I was shooting from a distance so I could groom and have the wall behind him out of focus. My first thought was how nice the groom looked in his suit. I kept working until I captured him looking straight into the camera, full of joy and excitement for his special day. The smile on his face said it all. This portrait of the groom was taken at Old Mill on a gorgeous summer day in June. His family and friends were there to celebrate the occasion, as was his beloved bride.
The location was chosen because it’s in a beautiful setting and it offered easy access to the venue and parking. We decided to shoot in the courtyard where noon so the light would be soft. Since the wedding was outdoors and we were shooting at noon, we needed to use a large softbox. The groom was very comfortable being in front of the camera and we spent a lot of time getting to know each other before taking our portraits.
We took about 10-15 portraits of the groom alone and then 10 or 12 with the groomsmen, before moving on to the ceremony. This way we got to see him interact with his bride-to-be. He couldn’t wait to see her and she was nervous.
We set up a white background to add some interest and depth to the images. The groom had on a white tuxedo, white shirt, and tie. The groom’s best man was the only non-white person in the group, so it was important to include him in the image.
We tried to keep the shoot casual so everyone could feel comfortable. I had the groom and his best man in the middle of the group, facing the camera. The groom’s mother and father stood on either side of him, and his two sisters were on either side of his mother. We also had a friend of the groom’s brother-in-law stand near the groom so he could be included in the images.
I used a tripod to get the sharpest, cleanest images possible. I put the camera on a timer and adjusted my settings so the shutter speed wasn’t too slow and the aperture wasn’t too wide. This helped prevent blurring and created beautiful depth in the images. We used a 24-70mm zoom lens with f3.5, which is a sweet spot for portraits. We were able to keep the background out of focus.
I edited the images on my laptop. For the groom’s images, I used Lightroom to adjust the lighting, color balance, and sharpness. I applied an adjustment layer to the images to bring out more contrast in the skin tones.
For the groom’s parents and best man, I opened them in Photoshop and adjusted the colors to make the images pop. After adding the groom’s initials, I printed the images on glossy photo paper. I used an inkjet printer. The quality was good. I scanned the images and added the groom’s initials to the background.
The final product is something that I’m really proud of. I’m sure the groom is, too.
