Fotografo de Bodas, Santiago

January 14, 2011

First of all, if you haven’t already, please take my survey! You’ll be entered to win a $50 dollar Amazon gift card and I greatly appreciate your advice on making the blog better! And as you’ll see at the bottom of this post, I’m already incorporating some of your suggestions.

Last weekend was a double header. These can be rough. But only if you aren’t lucky enough to photograph two awesome couples in a row (first awesome couple: here). Marcela and Felipe got married on Saturday at Club de Campo Granadilla in Vina del Mar. Holy GORGEOUS. Actually I’m talking about the couple, not the venue, though that was beautiful too

And aside from being ridiculously hot, this couple is also ridiculously nice. Double whammy. They were so excited to be getting married that both Marcela and Felipe were grinning all day. I thought their faces were going to break from so much smiling That is the best. I love when a couple is actually physically incapable of looking anything other than joyful. I feel like this is cliche to say and I try to avoid this expression, but in this case, I have to — because seriously, OMG, they are SO CUTE together!

Sorry, girly freakout moment done

Even though the wedding was a big one, it still felt very personal. Marcela and Felipe looked genuinely thrilled to see all of their guests and spend time with them, and they also put their own stamp on the day. Marcela has a great eye, and she worked with an awesome caterer/decorator (who does not have a website and works mainly in Vina, but email me if you want the dato) so the reception was stunning. You’ll see the details down below.

The waiting begins.

AHH, LOVE this dress. Marcela had it custom made for her. The feathers are the most perfect touch!

I know this next one is just a picture of hands and nothing else, but I still always think you can tell some much from the way someone holds them. Felipe is holding the ring box here and it looks like he has a death grip on it. Nerves and excitement? By the way, the hand pictures are almost always Seba’s, if you’re curious.

Haha, yes, Marcela is not only beautiful and kind, but she’s also not afraid to be a goofball

Time to get the show on the road!

Ok, these are the massive smiles I was talking about. The Cuteness. Seriously.

I think this is one of my favorite photos of the day. I hadn’t even realized until that moment that Felipe’s suit had such cool details!

And here are some of the other amazing details I was talking. Marcela made the cubes that are hanging from the ceiling. They did the pink flower arrangements on the tables too. Killer.

The kids table. Such a good idea. Filled with candy and masks and other fun stuff so nobody gets bored!

And for the last photo I decided I would try and implement something that a lot of you asked about in the survey — tutorials. I’m not even going to try to pretend that I want to teach anybody about anything technical regarding photography. That’s not my thing. I just don’t care enough. However, I am happy to talk a little bit about my thought process when I take photos, so if this interests you or is at all helpful, let me know and I’ll try to keep them coming.

I am crazy about the final photo (the last one). It was dark, we were in a parking lot and Marcela was talking to her caterer. I was crouched down in order to get a good angle with backlighting from the streetlight and still eliminate the cars and other background clutter. The caterer was standing within the frame and to the other side of Felipe were rails and more busy bothersome stuff. I kept waiting for the caterer to step out of the frame, but she didn’t. So I ended up photoshopping her out. This isn’t something I’d normally do — I don’t have time to be cloning people out of the backgrounds of hundreds of wedding pictures, but sometimes when I get a specific shot in mind, if that’s the only way to make it happen, I’ll do it.

So I took the shot. Here it is straight out of the camera. This is what the light in the parking lot actually looked like.

Here is the raw-jpeg conversion. I do all raw edits in Capture One. I am obsessed with the beautiful skin tones I get from C1. As you can tell, my edit completely changed the color of the sky to a very non-realistic tone. But my focus is always on making the skin tones right and if that means that the color adjustments change the color of the sky, then so be it. It still has the romantic night feeling I was going for.

Then in photoshop, I added contrast and grain and took out the caterer. And voila. There’s the photo I had imagined

And I adore it!!! YAY! Marcela and Felipe + parking light and streelight FTW! Felipe is so cute the way he smiles at her, and Marcela is beautiful in every way.

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24 Comments

Wow stunning couple! Really digging the image of the bride and her father entering the church!

Comment by Drew — January 14, 2011 @ 12:36 pm

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Awesome ceremony pictures guys!

Comment by Kai Heeringa — January 14, 2011 @ 12:51 pm

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la 38 me dejó con la boca abierta!

