dark winter wedding reportage photography by Martin Beddall

Dark winter wedding photography

Dark winter weddings have their own look, their own atmosphere. My last wedding of 2016, like the first one of the year, was in the dark. A 4pm ceremony in December means it’ll be dark when everyone leaves the church. A grotty weather day, as it was for Sacha and Andrew, means it was dark going into the church as well. Don’t be misled by the light skies in the pictures you see below, of Sacha arriving. The exposure is for the foreground, so the sky brightens in the image. It’s like when they say on TV that it’s dark at Lord’s, but on the screen it looks bright, that’s technology. To the eye it was dark. To the camera, it was dark too. But cameras like the Nikon D5 can let you, as a natural reportage wedding photographer, shoot in light that only a few years ago was impossible. No need to fire a flash and destroy the atmosphere of the scene. Just shoot away and look for images that reflect the feeling of that moment.

(Geeky photography bit – the arriving shots and lineup with the lanterns after the ceremony, lit solely by the lanterns – shooting at 12,800 and 16,000 iso, 1/100th @ f2.0 – pretty dark)

Natural reportage winter wedding photography

Sacha didn’t want any getting ready shots, so coverage starts in The Jolly Farmer pub, just around the corner, from the church, in the small Hampshire village of Cliddesden. Andrew was tucking into lunch with his ushers. When they got to the church, usher duties meant lighting all the candles – the odd minor burn perhaps? By now the dark, dreary weather had led to light rain – just as the guests arrived under umbrellas. Sacha was a few minutes late, driven by her father – the car led in the rain by her mother and best friend.

The wedding ceremony.

As the register was signed, the lit lanterns were handed out and the lights in the church killed for the carol singing. Then time for Sacha and Andrew to walk back down the aisle, a married couple. Outside, instead of confetti, a lantern lineup down the church path. Then a short walk to the marquee, pitched behind Andrew’s family home.

Drinks in the marquee, before speeches and the meal – then the dancing, with Johnny and the Zephyrs – as the rain fell heavier on the marquee roof.

Here are few images from Sacha and Andrew’s dark winter wedding….