As a Toronto wedding photographer, I am a member of professional associations and meetup groups so I know a lot of wedding photographers in the area. Many of them confessed to me they are burned out towards the middle of this wedding season. That poses to problems to me. First, he burnt out wedding photographer cannot create beautiful works of art for his or her clients. Second, if you really love what you do, that is not work, so you cannot be burnt out. However, that is besides the point of this little article. Let's focus on those beautiful wedding day portrait of a stunning South Asian bride captured during a Evergreen Brick Works wedding.
As a Toronto Indian wedding photographer, I know South Asian weddings are long events but are a lot of fun. Also, they offer the perfect opportunities for beautiful wedding pictures. During the bride's preparation at this wedding I noticed she had remarkable eyes so I decided to emphasize them. As such, I asked the bride to use her thumb and index fingers to create a frame around her eyes. Also, I indicated to the bride that I wanted her to smile only with her eyes. The result of this direction is a very natural smile, similar to Mona Lisa's. Those directions helped me achieved a few things. First, I was able to photograph the beautiful henna designs on the bride's hands without making it too obvious. Second, and more importantly I used her hands to create a frame that draws the viewer's attention onto the bride's stunning eyes.
Here are the techniques I used to create this beautiful wedding day portrait. To light the bride's face I used the gorgeous soft light provided by a huge window at Evergreen Bricks Works. To capture each sharp image of the eyes and the render everything else out of focus I used the best portrait lens possible, the Canon 85 mm f1.2 which I shot wide-open. That, in effect, creates a razor thin depth of field where the eyes are in focus, and everything else is out of focus. Selective focus on the subject (the bride's eyes) is another photography technique I often use to emphasize the section of the frame or person.
From a composition standpoint, a placed the bride along the right guideline according to the rule of thirds grid. That also results in an asymmetrical wedding picture with significant negative space on the left side of the frame, which creates mystery and tension.
This shot contains colours from the brown family, which do not compete with the brides eyes. From a colour psychology standpoint, brown is an earth colour representing security, stability and wealth. Also, brown means exotic, being used by coffee brands and chocolate makers such as Gloria Jean's coffee, Starbucks, and even premium brands such as Louis Vuitton. As you can see, this colour palette is an excellent metaphor for a South Asian marriage and extremely appropriate for an Indian bridal portrait.
Post processing considerations. Because this wedding picture was so well executed in camera, my post production work was minimal. I only sharpened the eyes and the brides jewelry and added a vignette.
Location: 550 Bayview Ave #300, Toronto, ON M4W 3X8.
