Our Style | Vibrantly Lit Photography
What is ‘Vibrantly Lit’ Photography?
Lighting To Get Colorful Colorado
Lighting To Get Colorful ColoradoBy Definition
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full of energy and enthusiasm.Another Way to Say It (synonyms): spirited, lively, full of life, energetic, vigorous, vital, full of vim and vigor, animated, sparkling, effervescent, vivacious, dynamic, stimulating, exciting, passionate, fieryWhat it is NOT (antonyms): listless, dull(of color) bright and striking.Another Way to Say It (synonyms): vivid, bright, striking, brilliant, strong, rich, colorful, bold “vibrant colors”What it is NOT (antonyms): washed out, pale
Applied to Our Couple Shoots
We Seek to Capture:
- The Lively, Passionate, Energetic Emotion in You
- The Natural Colorado Beauty in the Way You See It
While everyone is different and every wedding, engagement, or proposal looks different we strive to bring out the real emotion, capture it as it occurs, photograph you in the Colorado outdoors with whatever conditions we are provided. As said by a past client:
95% of photographers seem to have that flat washed out look. We love how your pictures pop and capture the Colorado beauty.
By Example:
What makes us different is that we are REALLY big into lighting. It seems the wedding photography industry trend is call yourself a natural light photographer which implies you will be a slave to the conditions of the day. Natural light can be great but those times when as a photographer you are in a wide open field at noon or on pitch black reception dance floor you will wish you knew more about lighting. Really we think the natural light photography thing is a trend based on a lack of knowledge about lighting and an entry level flood of photographers. So much of photography is about lighting control and consistency. Despite this we can literally count on one hand the number of photographers we have seen that used some kind of professional lighting setup on location.
In these examples (all which we gave to our clients) you will notice that the All Natural Light is actually rather nice. In the Lit by Flash photo you will notice a big difference from the natural light while still not losing the background blur. For the up close things we do a mix of both of the Natural light and Lit by Flash.
All Natural Light
Lit With Flash
Technically, What Makes the Difference?
- Lighting:
We use off camera lighting to control light. This means we can shoot at almost any time of day and do some crazy dynamic things. The big thing is that we can expose the background and you the way your eye sees it. The rumor is it is sunny 300 days a year in Colorado and so its really had to get the distant mountain depth of field without making the you dark or the background extremely bright.
- Tools:
Besides using pro cameras that capture a TON of detail we have 26 or 39 inch soft boxes with remotely triggered flashes to soften the light. The commonly seen flash on a camera is 95 ws and the one we use is 424 ws. As of 2016 we shoot with a method called high sync photography. This allows us to go from shooting at 1/250th of a second all the way to 1/8000th of a second. What you get is a less flashy looking image that still pops while giving you the ability to do more with less. Outside of the flash the soft box helps shape the light as well as flatten it. If you just took a flash and pointed it at someone it would spill all over and create harsh lines on the face.
This Makes the Biggest Difference in Wide Angle:
All Natural Light
Lit With Flash
Brings Variety
We shoot to get a variety of images. When shooting couples Robin would be shooting the up close while Joe is doing the wide angle using the light. The result is a different feel but also a more energetic pace were we capture the natural you from multiple angles.
Natural Light
Lit With Flash
Brings Drama
Same time of day and a completely different look. In the shoot we are featuring for this example they wanted the night feel so we were being ultra dramatic in our lighting. Because this was a proposal and we didn’t know if she wanted that style we also got some classic on the side.
Natural Light
Lit With Flash
Behind the Scenes Look and Result
There are more behind the scenes photos on the Photography page. Sometimes to get the best angle and lighting you have to go the extra few steps. Even though in this photo they were not being backlit by the sun we still exposed for the mountain in the background and front lit the couple. While we still would have been able to see the mountains they would have been slightly washed out. When the whole point of a location is the view the last thing you want to do is lose the view you saw that day.
Wide Angle + Sunset is Extremely Difficult without Light
When you have a bright light coming at the camera it is very difficult to get the people and the background well balanced without light coming toward the couple to counteract the background light. Not everyone gets this as demonstrated by the seeking to use an iPhone to take pictures at sunset. In the examples below from a wedding at Chief Hosa Lodge in Golden you can see the big difference the light makes when shooting a panoramic sunset. You can arrive at the same thing if you don’t get a lot of depth of field and photoshop the photo. We personally love to capture the Colorado beauty without extreme manipulation.
All Natural Sunset
Lit With Flash
Up Close = Sunny Vibrant Photos
We LOVE doing this to compliment the wide angle sunset photos. It gives a very rich look and adds a very different look with the warm lighting. The picture in the field is all natural lighting but the difference is that the sun is being used as the soft box light.
Exceptions to The Rules
There are a lot of them so that is why we are just keeping this basic and using examples to describe our style. If you are a photographer reading this know that the key is not to get a light and point it at them. There are various lighting ratios and situations. Sometimes to make the image amazing you would need to use multiple lights. In the example Lit with One Front Flash you can see how there is the dark shadow cast and a fairly blah image created. To fix this we added a small 95 ws flash with an amber filter behind the couple as seen in the example Lit with One Front Flash + Backlight Flash. The result is a more vibrant and emotional image. Because this is an Alley in Downtown Denver there is little sun and so the flash behind the couple is the ‘sunny’ backlight
Lit with One Front Flash
Lit with One Front Flash + Backlight Flash
Read More About Adventurous Photography of the Natural You
Our Couple | Adventurous
Our Style | Natural You
