Yesterday on the blog, we got to announce the stellar news that we had the opportunity to shoot an editorial for Metropolitan Wedding. Today, we’re going to show some behind the scenes action from that shoot.
I was snapping photos with my iPhone throughout the day. We’ll show you those photos and then the resulting images from our cameras. 🙂
What you see here is the beautiful first floor of the Tyler Mahoning Valley History Center, where the magic happened. Â 😉
Here is a shot of the flowers that I took with my iPhone. Flowers by LeeAnn designed all of the bouquets that the brides modeled throughout the shoot.
And here are the gorgeous lovelies! 🙂 Â LeeAnn did a beautiful job! There is a floral feature in the magazine; check it out for the latest trends.
There’s the back of my handsome husband’s head & a pretty model with one statement-making veil. (iPhone photo).
As we made our way across the first floor, these stairs were a killer spot to highlight some of the awesome features of the venue. Because of the welcoming ambiance, we wanted to include some of the ambient light to give the shots a warm feel. Josh used a Nikon D800 with a Nikon 17-35mm lens and set his shutter at 1/125, f/4.0, and ISO at 400.
The above image shows the placement of the key light, fill light, and hair light all triggered by a PocketWizard MiniTT1 and 2 FlexTT5’s. Â The main and key lights are the Elinchrom Quadra Ranger RX system fired at the lowest setting. The key light is the tallest softbox to Josh’s left and the fill light was right above his head to catch all of the details of the dress. Â Lastly, we placed a remote flash fired in 1/32 manual mode at the top of the stairs to highlight the hair. A few minor adjustments in Photoshop and here are the final images:
Next, we moved upstairs to a gorgeous ballroom with incredible windows that provided plenty of natural light! We used a reflector with the silver slipcover from the Wescott 42″ 6-in-1 Reflector Kit to reflect some of the light from the windows. The reflector helped illuminate some of the shadows on the face and provided a great catch light in the models’ eyes. Our settings were 1/100, f3.2, and ISO 400, which gave us a soft glow from the window and allowed us to showcase the details of the dresses. With a few touchups in Photoshop, here are two examples of the shots from the second floor ballroom:
Before we went up to the top level, Metropolitan Wedding’s publisher had a great idea to get a few shots of the models twirling in the dresses in front of the windows. The image below shows the setup with the main light (to the left) and the fill light (to the right) fired at two steps up with the shutter at 1/160, f/5.0, and ISO at 400- just enough to freeze the motion and pick up some of the beautiful light from the windows and light fixtures. (iPhone photo).
The image below is one of the shots we got with the setup from above. The model, Ariana, definitely had the elegance to pull off the classy, chic look that we were striving to get. And she’s a figure skater!
The image below was one of the final bridal shots, which landed on the cover of the magazine. We (or should I say the models) worked hard all day to get that edgy, metropolitan look for which the publisher was looking. For this shot, we moved to the top floor to incorporate some of the historic buildings in downtown Youngstown, OH and capture the unique design of the large windows of the Tyler Mahoning Valley Historical Society. We used one flash as a fill light fired at the lowest power and set our shutter to 1/320, f/5.6, and ISO at 400. With these settings, we were able to harness the great natural light to capture Casey’s edgy look, the cityscape, and the details on the dress. Fierce!
At this point, each model changed into a fun party dress from each of the bridal shops. These dresses definitely tied the whole shoot together and really provided an edgy, high-fashion feel to the magazine. We let these beautiful ladies smile a few times that day. 😉
Before we started the shoot, we scoped out the building to try to find the best locations for each dress. Without a doubt, the original elevator from the 1920s was the best location for the party dresses.
Below is an iPhone photo of Josh setting up some lighting in the vintage elevator.
We set up a remote flash inside the elevator fired in manual at 1/64 to highlight the models as well as illuminate the green walls of the elevator. We added the main light with a softbox just outside of the entrance to achieve beauty dish style lighting. Since we were in close quarters, we only needed to fire the flash at the lowest setting. We set the shutter to 1/250, f4.0, and ISO 400 and went to town! With a few small adjustments in Photoshop, we achieved these punchy images that highlighted the style of the day:
Great job modeling, Ladies! You inspired us.
We handed the camera to Shelby, Metropolitan Wedding’s design and production director, and stepped in to get a piece of the action! Haha, we’re dorks 😉
We had a fun experience and enjoyed the editorial shoot a lot! All of the models did an excellent job and were up for whatever we threw at them. The venue was ideal and would be an awesome spot for your reception. Give them a call. 330.743.2589 (Leann Rich is the Manager of Education & External Relations). Thanks again to all of the bridal salons: Elizabeth Renea’s, K’s Bridal Emporium, and Treasured Moments Bridal & Formal.
To everyone at Metropolitan Wedding: working with you was a blast! Thanks again for the fun opportunity!
www.menningphotographic.com
info@menningphotographic.com
330.651.4849
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