Our lighting tips can help play a major role in getting the most out of your wedding photography. As wedding photographers, we are all about love, laughter and authentic moments. We are also all about the lighting.
When it comes to natural lighting, we never know what we might get. From bright sunny days to the moody gray ones, we need to be ready to deal with whatever Mother Nature blesses us with.
But we do have some control over the light, and I’m going to share some natural and ambient lighting tips to enhance your wedding photography.
Closer to the wedding day, we share a wedding guide with our couples that covers so much more. For now, let’s look at some valuable tips that cover the three main stages of your best day ever.
Getting Ready
If you get ready near a large window, you can benefit from the soft natural light that flows into the room. The gorgeous natural-looking photos you see of a brides getting ready in our blogs often are near a window. Your professional makeup artist will agree and will prefer to face you towards any available natural light, rather than relying on artificial light sources.
Artificial and incandescent overhead lighting creates an unnatural yellow tone to the skin. It won’t look like that to the naked eye, but it surely will be visible in photos. Depending on the room setup, I will undoubtedly be turning off some of the artificial lighting.
This secret technique is also used for the grooms getting ready. For those images of doing up the tie and putting on the shoes, you can be sure they will be taken by a window or door opening up onto a balcony.
The Ceremony
For the ceremony, it is best to choose early morning or late afternoon when the light is soft and flattering. Usually, from 10 am to 3 pm, the sun is high in the sky and casts unfavorable shadows. When the sun is lower in the sky, you see warm and even skin tones without many shadows.
Many couples pray for a bright and sunny wedding day. If you get some cloud cover, don’t worry. For wedding photography, clouds act as a filter making the light soft and even. Also, many people will squint in the bright sunlight so your expression can be nicer when there are clouds in the sky.
Not many people want to get married in the morning for many reasons, including the early start for hair and makeup. Early mornings are for coffee, not weddings! (Unless you’re eloping!) Sunset weddings are lovely. If you aim to have the ceremony two to three hours before sunset, it will be perfect.
Officially sunset is the time the sun hits the horizon and disappears a few minutes later. Then it quickly gets dark. So the ideal time to get married is a few hours before sunset. At that time, the sun is slowly going down. You want time after the ceremony for group photos, bridal party photos and couple photos.
Those intimate and romantic images of you both after the ceremony are the ones you will probably print and hang on your wall, so the timing is essential. If you want to have time for romantic couple photos at sunset (ideally at least 30-45min), count back from there to work out the time you need to start. Don’t forget to factor in some fudge time in case things are running a little behind.
The Reception
For reception lighting, there will generally be some standard lighting included. Talk to the venue or your wedding planner about adding some Italian string lights. These are affordable and create gorgeous light and warm ambiance. Our hearts sing when we work with this kind of lighting, because we can achieve a dreamy bokeh effect in the images (the blurry, sparkly orbs in the background of photos).
These lights are easy to hang, are stylish and inexpensive and look great in photos and real life. Investing in Italian string lights or fairy lights is a wonderful way to light up your night.
There you have three lighting tips that you can plan and control without too much cost or hassle. Now, as you scroll through those Instagram feeds and Pinterest boards full of lovely wedding images, you will recognize couples who have used these tips. There is so much more where this came from, and we love to share all of our lighting tips with our couples to create the wedding day of their dreams!
