Many London wedding photographers enjoy the fabulously varied backdrops to be found in the city, and I am no exception. Diana and David’s wedding was in St Etheldreda’s Church, tucked away in a side street in Holborn, and a short walk from Smithfield Market, where this image was made. I love the collaboration we have with our clients, and this couple were keen to have unusual and creative images of their wedding day, as well as the documentary wedding photography recording the ceremony and celebrations.
All our wedding day photography is shot as RAW files, and the cameras are set up to give me a flat, low-contrast image in full colour. This so that as much detail as possible is recorded both in the highlights and the shadows. Diana is standing in a shaft of sunshine, and I want the detail of the dress to be recorded and not blown out. (It may look bright here – the detail is there, I promise!) The image was processed and converted to my own black and white recipe in Lightroom, before outputting as a jpeg for printing. The camera settings were 500th at f4, ISO 320, zoom lens at 35mm.
I love the composition – the couple are in the classic 1/3 zone and their heads are 1/3 down from the top. The negative space to their right balances the strong brightness of Diana’s dress, and the rectangles within rectangles behind add structure to the frame of the image. The shaft of light coming from top right adds dynamism, and your eye follows the shaft down to the couple, then up and across the wording at the top, and back round again.
I hope you enjoy looking at the image – I’d love to read your comments below.
