Lighting makes all the difference….

Before I post pics from Saturday's wedding, I thought I'd talk about lighting today. As photographers, we're always looking for great light and ways to improve our lighting to make our subjects look fabulous! I subscribe to a blog called Flash Flavor (I LOVE it!) and will be experimenting with some new techniques like the ones they show on their blog this year. I also have to say that I love great uplighting in reception halls too. Colored uplights give warmth to any room and it gives a better 3-D effect in photos, rather than the standard banquet hall walls. It shows that you've given great thought about how your reception hall will look when your guests walk in and what it will look like in the finished photographs. It also gives us more to work with in dark places, especially at night and when there's no window light available. One local company that does this kind of lighting on a regular basis is Event Lighting & Sound (ELS) in Indianapolis.

A lot of brides see fantastic images of featured receptions in bridal magazines and wonder how they can create the same effect. If you notice, a lot of the images have colored lights shining down from above the ceiling or tent as well as uplighting around the room that incorporates the color scheme of the event. Brides can also have their florist place candles throughout the entire room which adds to the warming effect and provides more light in photos. (Just make sure they aren't set too close to centerpieces, we had one catch on fire once…LOL…not kidding) Also, you can add trees and plants around any room to give it a more defined space. We've had some clients put white lights on tall trees in corners of reception halls and we've used the extra light as a great background for cake shots, dancing photos, etc. Anything you can do to add to the ambiance of a room will make all the difference in your photos. 🙂 Stay tuned for some samples of great uplighting & candles from the reception we photographed at the Omni this weekend. 😉