Comment by max — January 14, 2011 @ 2:26 pm

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Great moments here Kyle. The hug in the archway is a great capture. All the emotion coming through.

Comment by William Bay — January 14, 2011 @ 2:42 pm

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The photos are all beautiful (I love the dress shot the most) and what an absolutely stylish couple!

Personal note – I want that dress. Honestly, I’d find a reason to wear it!

Comment by Nessa K — January 14, 2011 @ 3:29 pm

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Wow. I really like the one where he’s dipping her! Such a nice shot!

Comment by Andrea — January 14, 2011 @ 3:55 pm

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Oh wow her dress is gorgeous! So beautiful! What a stunning wedding. Love it!

Comment by Eliza — January 14, 2011 @ 4:12 pm

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Can I just say that the wedding dresses your brides wear are just so amazing? It makes me want to get married all over again (to my fantastic esposo of course).

Comment by Meg — January 14, 2011 @ 6:08 pm

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Great set of photos! Haha- I totally laughed at the big smiles! I love moments like that! Awesome job!

Comment by Brian Kraft — January 14, 2011 @ 8:09 pm

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Oh their grins are just so cute (there I said it too)! Great work I’m really glad you added the “tutorial,” since I am trying to experiment more with post processing and there’s just so much to learn! The thought process behind the shot and the comparison of the RAW file to the final image was beyond helpful. And I’d definitely prefer more of your thought process and what it takes to capture it over anything technical that we could google. I hope you keep them coming!

Comment by Laura — January 14, 2011 @ 9:46 pm

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FANTASTIC use of light Kyle. Really awesome.

Comment by Cathy and David — January 15, 2011 @ 12:59 am

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Love them! You always tell a wedding day story so well!

Comment by Jessica Horton — January 15, 2011 @ 6:39 am

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I am absolutely in love with your work!

Comment by Joe Sanfilippo — January 15, 2011 @ 7:52 am

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I’m blown away. I am every time. Another beautiful wedding and what has struck me this time is a realisation as to why your work holds such currency for me. It is true documentary story-telling but without the emphasis on technical technique and dogmatic adherence to exactly what strayed into the frame that makes so much high end wedding photo-journalism seem somehow a little emotionally detached. Yours does truly tell the story but is so clearly driven by emotional connection and vision. Inspiring stuff as ever!

Comment by Phill — January 15, 2011 @ 8:04 am

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These are awesome, Kyle.
I love her dress too. So great to see something with some personal flair!
And the smiles! Seriously, those smiles! I don’t think I’ve ever, seriously, seen a bride and groom grin so happily.

Comment by Sally Watts — January 15, 2011 @ 10:37 am

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That dress is stunning. You rocked the whole day, but my favorites are those couple of portraits of just the bride and the groom- beautiful.

Comment by Shell Bailey — January 15, 2011 @ 12:48 pm

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I love the looks on their faces – such wonderful emotion.

Comment by John Patrick — January 15, 2011 @ 3:55 pm

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Beautiful set Kyle. I love the ceremony shots of the two of them laughing on the alter. Also the shot of everyone checking their watches is a priceless storytelling shot.

Comment by Timothy E Kaldas — January 16, 2011 @ 2:59 am

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As a woman I have to say that I LOVE her hair. I also like her dress. The strap in the back is pretty. I normally don’t like wedding dresses, but that detail is gorgeous.

Comment by Sara — January 16, 2011 @ 2:14 pm

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That dress is all kinds of awesome. Thesephotos are wonderful.

Comment by Nikole — January 16, 2011 @ 8:10 pm

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I LOVE LOVE LOVE that first shot of the dress hanging. Gorgeous. Also such amazing warm light saturating the portraits of the two of them. And talk about a church with character!

Comment by Dennis Pike — January 17, 2011 @ 6:28 am

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Such a beautiful wedding and wonderful coverage! Love the set.

Comment by Johanna Hietanen — January 17, 2011 @ 2:48 pm

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ADORE that black and white of the bride and her father entering the church. Well done!!

Comment by Heather — January 24, 2011 @ 8:10 pm

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What a great couple and nice photos to boot!

Comment by Alex Singh — February 7, 2011 @ 3:26 pm

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