Matt and Shelley had their wedding day an one of the most perfect days of the season. Although the “season” is busiest in December to March to mid May are the best times of the year in the Cape to have a wedding celebration. Besides the night starting at a decent time, the weather is usually perfect and not to hot or windy, or too cold and rainy……generally!!! Anyway, because of the time of day I shot the portraits I was able to have more effective and harsher (which I love) lighting.
You can have harsh lighting in any scenario really, one just needs sufficient lighting and usually it is very expensive (that’s why most wedding photographers want to shoot in the shade, because they dont have sufficient lighting or know how to use lights for that matter). I personally consider myself a lighting snob and am proud that I use only Profoto generators and heads (the most “zef” lights out there), and have up to 1200 watts of light at any time (thats a s&@t load!!). Lots of photographers, use “off camera flash” (a term generally used to say that their flash gun are on a stand and come from an angle other than the direction of the lens), but besides the light being hard to shape, it really isnt very powerful and has little control. I dont use any flash guns (little lights that one puts on a camera or stand with a wireless transmitter), because unless you have a low light scenario the light generally acts as a fill light and it kind of gives the image a cheap feel.
Why am I all of a sudden talking technical, just because lots of people ask me about weather on the day, and to be honest, if a photographer can light well then it doesn’t matter what time of day the portraits are taken. Going back to me loving March and April. Well Its just comfortable to shoot and nothing is worse than when the heat makes the portrait session and wedding in general hard to bare because its lekker stinking hot. Why am I saying all of this. I dont know, I guess I just figured I would!
Did I mention that the season is over? Oh, did I mention I have soo much news? Oh did I mention anything?
I think I used the word “Zef” incorrectly. But I like Die Antwoord now, IM a Ninja!
by Ian Mitchinson
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