I think it’s time to go ahead and set the standard that from now until October 28th, my Friday blogs will be coming in the afternoon because I do my long runs in the morning. Agreed? Swell!

Today’s post was born out of frustration at my own inability to notice my surroundings. I’m a manual shooter, meaning my camera is always in “manual” mode, meaning I control the shutter speed, aperture and ISO. I kind of cheat, though- because I have enough to be getting on with by switching up all of my settings, I leave my white balance (WB) on “auto.” It’s laziness, I know, but because I’m shooting in RAW, I’m able to correct it later without a problem. Perhaps as a New Year’s resolution I’ll vow to shoot my white balance manually too, but for now, this is what works for me.

There’s one thing I’ve found auto WB can’t help me with, though, and that’s mixed lighting situations. When I say “mixed lighting,” I mean a combination of different colored lights coming in- maybe there’s some nice daylight coming in from a window, but then there’s an incandescent lightbulb in the lamp in the corner giving off some light as well. Two different kinds of light make it difficult for your camera to know which one it should set its WB for, so you’ll often get wonky colors. Sometimes, it’s just straight up unavoidable- you may be shooting in a church with GORGEOUS banks of lights coming in from the sides, but then they’ll also have candelabra swinging from the ceiling giving off a tungsten-y glow. There’s nothing you can do about that. But if you’re shooting in a hotel room where the bride and her girls are getting ready and there’s an awful lamp in the corner messing with your window light juju? Oh yes, my friends, we CAN do something about that.

One of the first things I’ve started doing when I walk into a bride’s suite is asking to turn off the lights. Unless it’s after sundown, there’s always enough natural light coming in through the windows to leave things well-lit, and unless there’s someone in need of the lamp at that moment, it’s not usually an issue. There are two reasons I turn off the lights: a) so that I don’t have to deal with conflicting white balances, and 2) so that the light coming in from the window casts highlights and shadows- having another source of light in the room would create fill light that I don’t want. Here’s a perfect example:

Maria’s dress had some REALLY beautiful lace and beaded detailing on the bodice, which photographs really well with directional light. Oblivious me, however, didn’t notice that the overhead light was on until her dress was on and halfway zipped up! Notice in the above photo how there’s clean, white light coming in from the left (her right) and yellow light coming in from above on the right (her left shoulder). It was filling on Maria’s left side where I’d wanted there to be shadow, and the yellow was unnatural and distracting. Additionally, tungsten light doesn’t work well with blonde hair. Maria’s gorgeous tresses are overpowered by the too-yellow overhead lamp. Fortunately, I caught my mistake about halfway through Maria’s mother fixing up the zipper and asked my second shooting to flick off the light. Here’s what a difference it made:

Notice the shadows on the left side of Maria’s face & torso, and even the subtle shadows on the lace throughout the bodice of her dress. Also take note of the clean light coming in from the side, with no overhead light to compete with. Her hair color is back to it’s natural hue and there’s no weird coloring on her shoulder anymore. To me, this image is so much more classic, so much more beautiful, and the difference is all due to a simple flick of the switch. After attending the Justin & Mary WTAW, I decided that dimensional, directional light was something I really wanted to utilize more, so have one source of light (the window) allowed me to position Maria and then myself in such a way that I was getting clear highlights and shadows. Here both images are again, side by side of a before and after:

So brides, if I come into your suite on the day of your wedding and ask to turn off the lights, this is why :). Photogs- if you have a better way of correcting wonky white balance than just slapping it in B&W, I’d love to hear it!

Happy Friday!