I was so excited for my years of experience photographing couples in Washington when I met Anthony and Tiffany for the first time at the Hyatt Regency for their elopement portraits!
Something people in my industry are often afraid to start a conversation about is the technical difficulty of photographing couples with completely different skin tones. When shooting with a manual camera, a photographer must choose how much light they allow the camera to be sensitive to. Darker skin tones tell our camera meters to let in more light. Lighter skin tones tell our camera meters to let in less light. When you have a couple to photograph with very fair skin like Tiffany, and very dark skin like Anthony, it would be technically confusing to find a middle ground to properly plan to preserve detail in both the light and dark skin tones in the same frame.
At a previous wedding, Clynn and I had ran into this where our groomsmen with very dark skin tones, had chosen stark white tuxe jackets to wear for the wedding. Looked AMAZING. But Clynn about died of confusion until I set his camera settings for him. He’s gained allot more confidence and understanding since that wedding but it takes experience and practice to feel confident and create consistent results when photographing different skin tones. ESPECIALLY in the same frame.
It was only after this session, that I felt 100% confident in my ability to maintain the high artistic contrast I enjoy shooting with today, while properly exposing for both skin tones. YAAYY!
Tiffany and Tony chose to elope with just Tiffany’s parents! We met for portraits before the courthouse ceremony. If you view the blog post immediately before this one, you will see Tiffany and Tony called me back for a second round of photos with more of their family!
We caught so many amazing fall colors and I was so grateful for all of the cement reflectors (ground) around the Hyatt Regency Lake Washington at Seattle’s Southport.
Congratulations, Tiffany & Anthony!!! I am so so grateful to have been your elopement photographer.
Hyatt Regency Elopement
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Saltwater State Park Engagements
