HOW i SHOT THiS

A bride stands beside a window
  • Back lit
  • Natural Light
  • Window Light
  • Window
  • Sitting
  • Rule of thirds
  • Rim Light
  • off center
  • Natural
  • calm
  • Moody
  • Leading lines
  • Indoor
  • Harsh Light
  • full body
  • Dark
  • window sill

The story behind the image

Show more
As intimate wedding and elopement photographers based in Scotland, we often find ourselves shooting inside very characterful old historic venues. These are very rewarding spaces in which to shoot… but not without their challenges! Kilmartin Castle is one of these… A bijou 16th century castle, it has tiny windows, so we knew that our greatest challenge, in terms of interior portraits, was how we would use the light. We were drawn to this window as it was south-facing and offered the brightest diffuse light of any of the windows in the room. It was also an uncluttered space, allowing free movement of the bride (and us) to capture her from various different angles.

We quite often aim for a chiaroscuro look with our internal portraits, so we were paying attention to how the light spills over the body, and the contrasts and micro-silhouettes created between the highlights and shadow. It’s not an easy technique to master, or specifically, to process well, especially if the light source is too strong.

We knew the space in which we were working was very dark, so the potential for a strong contrast between light and dark was a little bit of a worry. However, we were very happy when we captured the first few frames using this window as a light source, as we knew we’d be able to make it work nicely.
Show more

Directions

Describe how you spoke to your subject(s)

We had asked the bride to just lean against the wall, next to the window, and feel the light on her face. Then just to relax into the moment. We kept communicating with the bride, give her lots of positive affirmation about how beautiful and soft the light was and how atmospheric the shot was looking.

Show more
What did you say?

“Please just gently lean against the wall to the right of the window and look towards the mirror” [there was a mirror opposite the bride, situated within a tiny alcove]

Show more
Tone of Directions

Calm

A bride stands beside a window

Composition

We positioned the bride in a portrait orientation, as this allowed us to capture her full body length. She was positioned just to the right of centre, vertically, however, the edge of the wall that formed the right edge of the window bay ran along the right-hand vertical third of the image. This created a compositional bridge between the right of centre and right-third, which just sort of worked. The window occupied the top left quadrant of the image, which actually wasn’t ideal, but we felt that we needed to see the whole window, rather the crop part of it out.

Show more

Focusing

Describe how you spoke to your subject(s)

For this image we had actually focussed on the bouquet, as we loved the way the individual flowers were being picked out in the light. But we also loved the serenity on the bride’s face, to which a very slight soft focus added value.

Show more
Focus Mode

Continuous Autofocus

Focus POints

Single Point

Focused on

bride's bouquet

Equipment &
Exif

Camera
Nikon D750
Lens
Nikon AF-S Nikkor 35mm F/1.4G
Flash
None
Filter
None
1/250 @ f/2.0 ISO640 WB-Auto

The way the EXIF is written out follows the common photographic method (with the inclusion of White Balance at the end). Here it is broken down:

Shutter Speed @ Aperture ISO White Balance.

Light & Weather

We worked primarily with natural light, though some artificial lamps were also on within the room, which added a little warmth to the dress, though the natural light was vastly the stronger light source. We were, in essence, backlighting the bride.

We enjoy playing with chiaroscuro in our internal portraits, which helps create a sense of tonal depth, so we are looking at how the slight spills over the body, and the contrasts and micro-silhouettes created between the highlights and shadow. We shot a series of images using this lighting, but from different angles.

Show more
Light Type

Natural Light

Weather

Indoor

Editing Workflow

How did you edit this image?

We used our own Lightroom preset that we designed for use primarily in interior settings. This has relatively muted tones. It also uses a relatively shallow tone curve, raised blacks and low contrast to keep elements within the image quite soft.

We used an inverted radial gradient mask centred on the upper body of the bride to drop the surrounding exposure by two stops, adding emphasis to the bride. We also used a linear gradient vertically on the right third of the images as that wall was catching some annoying orange light from a lamp elsewhere, so we used this mask to reduce the temperature to the same temperature as the rest of the image. There was also a rather brighter highlight patch on the bride’s right shoulder which we also reduced using a radial gradient mask.

Following export from Lightroom, we took the image into Alien Skin Exposure and used the IR tool to add a little additional halation to the light, primarily to diffuse the window itself, as we didn’t find that a particularly attractive window itself. It also softened up some of the contrast between light and dark on the bride’s face.

Show more
Editing Software
Adobe Lightroom Classic
Preset Used
The Caryls - Interior

Challenges

We were essentially shooting in a very dark interior space! So light (or lack of) was the main challenge.

Show more

Solutions

The dark backdrop of the castle interior really lend itself to the evocative chiaroscuro style or portraiture that we really love. So we just positioned the bride in the best window light available and ran with it!

Show more

Location

Location Name

Kilmartin Castle, Argyllshire

Location aDDRESS

Kilmartin Castle, Kilmartin, Lochgilphead, PA31 8RQ

Loation Type

Castle

Country

United Kingdom

The key to creating this sort of look is really being able to control the light. It would be pretty much impossible to achieve this shot in a light, bright (lots of windows) interior space. So if you’re looking to create this sort of chiaroscuro portrait, look around the venue for the room that allows you to create a dark space (perhaps by closing all curtains, blinds or shutters) and position your subject in a soft pool of light that you can control…and work from there!

Read More

Login to your account

Oh no :(

This content has been marked as Premium and requires an active subscription in order to access it. We’re so sorry about that. But hey, here’s what you can do:

Join the
family

Get access to everything on the site as well as a ton of perks & benefits.

Have an account?

Well then, let’s get you logged in and hide this annoying thingy-ma-jig.