Imagine that you have a big day for a shoot. You need to shoot a wedding but the weather is against you – it’s raining outside. Do you postpone the wedding? Of course not. As a working professional, you need to be prepared for such situations and make it work for you. Adorama has put together this video with wedding photographer Vanessa Joy who’ll show you how you can make a cloudy day look sunny:
Find an Overhang
It is important that the couple do not get during the shoot. This is even more important if you are photographing them before the ceremony. So, in order to shoot outside, do everyone a favor and find an overhang.
“Position your couple so that they’re as close to the edge of that overhang, but not getting wet.”
What this does is that, the overhang blocks the light coming in from above thereby preventing shadows from forming under the eyes, nose, and the neck region. No to mention that it keeps your couple from getting wet as well.
Have Control Over Lighting
Now that you have some control over the lighting from above, the next step is to have better control over the light from the sides. For her purpose, Joy uses the Profoto B10 with a CTO gel attached to the front. The gel helps in providing warmth to the flash in order to emulate the sun. However, when placing the light, it is extremely important that everything appears natural in the process.
“If you just have some random light coming from behind them, it might look cool, but it’s not believable that it’s actually the Sun. The further back you can go, the better.”
Also, have an assistant hold a reflector facing the couple to soften the light. Once you’re done taking some images, be sure to review them just to make sure that the image looks believable. If it does not, you may need to change the lighting position or the location.
“It’s about playing, it’s about maneuvering, and seeing where the light is, and making adjustments.”
With a little bit of thinking, there’s absolutely no need to panic if it rains on a wedding day. Be sure to try out these simple tips from Joy and assure any couple a sunny day picture every time.
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Having the right rain gear for your camera can be important too. A plastic rain sleeve that sinches over the lens hood and covers the entire camera body while still allowing you to get your hand inside the sleeve onto the camera.