Taken on Gonzaga's campus in Spokane, Washington 11.12.11
Last night I did my usual thing & posted a handful of preview photos following a wedding before heading off to bed. What I woke up to was a little different. One of the photos went viral on Facebook & has been ‘liked’ more than 1200 times, gathered 370 comments, been shared by 90 people—in one day. To give an example of how crazy this is, I’ve worked for the past couple of years to organically (with almost zero self promotion outside of posting & tagging) build my FB page to 1,000 ‘likes.’ It crossed that mark last week. I’m amazed at that number. AMAZED. Thanks to everyone who has clicked the button on Matt Shumate Photography.
Over the last day it’s jumped more than 600. 2 years to get to 1,000. 1 day to get 600 more. If you’re one of those. Thank you. Hopefully I’ll find a way to add value to your Facebook experience.
That got me thinking that I could do a little more. There were a bunch of people asking questions about the creation of the photo so I figured I could at least create a post where I break down the photo & how it was made.
When we got to the church earlier in the day the weather was relatively pleasant, if not just a bit chilly, but dry. After the ceremony was over we looked outside & saw that the weather had changed drastically. I love shooting in the snow. Love it. Love. It. I got pretty excited, but this wasn’t a normal winter snow. This was a very wet autumn snow. It was like being in a rain shower where the drops were the size of quarters. Fortunately we were able to wrangle a couple of umbrellas to get the bride & groom from the church to the car. It also was much darker than I felt it should be. Of course, nobody asked my opinion about the sunset time.
I popped my flash (Nikon SB-700) into a Lumiquest III mini soft box & asked a bridesmaid’s boyfriend to help me out. I gave him the other umbrella, set the flash to 1/4 power (a good guess), & told him to follow behind the couple 10 or 15 feet & keep the flash pointed at them. I didn’t have an exact shot in mind but I knew I wanted a backlit photo because it would make the snow show up clear. Fortunately Lindsey (the bride) was a trooper & had zero complaints about being cold. She just kept reassuring us that her dress had lots of layers so she was fine.
I had a little more urgency since I was uncovered, & although I know my Nikon D3s is one hardy machine, I didn’t want to risk having water from the instantly melting monster snowflakes short something out. Partially to give myself some time to formulate a plan & partially because I knew I wanted to use the brick walkway in the background I asked the newly married couple to walk the long way around Gonzaga’s roundabout toward the parking lot. Once we got in front of the walkway I found my composition I asked Lindsey & Jaron to keep each other warm with a romantic moment. I scooted to the side to let one of the pathway lights to peek around Lindsey’s dress giving the shadow a reason to be there (even though we all know what really made the shadow) I made a couple of camera adjustments, quickly snapped a few photos, & we all took off for the cars.
My goal with the composition was to show the beauty of Gonzaga’s campus at dusk on the evening of the year’s first snow. For the couple, I wanted to convey the feelings they were having after being married moments before. For the exposure I wanted to keep the skies dark enough to see the white flakes hit with the flash & bright enough to keep the blue color & show the dark flakes in shadow. I wanted the flash to be bright enough to light the edges of the couple & produce a nice cast shadow in front of them but not so bright that I’d get nasty wrap-around flare. I figured that the flash would bounce a little light off their faces & even though they’d still be a little underexposed, the D3s file would withstand brightening them up quite nicely.
I used Lightroom to balance out the exposure, bump the contrast, & fix the colors. There was a girl walking through the background and a bit of the umbrella from the VAL (voice activated lightstand) that I cloned out in Photoshop. Both things I would normally correct in camera were we not under the duress of time. I have to add that I feel like this is a special but imperfect photo, but that’s ok. I can think of at least 4 things I’d do a little different next time. Gotta keep pushing.
Camera settings: Nikon D3s, Nikon 24-70mm @24mm, 1/100, f/3.5, ISO 3200, Nikon SB-700 1/4 power in a Lumiquest III. Triggered with Cybersyncs.
Hopefully that’s helped someone make a better photograph. If there’s something I left out, feel free to ask & I’ll try to answer.
I think I’d like to make this a regular feature (maybe as video next time since I kinda suck as a writer) so if you’d like to see a certain photo broken down, please ask.
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