[Leica] Bride by window light (with dishes)

[pklein at 2alpha.net (Peter Klein)]

Ted:  Of course, no offense taken.  I'm here to learn as well as to show 
off  :-)

In retrospect, I wish I'd taken one shot the way I did, and another the way 
you recommend.  I suspect the official photographer took that perfect 
shot.  I got the quirky one that showed the slightly imperfect context.  I 
don't remember if I thought about getting the background blank for an 
additional shot.  I do remember thinking that the background would be OK 
out of focus, and that I liked the pattern of light and dark.

I had almost no time, as the ceremony was about to begin.  The hired pro 
had just finished shooting the bride and her attendents with his F3, 
bazooka zoom and a big boxy strobe with a saucer reflector that would have 
been at home on a Speed Graphic.  The bride was about to leave for the 
ceremony when I asked her to stand by the window for a second.

I took two shots.  I remember thinking that the window behind her would be 
out of focus and backlighting the veil.  At that moment, the glasses and 
cheese were just part of the context to me.  I also remember thinking that 
I needed to get the heck out of the way, quickly!  I would have loved to 
switch to my "90" and taken a head-and-shoulders in that light, but there 
wasn't time.  A minute later bride and parents were heading downstairs for 
the ceremony, with me stuck behind them, wondering if I'd get out to the 
garden before they did.  I recorded that moment, too:

http://users.2alpha.com/~pklein/JonAntionWedding/Show/JonAntionWedding/11.html
Bride Descending a Staircase (apologies to Marcel Duchamp)

And thanks for calling me a "young guy."  I've been a little uncomfortable 
with my recently-acquired half-century status, so your perspective is 
welcome!  :-)

--Peter

In the matter of:
> > http://users.2alpha.com/~pklein/JonAntionWedding/2-34Antionette.htm

At 05:41 PM 7/19/04 -0700, Ted Grant wrote:
>Hi Peter,
>Beautiful bride! Nice lighting and close to the perfectly lit bridal photo
>with a couple of moves. No offence intended about what you put on film,
>however.
>
>I know some are going to say, " here goes the old fart again going to rip a
>young guy's beautiful picture!"  Nope not me, read on.
>
>Bride? Gorgeous.
>Lighting? Absolutely incredible potential!
>
>Here are the moves to consider under the lighting conditions available. And
>this light potential, two opposing windows is fantastic to use in any
>situation.
>
>I'd reverse her body line towards the window on her right still keeping the
>body on the slightly 45 degree angle to camera to slim her body line. Her
>head would come back to you as it's seen towards the camera.
>
>Now that should give you better lighting use of the window to her left,
>which I'd have eliminated altogether along with the dishes / counter.
>
>To accomplish this she'd need to shift slightly to her right or you move
>camera angle slightly to the left, which then places her completely against
>a clean background without any distracting elements taking away from the
>bride.
>
>As does the window to her left in the present photograph, regardless whether
>some think it's "interesting background effect or not," the window and
>dishes take a bunch of attention away from the bride. After all we're not
>here to see whether they did the dishes or not!
>
>She's perfect in expression as she is in your photograph, I'm only
>commenting on lighting use and how I'd use it. The picture as you have is
>almost as good as it get's, but a slight tweaking of body line direction and
>she'd be absolutely as clean as a whistle on the screen and equally as
>beautiful. Maybe even more so. ;-)
>
>And like I said I trust no offence intended.
>ted