We like posing our wedding clients with light coming from behind them to create beautiful rim-lighting. As you can see from the image above, it also creates a glow in the veil. In this particular case, we carefully placed a flash behind the subjects and remotely fired it to really create some drama and glow. At times, the natural light coming through the window is sufficient to light up the veil and provide the type of back lighting we are looking for. Other times more light is required so we use our radio controlled professional off-camera light.
The couple in the photo above let us know before they booked us as their San Francisco city hall wedding photographers that they wanted lots of special effects and drama in their final images. We think we accomplished it with this image and others we provided them. We put them in the 3rd floor window and that was the last time we were able to do that shot before city hall banned the practice. Now we do the same types of pictures, but in front of the window instead of in it. It was probably a bit risky anyway so it's best left in the past. Plus doing it now can get you in trouble with city hall security.
What does this mean and how do we provide it? Any form of art is subjective in nature and can be difficult to rate consistently. We find that our clients generally love our work and give us high-rated wedding photography reviews. However, the truth is, you can never satisfy everyone completely when it comes to art. Each person has their own opinions and preferences. What you CAN control is how you treat the customer and the level of service you provide. We make sure that no matter how the shoot comes out, our clients love the way we handled their SF city hall wedding photography experience from start to finish. By staying in constant communication with the couple throughout the city hall tour, we are able to make sure we are attempting all of the creative things we do and that they request.
This type of approach has worked well for us over the years and so we continue to focus on good communication and feedback from the couple. As mentioned previously, many clients prefer to stay completely out of the creative process and that is OK too. We just want to help in any way possible and we do that by providing lots of important information to our brides and grooms not only before the shoot, but during. We have actually had a few couples let us know that they do not want to need to be involved at all. We can take a hint!
