With today’s trend toward naturalness and simplification in wedding photography, it would seem unnecessary to require the use of a photographic studio. If you are doing strictly a candid story with natural backgrounds and stick to this format, you won’t need a studio. But for the person who likes consistent results, the ability to work under pressure, command higher sales per wedding, a studio set-up is the key.

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Recently, while at a wedding in Florida, we were promised a beautiful setting for our wedding portraits. The location was at Mar-a-Lago, a childhood home of Marjorie Merriweather Post, now owned by Donald Trump. Upon our first look around at the rehearsal on Friday, we thought we could do everything outside. Well, I had my lights in place just in case we needed a plan B, and the results were fantastic. In picture #1 you can see my lights tucked away nice and neat inside the restaurant and ready for our use. I am using the FJ Westcott Spider Lights, daylight fluorescent bulbs inside of large soft boxes. It’s like having a window, (or five) wherever you go.. The whole set up goes into two bags and they are with me at all times.

I wanted to work outside in the beautiful mission style surroundings, however, Florida can be hot, and humid as it was on this day so I chose the air-conditioned lobby of the facility to make the portraits. Once the families began to arrive, we pulled out the lights and went to work with familiar compositions, and a few new ones.

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Picture #2 shows our set up a little better. I have 3 TD-5 units that provide the capacity for 5 large lights. Another 2 TD -3 units for the hair and the background light. We use the exact same five light set up that Monte was using 20 years ago. One light on the face (main), a fill, a kicker coming from the back and aimed towards the lens for the mirror shine on the face. Finally, we add a hair light and background light. The restaurant was like a dark cavity. At the last minute, we threw a Quantum Q flash in the middle of space at the lowest setting to provide the light on the tapestry painted wall. We were all set and began creating a series of our favorite portraits.

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Picture # 3 is the mother of the groom. She is in our simple feminine pose, with her head turned and tipped to the high shoulder. With her left shoulder positioned on the wall, we have no room for a background light and very little, if any, hair light. This is really three lights; the main, kicker and fill. Picture #4 we added her daughter. This shows the complete use of all six lights including the battery operated strobe in the next room. Picture #5 is a simple group of three. Seat one, stand the two in the back for an inverted pyramid. Then, on the group of four in picture #6 seat two and stand two. We also bring posing stools to complete the on-location studio. There is no way that I could create the compositions quickly without the adjustable posing stools.

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We finally got the parents of the bride out and time was short..we were lucky that I was there and could make portraits in a quick fashion as the guests were arriving while I was making these images. Talk about stress, well, actually, not that much stress as I was confident in my ability to make these images with simple techniques, blocking out all of the distractions and making everyone look good to the camera. I guess that’s why I was there.

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Once the bride finally came out of her dressing room we pulled the lights back and started with a quick full length. With the high ISO capability of the Canon 5D Mark II, I was probably making these images at ISO 800 at 60th at 5.6. No problem for the full length. I quickly went to picture #9 with the bride and her siblings. I followed with #10 the couple together.

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This whole series of portraits was made in less than 20 minutes, as the people were so late and completely messed up the time schedule. Not to worry, it happens more often than not and we have to be prepared and expect to work under these conditions. Monte would always tell me it’s our fault. We need to work closely with the families days before the wedding and explain how important the schedule is, so that we can take the stress out of the pictures. Monte would also say, never settle, and these portraits are something that I can be proud of and the families will treasure for generations.

The following morning at the brunch a sepia 5/7 wedding portrait was on display in sterling silver for all of the guest to see. It was a big hit, and a real shocker to everyone. This was a magnificent success and we have already booked another wedding from one of the guests in the room that morning.

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In this ever changing landscape of wedding photography we have to remain true to our course. Don’t abandon portraits just because everyone else is going trendy. Using the right equipment and a professional color lab is paramount to your success in the wedding market. Bring a photojournalist along so that you can create the perfect wedding album, classic, yet current, portraits, fine art, fashion and photojournalism. This is just the beginning of this wedding story. Keep an eye out for the next issue of this newsletter where we look at the wedding groups and the edgy story telling pictures.

Thank you to North American Photo and Clay Blackmore for making this story possible.