If you were not able to attend WPPI this year, then you definitely missed out on a fun time. For those unfamiliar, WPPI is one of the largest photo conferences in the world and is centered around wedding and portrait photography. During these events, you can find an amazing trade show floor where vendors show off all the latest and greatest gear. But, in addition to cool toys, you can also experience numerous education opportunities from some of the world’s best photographers.
This year, I was lucky enough to teach two seminars, a show-floor presentation, and lead three photowalks. Of these, the photowalks are always my favorite. On these walks, we have a general theme in mind. From there, we set out to go through some hands-on examples and let the students try their hands at shooting the same setups. Below, you will find one image from each of my three walks along with a quick breakdown of the setup.
Walk One – Find beautiful light in a horrible setting
For this image, we were stuck inside a very boring hallway. This was the same hallway that was used to get to the trade show floor and all the meeting rooms. Therefore, there were a lot of people, trash cans, doors, and cluttered walls. Although, as we were walking around, I noticed a small bit of light reflecting off the model’s sparkling dress. With that inspiration, I found a small patch of clean wall and placed the model there. I then set up one Flashpoint eVOLV 200 Pro painting away from the wall and right at the model’s dress. The idea here is that all the light from the flash would reflect and refract the sequins of the dress onto the wall. Thankfully, it actually worked! Next, I added a second Flashpoint eVOLV 200 Pro with a Magmod Grid attached to give her face for a bit of light. The results are above. If you would like to see a quick BTS video, you can check out the Instagram Reel I made for this image.
Walk two – Stop taking boring bridal portraits
For this walk, I wanted to show the students that it was OK to get creative when taking bridal portraits. I sanctioned us away, inside one of the empty meeting rooms because nothing inspires creativity like needing to create something from nothing. It was here that we eventually started playing around with slower shutter speeds and camera movement. For this image, I’m taking advantage of the built-in image stabilization on my Sony A1 paired with a small Flashpoint M1 RGB. I have the M1 set to constantly fluctuate through the RGB colors and I have it pointed at the bride to side-light her face and dress. From here, I take the picture and simply move the camera as the shutter is open. The trick is that as the shutter is open, I take three quick pauses in the movement. These pauses paired with the image stabilization allows me to get three frozen instances of the bride while also mixing movement into the frame.
Walk Three – Finding and creating interesting light
This last walk was simply about finding and creating interesting light. I found a small room with a large white tent setup inside. It looked like a makeshift registration booth, or maybe they had the tent setup to dry from getting wet outside… I’m not sure how it ended up here, but I thought it would be fun to create something interesting from it. Below is a look at what the tent room looked like.
For this setup, I used one Flashpoint eVOLV 200 Pro with a blue gel attached and fired that into a wall simply to fill the room with blue light. Next, I placed a second Flashpoint eVOLV 200 Pro with an orange gel inside the tent and fired that into one of the translucent walls. Lastly, I placed the model so that the gradient of that orange light would give a warm glowing effect around her.
Overview
As I am sure you can tell, all of these walks had a fairly similar approach. Partly due to the limited areas where we could shoot but mostly because, on a wedding day, we never really don’t know the location well. Or, we may not be able to shoot in the best light of the day. We need to be able to think fast to create images from whatever we have on hand. If you can create images in a boring hallway and empty meeting room, then most wedding venues will have something to help work your magic. If you would like to see more image breakdowns from these three walks, make sure to check out my Patreon.
Articles and photos by Jason Vinson.