Wedding Sunset Photographs

Is it rude to leave your reception to duck out for a few sunset photos? I guess I’m biased, of course it’s o.k! It’s the icing on the cake. You’ve already got amazing images from the day, seeing how your family and friends have experienced your wedding day, grandma shedding a tear. The plan is to do this only once so why not make the most of it :)

Let’s be honest, it’s not rocket science, you come out of your reception for 10 minutes, have some time out, a chance to reflect and get some sunset shots, done! Back to your main course. Easy peasy!

I found a great article from one of my favourite Wedding Sources “Wedshed”  It’s a great read and it goes into the whole wedding lighting options for sunsets, receptions, getting ready et. For this blog post, I thought I’d provide a little snack size bite that you can easily digest, go away and factor in to your wedding day timeline.

Location, location

One thing that I’d like to mention is the positioning of the sun during the sunset so where is the sun going to literally set. I use an app called sun-seeker. I know the elevation of where the sun will set compared to where the reception is. This is so I know that there will be no little surprises like the sun setting behind a body of land that is higher than where you are. This means that you aren’t seeing the sunset but the sun go below the mountains or higher section of the land. Then you have a residual light so indirect light. Another topic for another day. We want 100% legit sunset! It goes quick, so in a nutshell , you need to schedule with your vendors, so everyone is aware that you need to pop out during main course or whenever that golden light pops! Take into consideration for daylight savings in the southern states. Photographing at 5.00pm can be like shooting in a 2.00pm sun in terms of harshness during summer with daylight savings.

That harsh light creates hard shadows, strong contrasts between light and black. This is o.k for some of your imagery but not for all of them. Yes we can get creative and use shade, reflectors, diffusers etc. If the flexibility is there, schedule for soft light.

Article below from WEDSHED

When is the best light for wedding photos?

Aim for the ‘Golden Hour’. Photographers talk about this a lot – it’s a period of time early in the morning just after sunrise (probably not ideal for weddings) and in the lead up to sunset (so pretty perfect for weddings). The light is warm, golden and very soft which makes for some beautiful photos.

There’s no absolute set time for the Golden Hour, so let’s say 30 minutes before sunset and 30 minutes afterwards. In the couple of hours leading up to this point, the light gets better and better as the sun heads towards the horizon, so you can use that as a general guide when planning your big day. Ultimately however, time of year has a big impact on lighting and timing. When it’s not daylight savings time (i.e. basically outside of summer for those states that don’t have daylight savings) the light fades a lot faster.

Also, prepare to be flexible depending on the weather – on a cloudy day the light drops off about 30 minutes earlier than on a day with partial clouds or clear skies, which means you might need to nip away earlier to get those couple shots before it gets too dark.

How can you time your photos to get the best light?

Just by using a little consideration when you’re deciding how you want the day to pan out. There are plenty of tools online which can help you – check out http://www.timeanddate.com/astronomy/australia/sydney. Here you can search by location and see the sunrise/sunset times and use them as a guide for mapping out the rest of your wedding timeline. Your photographer should also have a couple of tricks up their sleeves in knowing where the sun will set, and how they can use the location best for photos.

There are ways you can plan your wedding timeline so that you make the most of the light while also spending max time with your guests. In summer for example the best light is very late in the day (say 7:30 – 8:30 in the evening), which is usually well into the reception time. A way to get around this is to have a late afternoon ceremony, followed by time mingling with your guests and some photos with your bridal party before kicking off your reception. Then, allocate time to quickly slip away from your reception with your photographer to make the most of the light at the end of the day with your other half. This way you don’t have to spend too much time away from your guests, you can get some good light for your photos and everyone is happy.

END OF ARTICLE.

In summarising, like most things it comes down to good planning, discuss with your vendors what you’d like to do on your wedding, sunset shots etc. Like I mentioned earlier,  it’s not rocket science and with a little pre-planning you can achieve those soft long shadowy shots with soft flattering light. If you’d like any further information on weddings or would like me to blog on another wedding day planning topic, please reach out to me through my contact form or my social media pages.

ENJOY!