Nighttime photography for weddings

Weddings have so many opportunities for beautiful portraits but sometimes you have a lot of the event that takes place at night. While that may open up some challenges it also opens up the opportunity for a lot of Creativity!

Here is one example of how you can easily create a beautiful portrait during the night and give the bride and groom an awesome image

The venue, a beautiful golf course in San Jose, has a balcony with city views where I previously photographed a couple. While the earlier image was decent, it lacked something. During this wedding, I decided to adjust my approach. Instead of the cramped balcony, I moved to the building’s side, giving me more room to experiment.

I realized the issue with my earlier shot was my 24-70mm lens. The wide-angle didn’t give me the large, soft bokeh I wanted from the city lights. Switching to a 70-200mm lens at 200mm allowed the background lights to appear larger and more out of focus, creating the effect I envisioned.

Technical Setup:

• Lens: 70-200mm at 200mm

• ISO: 800, f/4.0, shutter speed: 1/6 sec (on a tripod)

• Lighting: One light on a stand with an umbrella, 7 feet high, pointed at the couple.

• Flash froze the couple to avoid blur at the slow shutter speed.

While I liked this image and it gave me the romantic feel I was going for the lighting still didn’t pop enough.

I added a second light to the left of the couple for rim lighting, enhancing dimension and pop. This light was triggered using a PocketWizard FlexTT5, creating a beautiful rim on the bride’s arm.

What do you think of the setup and final result? What help do you need with your nighttime portrait photos? Let me know and let’s chat 🙂