Rangefinder Magazine
Columns

Insight/On the Cover

Wedding day. There’s nothing like a truly memorable wedding. Whether it was your own wedding or one you attended, these special days linger in your memories and become even more remarkable as time passes. Weddings tend to become benchmarks for the passage of time. The job of the wedding photographer is much more than that of a chronicler. He or she must not only create the visible record of the event, but also record the emotional content of the day, as well as those priceless fleeting moments that can go unseen in the blink of an eye.

The wedding photographer is a very special person with considerable responsibilities and considerable talents. As you know, March is our traditional wedding issue, where we feature the best and brightest wedding photographers in the land. This year’s crop is truly exceptional. Among the featured photographers are: “virtual” wedding photographer Andy Park, the venerable Monte Zucker (known to continually reinvent himself with great success); Phil Kramer, the “editorial” wedding photographer; David Ziser, who has gone to the 100% digital wedding; John Solano, master of moods and moments, and exceptional “photojournalists,” Tony Secker, and Scott Streble.

Bill Hurter, Editor

ON THE COVER
PHOTOGRAPHER: Monte Zucker
TITLE: High-key Portraiture by Windowlight
FILM: Kodak Portra 160
CAMERA: Hasselblad
LENS: 150mm
EXPOSURE: 1ž30 at f/5.6
COMMENTS: This portrait is an example of my new approach to high-key portraits by window light. Strong, direct sunlight was coming through a large window in the front of a studio where I was holding a class. I blocked the view of the window by leaning a Westcott translucent panel behind the bride, turning the sunlight into a soft “north-light.” type of lighting. Light was still coming in from above the translucent panel. This served as a built-to-order hairlight, as it came down from above. I used a Westcott Monte Illuminator (silver reflector on one side/black on the reverse side) on a stand to pick up some of the light coming thru the panel, using it as a main light to illuminate her face. The small size of the reflector allowed me to direct the light onto her face, just as if I were using a spotlight. The fall-off of light towards her hands was visible to the eye before even making the exposure. When I did that I noticed that the shadowed side of her face was too dark. I placed another reflector camera-right to open up the shadows. The light coming in from both sides of the translucent panel created soft highlights coming around from the back on both sides of her face. The final touches of the image were done in Photoshop. These consisted mainly of softening the photograph with Gaussian Blur at a 20% density. I then erased the blur out completely from her eyes, bridge of her nose and her mouth. I added more blur to the sides, increasing it as I got out toward the edges of the portrait. This created the effect of a wide open lens with an extremely short focused area. The high-key concept works as well outdoors as it does indoors.

For more information, see the Monte’s story on high-hey portrait lighting with daylight, which begins on page 28.