Sunday, October 28, 2007

Silence Speaks…!

I had been shooting a Christian wedding in Delhi on a fine winter afternoon. The old church looked too good for my camera and the light through the ornamental windows and doors made me go mad for available light photography. I always prefer to use available light as the main source where ever possible. As the evening was setting in, the light become fairly warm and soft and gave me some interesting shots depicting the mood of the event and location.

But the video personnel from Delhi were too conventional in their approach towards the wedding coverage. Despite me warning them, many times they were hitting me just in front with their powerful video light. Of course, I had also lost some of my good shots with an unexpected light flare in my lens.!. I found that there is no point in making them understand my problem. I decided to take advantage of the situation by getting some shots with the beautiful rim lights with a touch of gold. This is one such shot where I did use only the video light to tell the mood of the picture. Yes, I think even if I had used my powerful flash, I would have got only an average picture.

I liked the shot as it clearly tells the calm and emotional feel of the couple when they close their eyes in a prayer. The clear profile of the couple with glowing edges defined their purpose; and the light through the wedding bouquet made it even better. Though the picture looked very silent, it spoke a loud about my professional approach. Many times I find less is more than required..! Yes, less light here made the picture more than beautiful! Though I had to open the lens aperture in full to get the correct exposure, the resulting shallow depth of field made a special impact on the appearance of the groom in the picture. Events like weddings contain lot of moods and the available light makes it perfect in a photo journalistic style of wedding photography.

This particular wedding photo book contained lot of images like this and I must thank my ‘unknown friend’ who lit for these pictures freely with his video light.

- KL.Raja

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