HOW TO: Bride & Groom Portrait in Dining Room

So this is why I love MAGMOD!

Getting close to this particular wedding, the weather forecast was not looking too good. Long and behold, it poured on the wedding day. The first look was taken indoors instead of the planned outdoor reveal and since the entire “creative” shoot was scheduled to be outside, we moved everything indoors as well. Now, most indoor venues give you a lot of options, however the Plan B here was the Groom’s parent’s home. Mind you, it wasn’t a 600 sq ft condo (phew!) and it was a since spacious home…but at the end of the day, it was a home and not a hotel or a “venue”, so looking for creative and unique spots was going to be a challenge…. but, that’s fine… challenge accepted!

I think that fear starts to fade if you have the right tools in the bag. For me those tools are made by MagMod. I’m particularly in love with the MagGrids. Their ability to narrow down the light beam coming from the flash is invaluable to me.

I love drama (in photography!) and the MagGrid allows me to do just that… it prevents the light from my speed light from reaching parts of the scene that I don’t want lit by it. This is especially useful when you are working with existing light elements, such as existing ambient natural light, chandeliers, wall sconces, etc… basically anything that you want visible (in terms of light) in your photos that already exists.

In this particular case, i walked into the dining room area of the home and noticed two wall sconces and a light fixture above the dining room table. I asked Oliver to double grid the speed light as I wanted to expose for the sconces and the light fixture, but didn’t want to beam from my speed light to spill onto the couple. After a quick test, I realized that this wasn’t going to be enough as Oliver had to be a bit ways away as I was shooting pretty wide to make sure both sconces were in the frame.

To narrow down the beam even more, we slapped on not only 2 grids, but also a MagSnoot.

Perfect. Just what I wanted.

This worked out really well, and we continued shooting in the spot as we noticed the beautiful mirror on the wall, and thought we would keep creating photos – I’m always shooting with the album in mind!

Teasers from the day can be found on my client blog: Islington Golf Club Wedding.

If you are interested in MagMod, you can check out my affiliate link here: MAGMOD … or have any questions, leave a comment and reach out and I’ll answer any questions you may have.