RandyMN wrote in post #7089163
I don't know whose rules you are living by...
I do most of my image making rules incorporating the rules that were established several hunded years ago by the old master painters and later on with the advent of photography some of those rules were adapted to photographers who wanted to retain the classical approach to image making. Today it seems most image makers want to whip the camera up (with their on camera flash ready to go) and they fire off three or four hundred captures in the hope that they get one or two good ones. I guess it works if one has six or eight hours to spend with each client.
I am aware that men use stronger lighting and lines to show strength and masculinity while women show softer lighting with curved 'S' lines to show softness and Femininity.
The rule is you only use harder lighting if there is not a female in the image. If there is you use softer lighting on both. You always sacrifice the lighting of the male for the female because men look better with softer lighting than women do with hard lighting.
If one needs to choose lighting, then both bride and groom should be considered. "Best lighting" as you put it, is the job of the photographer and that includes all subjects in the photograph.
Sure is if you can, but usually you can only get "best" lighting on one individual at a time. The "new" way to do this is to photograph each individual with the absolute best lighting and then combine them into one image in Photoshop.
Photographic lights have a sweet spot, and individuals positioned within that sweet spot will be "perfectly" lit. Those on the periphery of that sweet spot will not be perfectly lit as the first person but will look good, just not as good as the other. This "other" had better be the female.
If I live by your rules, then the bride gets the best lighting and also the best poses. The groom is just a piece of meat that some how must be dealt with because he has to be included!
Not quite. The best lighting yes, but not the best posing. But why light for the bride? The bride is the one who probably originally contacted you, the bride is the one who came in to look at the album, the bride is the one who probably paid for the album and as the old saying goes, it is the bride's day. In about 2/3rds of my weddings I have never seen the groom until the wedding day. So who is my client? The bride. So who do I want to look the best? The bride. Why is it we NEVER hear of a "groomzilla, but we hear of bridezillas nearly every day? Because most grooms couldn't care less about a bunch of pictures. You keep the bride happy and you will be a happy wedding photographer.
And just something for thought here, your statement "So since the bride is the most important person in the groom's life, he is supposed to be at the right hand of the groom", let me just ask who the most important person is in the bride's life? So why then is the groom to her left?
Obviously BOTH can't be on the right hand side. Since the man is the head of the household he is the "boss" so she gets to be at the right hand of the boss!
Another question?
Why does the bride always stand on the left and the bride's side of the church where family and parents sit is always the left side?
Ya got me, I didn't write the wedding traditions I just follow them.
Tradition says this goes way back to Medieval times when the bride stood on the groom's left so that he could draw his sword, which he wore on his right side, if he needed to protect her from enemies.
Only if the groom was right handed, otherwise she had better be on his right side.
So how does this fit in with the "Right Hand Man" tradition?
As I stated earlier I didn't write the traditions, I just follow them. If you want to position the groom on the other side go ahead it ain't no skin off my nose, but be prepared for the possibility of a mad mother and a mad bride, especially if they are traditionalists. Why risk it just to be a rule breaker?
Traditions vary as do religions, others feel that as a bride walks down the aisle, she should be on her escort's right. Why? Because this is the position of honor and as he steps away from her, he doesn't have to navigate around her train, and lastly because he brings her to the correct position next to her groom. ( who of course is on her right). But in your defense, once pronounced Man and Wife, they turn around and he now has the bride on his right.
I don't know whose rules you are living by...
I do most of my image making rules incorporating the rules that were established several hunded years ago by the old master painters and later on with the advent of photography some of those rules were adapted to photographers who wanted to retain the classical approach to image making. Today it seems most image makers want to whip the camera up (with their on camera flash ready to go) and they fire off three or four hundred captures in the hope that they get one or two good ones. I guess it works if one has six or eight hours to spend with each client.
I am aware that men use stronger lighting and lines to show strength and masculinity while women show softer lighting with curved 'S' lines to show softness and Femininity.
The rule is you only use harder lighting if there is not a female in the image. If there is you use softer lighting on both. You always sacrifice the lighting of the male for the female because men look better with softer lighting than women do with hard lighting.
If one needs to choose lighting, then both bride and groom should be considered. "Best lighting" as you put it, is the job of the photographer and that includes all subjects in the photograph.
Sure is if you can, but usually you can only get "best" lighting on one individual at a time. The "new" way to do this is to photograph each individual with the absolute best lighting and then combine them into one image in Photoshop.
Photographic lights have a sweet spot, and individuals positioned within that sweet spot will be "perfectly" lit. Those on the periphery of that sweet spot will not be perfectly lit as the first person but will look good, just not as good as the other. This "other" had better be the female.
If I live by your rules, then the bride gets the best lighting and also the best poses. The groom is just a piece of meat that some how must be dealt with because he has to be included!
Not quite. The best lighting yes, but not the best posing. But why light for the bride? The bride is the one who probably originally contacted you, the bride is the one who came in to look at the album, the bride is the one who probably paid for the album and as the old saying goes, it is the bride's day. In about 2/3rds of my weddings I have never seen the groom until the wedding day. So who is my client? The bride. So who do I want to look the best? The bride. Why is it we NEVER hear of a "groomzilla, but we hear of bridezillas nearly every day? Because most grooms couldn't care less about a bunch of pictures. You keep the bride happy and you will be a happy wedding photographer.
And just something for thought here, your statement "So since the bride is the most important person in the groom's life, he is supposed to be at the right hand of the groom", let me just ask who the most important person is in the bride's life? So why then is the groom to her left?
Obviously BOTH can't be on the right hand side. Since the man is the head of the household he is the "boss" so she gets to be at the right hand of the boss!
Another question?
Why does the bride always stand on the left and the bride's side of the church where family and parents sit is always the left side?
Ya got me, I didn't write the wedding traditions I just follow them.
Tradition says this goes way back to Medieval times when the bride stood on the groom's left so that he could draw his sword, which he wore on his right side, if he needed to protect her from enemies.
Only if the groom was right handed, otherwise she had better be on his right side.
So how does this fit in with the "Right Hand Man" tradition?
As I stated earlier I didn't write the traditions, I just follow them. If you want to position the groom on the other side go ahead it ain't no skin off my nose, but be prepared for the possibility of a mad mother and a mad bride, especially if they are traditionalists. Why risk it just to be a rule breaker?
Traditions vary as do religions, others feel that as a bride walks down the aisle, she should be on her escort's right. Why? Because this is the position of honor and as he steps away from her, he doesn't have to navigate around her train, and lastly because he brings her to the correct position next to her groom. ( who of course is on her right). But in your defense, once pronounced Man and Wife, they turn around and he now has the bride on his right.
The traditions I have spoken of are traditions passed down from "Christian" England and early America. If I were to shoot a wedding of someone from a different religion I would certainly familiarize myself with their traditions.
Benji
