Elizabeth and Patrick at Tetherow a Long Time Ago
Using the Profoto Flash at a Tetherow Wedding
Sometimes being a wedding photographer at the right place and with the right couple is like magic. I talk a lot about using the Profoto for my wedding and portrait photography. These lights are easily the biggest game changers for my work. They allow for endless creative possibilities and ideas to try. I can use them indoors and outdoors with equal results. The new mirrorless cameras really have changed things too. Plus the AI controls in Lightroom speeding up the editing and adjusting process. But the lights really are the secret weapon in the challenge of making amazing wedding and portrait photography. So I talk about them because they’re integral to my work. When people hire me to be their wedding photographer I tell them up front the Profoto will accompany me through the day. Yes, it slows things down every now and then while I find a corner to put it in or adjust it for portraits. But the end result of using these is to create magazine quality pictures of a couple living through their big day together. Yes it’s possible to get these pictures without the light. But they would be flat and dark and lifeless without the transformative power of using them.
Elizabeth and Patrick got married in March at Tetherow a few years ago. Long enough ago that I don’t even remember the exact year. They had a really fun crew of friends and had a marvelous wedding. Elizabeth was so happy through the day and laughing with her friends, family, and Patrick the entire time. My favorite photo assistant Hannah Mavis helped with the light in the wind.
The light was crucial. I used a total of three different lights for this wedding. The first and smallest was a regular Nikon hot shoe flash.
Hannah held a Nikon hot shoe flash around the corner and pointed at the ceiling for this picture.
It was one of my last uses of the hot shoe flash. Slowly over time as I got more used to using the Profoto the tiny hot shoe flash found fewer and fewer uses. Then one wedding I left it at home and never used one again. Profoto makes a smaller flash called the A2 that I’ve been thinking of using as a second flash. But then who’s going to hold it around a corner like this? I stopped using photo assistants a few years ago too. They kept quitting on me the day of a wedding.
Tetherow placed a big giant mirror in the hallway of the getting ready room. This picture wouldn’t have been possible without the mirror reflecting Elizabeth, the right angle of the corner, Elizabeth’s emotion, or Hannah holding the light just right for me. Plus the light had exactly the right amount of power to light her while I let the background go dark with a fast shutter speed. When pictures like this look easy then I’ve succeeded, because they’re anything but easy. Getting set up, then standing, watching, waiting, then reacting immediately when the right moment hits is my bread and butter. It’s the OODA Loop in action. (Observe, Orient, Decide, Act)
One thing: if the moment hits and you aren’t quite ready, get ready because it might hit again. People laugh at regular intervals when around other people. Elizabeth and her friends were having a great time together. So in this case, her laughing is a repeatable moment, and all you need is one time.
Detail Shot with the Profoto
I used the Profoto B1 (now replaced with the B1X - though I still use the same B1) with a two foot octabox for one of my favorite ring detail shots ever. I don’t do a ton of detail shots because to me they’re just filler for something bigger. If a couple are only going to put a handful of pictures on their wall, will any of them be a detail shot? That would be the last picture I would put up. Hannah held the light just out of the shot and as close as possible to maximize the soft light quality. Plus I was able to power the light up for maximum depth of field with my trusty old Nikon 60mm macro lens.
Side bar with this lens: I gave up some SF Opera tickets to afford it and its original purpose was to make copy slides of my photojournalism portfolio.
The infrequent detail shot. I do them when I remember to do them. My priority with wedding photography is EMOTION, LIGHT, COMPOSITION.
Getting ready while being lit with a flash in a corner
One of my favorite repeated-all-the-time tricks is to put a flash in the corner of a room and then focus on the pictures and not think about the light. The less I have to think about the better. One thing about this lighting technique is I have to work in an arc around the light. Shooting from behind the young bride would have a big giant hot spot on the walls and ceiling near the light, the light stand, and the light itself in the picture. I really love putting the giant translucent umbrella over the light, shooting through it and letting the extra light bounce off the wall and ceiling. This room was too small for that, though, so I just bounced. Then it’s a repeat of the OODA Loop. Watching, waiting, shooting quickly when the moment happens.
Elizabeth laughing with her friends while getting ready. The light was in just the right position to get a three quarters on her and her friend.
Two lights at the reception
Elizabeth and Patrick had their reception in the bar/restaurant at Tetherow. The room is smallish and has fairly low ceilings. So I experimented with two lights. It required constant tinkering, but worked perfectly. On one side I had the B1 as the main light and on the other I can’t really remember. I want to say it was a Profoto B2. The B2 (not made anymore and replaced with the A2) was a 250w/s small light with a cord to a power pack. I just bounced the B1 off the ceiling and I think the B2 was a direct flash behind them. Once again I had to shoot in an arc to keep the light even. Though some of the pictures had both lights bouncing. It worked really well.
You can see in this picture from their first dance the slightly softer light on Elizabeth’s left side and slightly harder light on the right side. It worked like a champion in that room.
Seeing this now makes me want to use the B1 and my new D2 (I bought on sale because they’re phasing them out for the new D30) in tandem at future receptions and repeat this look in larger rooms. Then be able to let the background walls or whatever go dark.
Cake cutting with a hot shoe flash
I will say there are times when a hotshoe flash is invaluable. So invaluable it would be worth buying a new one and using it? I don’t know. But in the instances when people are facing a wall for the cake cutting they’re invaluable. I just recently shot a wedding in Dundee, Oregon with a wall cake cutting and it was not my best cake cutting picture. I just loved working with Elizabeth and Patrick because they had such great interactions and emotion for me to see and capture. For hot shoe flash work it really helps to try and bounce off a wall instead of just the ceiling.
The golf course portrait
It was a cloudy, windy, and sort of cold March day for their wedding. We wanted to get some portraits outside without having to go very far in the weather. Luckily the Tetherow clubhouse is up on a hill with the golf course down below and behind. Also, for me, luckily it was both cloudy and the course itself is devoid of trees. The Profoto really shines on cloudy days. I can direct the light better and make the background go a little darker. The wind in this case worked to my advantage because a gust blew her dress in the same direction and looking the same as the cloud below the cloud in the background. (OODA Loop once again)
Hannah was holding the light stand for the Profoto B1 and the giant translucent umbrella off to camera right. Nowadays it would be to the left to match the angle of the sun, but then I would miss the blowing of the dress in the nice C shape it makes. I was experimenting all summer with the translucent umbrella. Somehow it didn’t blow out of the light or knock the light over. It’s really big. This umbrella has the amazing ability to really soften the light. It sadly also has the amazing ability to light everything around it, like the ground. I had to burn the heck out of the ground to make it go away a little. Nowadays I would use a modifier with a grid to focus the light on them rather than the ground next to them.
I still love this picture. It’s in the room where I meet couples and many people love this picture. I’m hoping Elizabeth and Patrick are happy wherever they are now and have this exact picture hanging on their wall.
