To see our complete gallery of LGBTQ+ wedding photography click this link. This page contains many different Same-Sex wedding portfolios.
When I first took this wedding picture while using remote lighting, I was so excited because it was the first time I had captured a shot like this at San Francisco city hall. It still remains one of my favorites to this day even though at this point I have photographed 100's more. We are one of the leading same-sex wedding photographers at San Francisco City Hall with over 250 LGBTQ weddings photographed since California made gay marriage legal 2013. At that time, Gay Weddings were controversial, but things have become much more settled down and that is a good thing. Nobody seems to give it a second thought these days and we are in agreement with that sentiment.
We were one of the first SF city hall wedding photographers to start photographing Gay Marriages and we have not slowed down ever since! As mentioned above, this wedding picture was special because we used a remote controlled light behind the couple on the Grand Staircase. I was standing on the Mayor's Balcony at SF city hall and aimed the camera to make sure the entire staircase was displayed. We also had to adjust the light behind the newlyweds so it wasn't too bright. My assistant helped with this part. We wanted to have the light help separate the couple from the background in the evening hours at City Hall. This is one of the reasons, I like to work with an assistant/stylist at San Francisco city hall. Some of the distances involved make it hard to communicate with the couple and my assistant makes this all work. She can communicate with the brides because she is right there with them.
Making the photo more dramatic was the fact that the image was taken in the early evening and San Francisco city hall was getting dark. This combination created the lovely photo you see here. There was a little Photoshop needed because the light was a little bright in between their bodies. I used PS to just calm down the light a bit and make it not so blown out. I know that that you may be wondering if this type of Photoshop adjustment is available to clients as well. Yes, we can enhance a limited amount of images or all of your album choices at no charge. We sell many of these great wedding albums to our Same-Sex couples. In some cases, we may even have to take out people/strangers on the Staircase when it is possible. We try not to present any images to our clients with strangers in the background. Please note that if you ever want any of your San Francisco city hall wedding pictures printed, we also include free Photoshop enhancement.
This particular picture was taken fairly late at night so San Francisco city hall was mostly cleared out of tourists and other couples. Thus, we did not need to remove people from the Grand Staircase digitally. Early evening is an excellent time of the day to obtain pictures like this with the combination of dramatic lighting and no crowds. The Sepia tone digital conversion adds to the effect and helps create a mood for this LGBTQ newlywed couple. I have had many City Hall newlyweds ask me to duplicate this shot for them, but it is difficult to do in the broad daylight. I would recommend booking one of the later times for your Civil Ceremony if you want this type of dramatic evening look for your photos. This historic building takes on a totally different look in the evening.
