Pre-bwedding photography/b at Portmeirion, bNorth Wales/b « Wedding b.../b
Last Friday evening I drove down to Portmeirion to meet up with Rich and Carrie to take some photos before their wedding in May.
Although from a photography point of view Portmeirion is one of the best venues in North Wales, the conditions were a bit challenging – it was raining and getting dark.
However, I always enjoy doing pre-wedding shoots, there’s less pressure and more time for me to play about with ideas and see what works with a couple.
At the top of the grass embankment in the centre of Portmeirion village there is a structure with a series a columns … you can see it in my photo scouting post from last year .
This caught my eye because of the way photos can be framed using the series of parallel lines.
In the photo below I got Carrie to stand with her back against one of the columns and turn her head until I got the desired lighting on her face (it’s called Rembrandt lighting – haha, makes it sound very artistic).
By luck rather than design, the light from behind her served to highlight her hair as well. Brilliant.
This next photo was taken in the same location, but was converted to black and white by Caz (my wife).
I like this photo because I think the eye contact draws you into the image, and Carrie’s expression gives her an interesting, artistic look.
The lighting really lends itself to the black and white conversion.
Rich and Carrie are actually friends of ours – Caz is going to be one of the bridesmaids.
Like most people, they’re not hugely comfortable in front of the camera, so doing a pre-wedding shoot is a great way to overcome this somewhat.
I find taking a series of photos before the wedding day also helps me enormously on the actual day – I can figure out what works best with couples and plan a strategy of how to get the best photographs.
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