Creative Long Exposure and Portrait Techniques for Wedding Photography
The journey of a photographer from being a hobbyist to a professional relies totally on their learning and practicing them in real time scenarios. Mastering your gear and learning new techniques will help you achieve results which can blow away your clients. Specifically, creative long exposure light painting with bride and groom portraits after a wedding reception opens up a number of creative possibilities and often result in “wow” moments with my clients. One technique, in particular, that I turn to for capturing unique portraits involves using long exposure, aka shutter drag, allowing us to capture moments in ways we could never see using just our eyes.
Understanding the Basics of Shutter Speed and Motion
The first step to creating impactful long exposure portraits is understanding the basics of shutter speed and motion blur. To jog your memory, the longer the duration of the shutter speed, the more motion blur you’ll capture from the moving objects in the photograph. In addition, the faster objects will show more blur than the slower objects at the same shutter speed. However, camera shake is a common problem that occurs when the camera is not held still during the exposure. To mitigate this, remember that flash can freeze motion on the subjects or objects that the flash is hitting.
Creative Ideas for Night Portraits
Capturing Light Trails in Traffic
Few creative night photography techniques can compete with the look of capturing the motion of traffic in the frame with your subjects. The reason for this is that moving cars create amazing light trails when shooting long exposure portraits at night. Here are some tips for capturing these shots:
- Remind your subject(s) to hold very still.
- Larger vehicles, such as buses, take up more space in the frame and can therefore be more impactful.
- Vehicles moving around windy roads can be more visually interesting than vehicles going in a straight line.
Advanced Technique: Light Sandwiching
Light Sandwiching (That's what I call it!) is a method used when you face a dimly lit outdoor scenario, mostly with candles or lanterns. When you have no option to bounce light, this is what I do:
- Set the camera to a higher ISO (Around ISO 1600).
- Drop the shutter speed to around 125 or 160 of a second.
- Sandwich the subject using the key light (On camera flash) and rim light (Back light/ side light) to bring them out from the background.
Always remember, slower shutter speed brings back some ambient light and flashes freezes the action. The key here is to keep the backlight at lower power and directional to avoid the light spill.
Artistic Framing and Silhouette Techniques
How to Shoot a Silhouette
In order to shoot a silhouette, you just need to play with your camera a bit. Let the camera meter off the sky and not the subject. Begin with pointing your camera at the brightest part of your frame – but not directly into the sun – and press the shutter halfway down. Then, while you’re holding the shutter half way down, recompose your image and take the photo. Usually, to shoot silhouettes you’ll have to shuffle your setting between -1 to -3 EV (exposure value).
Creating Frames and Motion Framing
Create a frame when you don't have one! At one wedding venue where there were absolutely no frames, we brainstormed and figured out the possibilities with the available resources. There were many small size water bottles available; we borrowed a safety pin and made few holes in the bottle cap. By lighting the couple from the front and squeezing those water bottles, we achieved a unique effect. Additionally, motion capture is a technique where the movement of the objects or people is recorded. Through this technique, we just wanted to capture the amazing chemistry of the couple in LOVE.
Using Distortion and Tension
Using a distortion in your favor is also an Art. Sometimes distortion can add to the photo so much, so try moving the lens about and see how it affects the lines along the edges. Furthermore, to get the expressions right, we use techniques like creating tension. We had asked the groom to hold the bride from the waist and pull towards him and, in reciprocation, we had told the bride to not to give in and apply force in the opposite direction.
Technical Data Reference
The following data details the technical settings used for the specific creative shots mentioned in this guide:
- Light Sandwiching: Nikon D810, F/5.6, 1/160 sec, 24mm
- Water Bottle Effect: Nikon D850, 70mm, f/4, 1/160 sec, ISO-400
- Motion Framing: Nikon D800, 55mm, f/4, 1/100 sec, ISO-100
- Creating Tension: Nikon D800, 24mm, f/4, 1/1600 sec, ISO-800
- Distortion Art: NIKON D810, F-stop: f/5.6, Exposure time: 1/200 sec, ISO: 800, Focal Length: 24 mm