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August 1, 2011

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raleigh wedding photographer – image of the week: no. 8

One of my favourite parts of the wedding day to cover is the period ahead of the ceremony when the bride is getting ready. This is a really interesting time for me to experience as I don’t wear make up (the 80’s were a long time ago) and my hair stopped being an issue in the late 90’s, so I really do find this preparation period both fascinating to observe and enjoyable to photograph and document. I also really like the quintessential femininity of the process; the chance to enter this world and see the bride interacting with her closest friends and family members at a very emotional moment in their lives is really very special indeed. It’s also a lot of fun!

For this week’s image, which is taken from a wedding I covered last weekend, I have chosen a picture of the bride having her make-up applied at her mum’s home. It’s one of my favourites from the day as I think she looks really calm and relaxed and her natural beauty really shines through. She almost has the look of a 60’s film star à la Bardot, which is accentuated by the flat overhead lighting on her eyes and lips. I did some dodging and burning to make the bride’s face stand out from the lighter elements in the frame, then applied a special B&W treatment, and added some light grain and vignetting in post-production in order to give it that European sixties feel. For the composition, I chose a wide-open aperture of f/1.2 on an 85mm lens to isolate the bride’s face, focused on her gorgeous eyelashes and waited for the make-up artist to move in and frame the face with her arm and head.

Again, it’s a pretty simple shot, but I really like it!

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