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Most often my bridal portraiture is created on location and utilizes a single light source. This image I made in St. Petersburg, Russia is a characteristic example of my style:

As a wedding photographer, it is often difficult to carry a lot of equipment so I need to be resourceful and use all available lighting sources at my disposal. In addition to my strobes, I often make use of lighting from windows and table lamps, using the softer light as a more flattering illumination for the skin of my subjects, while sometimes even replicating the magical “golden hour” light of 4pm.

~Michael Greenberg

I kept setting this blog post aside until last week, when it happened again.

This portrait of the beautifully dressed groom is one of my earliest works, created in Montreal, Canada circa 2006:

The groom is lit with one camera mounted flash bouncing light off to the right. The exposure was taken from the top right wall and dialed down by 0.7 of a stop to pop the subject out from the background.

The flash illuminates the groom and his surroundings, creating a beautiful 3-dimensional feel. Look at the groom carefully and see how the light falls on his face. The image gives an effect of window light, however it’s my flash that produces this lighting of the groom.
The groom’s pose appears natural as though he is taking a moment to relax and has been photographed candidly. In actuality, I had directed him into this pose, knowing exactly what to say to get him relaxed in front of his camera and to ensure a natural expression. I do this by suggesting different things for my subjects to think about to take their mind off the shoot and to elicit various expressions and postures from them.

~Michael Greenberg

I took inspiration from Picasso’s famous painting “Woman with Pigeons” when I made this image of the bride on a ladder in St-Petersburg, Russia:

The shoot came about rather spontaneously as the bride casually took my direction to climb the ladder toward the chandelier. While it appears as though the bride is lit by the chandelier, in fact she is actually lit by a Phottix strobe set within the chandelier, and a second catch light fired simultaneously from behind.

Utilizing the chandelier in lieu of the pigeons in Picasso’s painting, I used two lights to create this image and the bride was wearing a gorgeous wedding dress from Dolce & Gabbana.

~Michael Greenberg

This joyous moment between the bride and her daughter was captured with available light on her wedding day in Montreal, Canada:

In this moment I had asked the bride to interact with her bridesmaids that were sitting next to me. At the same time, I asked the bridesmaids to find some way to make the bride smile or laugh by telling her something that was crazy funny. Well, I can’t recount exactly what they said here, but it made the bride’s daughter laugh hysterically and the bride smile too in this beautiful and emotional moment between them.

~Michael Greenberg