Andrew Niesen

In the South, churches take themselves very seriously. Church rules often mandate photographers working only in the balcony, and church wedding guild officials enforce the rules with such vigor that they often leave bruises.

Shooting from the balcony can be extremely limiting, as all of the ceremony photographs are taken from the same perspective.

One of my favorite techniques to unobtrusively capture images from a second (or third) perspective during a church wedding ceremony is to place a remote camera close to the bride and groom. This is also a great way for a photographer working solo to gain another perspective on the ceremony.

I will "shoot loose" with a lens that is wide enough to allow for some error in where the bride and groom may be positioned in the frame. I use a Canon EOS 5D as a remote camera because its 12.8-megapixel gives me plenty of pixels to crop out.

In this example, I positioned a camera behind a plant so it was invisible to the congregation. I used a Pocket Wizard with a Canon camera cable to trigger the exposure from the balcony. The kneeler allowed for a predictable place to aim the camera, and I selected a position that was slightly in front of the bride and groom so you could see their faces. Above, you'll see the shot cropped and digitally mastered as it appears in their album. You can see the image as it came out of the camera on the left.

QUESTION:
How did you light them on the pool shot?

ANSWER
This is on the top of the Mid City Lofts, which is called "Sky," right across from The Biltmore, which is where this couple's wedding took place. The couple hangs out at a little pub next to Mid City Lofts and have become friends with people who live in the Lofts — thus the access to the roof.

This is actually a rare shoot where we lit almost the entire shoot. For engagment shoots, I typically try to use as much available light as possible, but frequently use a reflector and of course sometimes strobes and bigger lights. It just depends on the couple, the location and complexity of what we're trying to do. For most of these shots, especially the ones outside near the pool at dusk, I triggered two Canon 550 speedlights bounced out of an umbrella with a 580 on camera. Denis Reggie's Dual Flash Bracket has become an integral part of our lighting bag since we started using it earlier this year.

Photographers have a lot to think about when they're shooting weddings. Simultaneously managing relationships, compact flash cards, logistics, picture requests, assistants and gear can become overwhelming.

When confronted with challenges, like video lights, dark venues and unfriendly churches, it can be easy for a photographer to shoot "safe" pictures — photographs that guarantee a predictable result — and miss opportunities for creativity.

When the videographer used his video light to illuminate the bride dancing with her father, it was tempting to stand next to the videographer to use his light as the main light source. Or, I could have increased my shutter speed so the video light was underexposed, and then bounced flash off the ceiling or wall. The trouble with either scenario is that this type of lighting becomes predictable and boring, and is not indicative of the scene as I saw it.

When shooting this situation, the lighting on the bride and her father was intense, so I decided to not fight it, but to allow it to become an opportunity for creativity. I moved into a position where the videographer was behind the bride, and shot this picture with my Canon 50/1.4 at f/1.4.

The resulting image communicates not only the intensely illuminated scene as I saw it, but also communicates figuratively, as the bride and her father were the focus of attention in the room — literally in the spotlight.

Click here to view the slideshow from this wedding.

Many people ask about how we quickly and reliably download our cards during and after shoots.

We use a piece of software called Photo Mechanic from a company called Camera Bits. It's a great piece of software. Here's why:

• You can insert your card in your reader, press one quick key and it downloads the card to one or two folders on your computer or external hard drive
  
• If you plug multiple cards in your computer, you can select all the cards in the ingest dialog walk away from your computer, and come back and they're all done.
  
• Photo Mechanic will rename files if necessary to avoid redundant filenames
  
• We write the camera owner's name to the camera itself using Canon's Camera Window. Photo Mechanic will automatically add the Camera Owner's name to the "author" field of the EXIF data. This is particularly handy when your studio has four photographers.
  
• Photo Mechanic makes it easy to batch rename all the photos after ingestion using whatever naming convention you desire.
  

I can't overemphasize that it's very important to use safe downloading practices as you download your cards to avoid losing data. I address those practices in my previous post called "Why I Can Sleep at Night".

Erin and I recently did a volunteer photo shoot for Flashes of Hope, a nonprofit organization that creates photographs of children fighting cancer and other life threatening diseases and provides these photographs to the families, free of charge. Its mission is to "help the children feel better about their changing appearance by celebrating it! And, for families of terminally ill children, the portrait preserves the beauty, grace and dignity of their child."

The opportunity to create portraits of these children and their families was both a humbling and uplifting experience. For a moment, you feel a little bit of sorrow, but that is instantly replaced by such warmth and joy when you see the bright smiles and charming personalities of these children who, despite their stuggles, exude happiness, appreciation for life and love of their families. We are honored to be able to share our talent with these families and know that the photographs we made will remain an everyday reminder of the beauty and joy of their children and the love shared within their family.

Read more about Flashes of Hope on their website www.flashesofhope.com