Rehearsing

I have to admit, I was never big on rehearsing but that seems to be the best way to get better at everything from photography to getting married.

This was taken just before we headed out to my brother's wedding rehearsal. Believe it or not, it is lit with flash, just in a very subtle way (for me at least).

It took me a long time to understand that the point of flash photography is not necessarily to brighten part of an image, but instead to control the contrast range within the photo. It allows darkening the ambient light (in this case, the background) which is what gives it that rich, punchiness I really like. It also happens so fast that it gives the "lit" portion of the frame that snap that is so elusive (again, to me it is) without flash.

I'm like a little kid all over again but now I love rehearsing, which paid off for the happy couple as well - Big congrats to Greg & Becca on an awesome wedding (photo highlights can be found here - warning: auto-start music!).

Strobist info: Single SB-800 with a 1/4 CTO gel, zoomed to 24mm, and fired at 1/2 power into a shoot-thru umbrella at upper camera right.