Whenever photographing preparations there’s always one thing I look for when I walk into the room for the first time… a window! With a window you can do anything. I’ll generally position a bride or groom in front of or next to a window, cut out any light from other windows by closing the curtains and use the light from that 1 window to illuminate them.

I wanted to the light being emitted through the window to land on the groom so I positioned him on the bed to put his boots on. As there was very little light coming from the opposite direction on the window, the side of him closest to me is mostly dark which creates a really cool outline effect of light around him. It would be easy to assume that the more light you have, the better the photo will be but in my experience usually the opposite is true. If you’re aiming for more ‘moodier’ photos using just one light source will illuminate the subject while throwing the rest of the photo into darkness which leaves more to the imagination and brings out those deep, dark, cinematic tones.