{Guest Post} Wedding Lighting from a Photographers Perspective

Lighting is kind of a big deal for photographers. Scratch that, lighting is EVERYTHING. (Hello … the prefix “photo” means light).

Not only can lighting make or break the feel of your wedding, it can do the same for your wedding photography. It’s something that can transform and personalize a venue and give you images unlike anyone else’s – even couples who were at the same place last week. Ambiance is more than turning down the chandelier.

A few important things to note … go with a company that knows what it’s doing. You want someone who will lead you in the right direction – matching tones and ideas with your venue, colors, and style. Lighting can take you anywhere from classy and subtle to more energetic and upscale lounge-y. A good company can also shift your lighting as the night progresses from ceremony to cocktail hour to your reception. It’s all about knowing the crowd and leading them into the party with the cohesion of light and sound.

From my experience, up lighting can change a room from “oh, how pretty” to gasp-inducing “oh, holy cow” like nothing else. It makes the room yours. Period.

Pin spotting is a great way to focus attention on those incredible centerpieces that you agonized over for 3 months straight or the cake that you fell in love with after your statewide hunt for the perfect confection. You can have the most expensive hand watered Tazmanian orchids in the world, but they’re not going to really impress until you highlight them properly.

Washes are another gorgeous option. It’s like infusing texture into your lighting – they give off a rich depth and drama that you can’t recreate any other way.

Another important piece of this is hiring the right photographer for the job (*cough* Lindsay Docherty Photography *cough*). A good photographer is able to capture the ambiance of any situation - from wine cave ceremony to jazzy reception. Photographers who only use room lights will blast away all of the other lighting in the room. You’ve seen this – you go to a wedding that has been given an incredible purple wash on the dancefloor or a romantic amber candlelit ceremony but the pictures don’t show any of this. All you have is crisp, stark lighting that does a great job of showcasing the venue, but has completely overpowered the subtleties of the room. Experience, creativity, and flexibility are key to handling the myriad of lighting situations on any given day.

Can you have a wonderful and happy wedding without springing for additional lighting? Of course! Will supplementary lighting push your event over the edge to extraordinary? Definitely.

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Thanks so much to our friend Lindsay Docherty for writing this post and giving us a photographers perspective on event lighting.

Lindsay shoots people. She is the owner and primary photographer at Lindsay Docherty Photography, based out of Philadelphia and available worldwide for blissful couples and incredible events.

If you're looking for a photographer for an upcoming event check out Lindsay's site. She's highly talented and incredibly sweet. You won't be sorry!