captured and we released our bride and groom to rejoin the celebrations.

Like I said, not an easy photograph to create ... but hey, isn't that the fun?

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1st Published 01/08/2016
last update 09/12/2022 14:55:47

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