Jessica’s bridals, Part 1

Jessica in Henderson, Texas. See the set here!

I recently joined Jessica for a bridal portrait session around downtown Henderson, Texas. She is actually the sister of a recent client, and it was great to work with familiar faces.

Click the jump to read more about the shoot, and see more pictures!

Jessica offered a great sense of direction for the shoot, including photos of other portraits she enjoyed the looks of. This was an excellent compliment to a well-preserved historic downtown. By the time we showed up to shoot, we were fairly familiar with the surroundings, had some starting ideas and I even had images of Jessica’s dress.

Aside from racing the sunset, we faced one major issue: Heat. The temperature was in the high 90s, and I had serious concerns about causing damage to her dress. (You know, from sweat.) In addition to such concerns, we needed to remember to stay hydrated ourselves. We brought bottles of water (and I even brought granola bars) so we could avoid health issues.

Preparation aside, we did our first setup against the backdrop of a beautifully run down building. I’ve seen it entering town several times, and have always wanted to shoot there. It didn’t disappoint.

The shot (above) was lit by the sun and a single LumoPro LP160 flash, fired through an umbrella. The flash was used entirely for lighting Jessica, who was on the shaded side of the building. The light in the far part of the background was a little hot (bright), so I used Lightroom 3 and Photoshop to burn it in. However, if we had waited longer (or maybe if we had used neutral density filters on the lens), we could have achieved the balance naturally. But time was of the essence, so I oped for the minor post processing tweak. After all, the same could have been achieved in a traditional darkroom.

This is another shot from the same area, except is is lit entirely with natural light. I switched over to my 50mm 1.4 lens, which I shot around f/2.0 for an ultra soft background. This also allowed me to get plenty of light out of the shaded area.

After wrapping up on that side, we went around the corner and snapped a few quick shots in the alley, this one among them. Note the rim (side) lighting supplied by the flash. This helped separate Jessica from the background, and I think it just looks cool.

And then went to the nearest corner and got this shot. It was also lit with my flash, which once again was dedicated only to balancing out Jessica with the background sunset, and lighting her with more pleasing light and shadows.

Come back soon for Part 2 of my photo shoot wrap-up!