I’ve talked a bit before about my love for working with available or natural light. By this I mean the environmental light present on the day. Working this way allows me to remain discreet, without bursts of flash alerting my presence to all and sundry. But more importantly than this, it allows me to capture the true mood and ambience of a scene so that viewers might really feel what it was like to be there at that precise moment.

Because I never add light sources to make an image more pleasing I need to ‘find the light’ which allows me to capture lovely moments. Flat light will ultimately lead to flat pictures so I work very hard on the day to keep an eye on various natural light sources, be that the sun, candles, lamps, window light and even reflected light from adjacent surfaces.

During bridal preparations at this recent wedding, the dress had been left hanging in front of this wonderful large window creating a lovely diffused light into the sitting room. As the bride and bridesmaid lifted the dress down ready to slip it on I used this natural light and framed the story within the curtains either side for extra narrative. If I had chosen to use flash to introduce my own light source here this moment would have looked very different indeed, and it would have none of the atmosphere that it does now.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this in the comments section below.

For photographers: This image was taken using a Canon 5D Mark 3 with the 50mm f/1.2L at f/2.8, 1/2000s, ISO 3200.