We try at every San Francisco city hall wedding to get at least one Silhouette image assuming the light is right. There is something particularly dramatic about only seeing the outline of the couple. It definitely adds something different to a wedding portfolio of images. In this wedding photo, we placed a remotely controlled Flash unit which was controlled by a radio slave behind the couple and aimed at the bottom of the dress. Since the wedding dress is white, it acts as a reflector and lights up the background. It also caused a little bit of a glow behind the bride and groom. This is the best way to get the effect we wanted and doesn't take very long at all. Once the lighting is established, its just a matter of posing the newly married couple in the best possible way to make a nice silhouette. We try this with different backgrounds at city hall and hope to make each image unique and special for the bride and groom. For example, this was the first time we ever captured a wedding image of any kind in this location. It never occurred to us to do in the past since the background is actually an elevator bank.
Sometimes we obtain a partial silhouette because of too much ambient light in the room, but other times (like the photo above) you can only see the outline of the couple. This makes for a very dramatic image if the wedding photographer can position the newlyweds just right. Photos like this also reveal different details of the bride's wedding gown that may not be evident with full light. We have discovered over the years that you really cant take enough pictures of the bride's wedding dress! One of our favorite poses to do for these types of images is to have the couple almost kiss. That is pretty much what is happening here in this image. We asked the newly married couple to almost kiss and not pucker up too much. This added some drama to the image and the couple loved it! One of the true pleasures of San Francisco city hall wedding photography is working with our couples to get that magic image that they will treasure for a lifetime. When they let us know that we accomplished, it gives us a great feeling.
The gorgeous bride above appears to be relaxing and just hanging out in a San Francisco city hall window. Her shoes and garter are all being displayed in a very natural way. This is one of my favorite shots of the bride because it has the appearance of a non-posed wedding photo. The window sill is such a great place to do photos like this and we know just how to use it after years of practice. I also like the way the bride's veil cascades down behind her. We always try to suggest some photos like this that don't look posed, but still contain all of the elements needed for a great wedding image. In the photo below the couple really loved the fancy city hall elevator so they asked us for a picture while riding it. Only at San Francisco city hall can an elevator become a background for wedding photography!
