Wedding Photographer, Wakefield, West Yorkshire
Posts tagged wedding photographer
Wedding Photography at Ashton Memorial, Lancaster
Jun 2nd
Our international wedding photography season continued with Heidrun and Tim at the Ashton Memorial in Williamson Park, in Lancaster. The venue was fantastic with plenty of sweeping stone staircases. Unfortunately the weather left a lot to be desired. The couple took it in their stride and enjoyed the day regardless. One of the friendliest couples we’ve worked with, they treated us to a beautiful meal and we had a great time photographing their wedding day. As usual, we are putting up a gallery for friends and family but here are some of our favourites – we’ve picked some colour ones for a change but the couple always receives both versions on their DVD. Gallery here (password groom’s surname)
I do
Stunning Architecture at Ashton Memorial
Sitting down for a break
Under the bridge
Wedding Photography at Cannon Hall, West Yorkshire
Jun 2nd
We had the pleasure of photographing Maria and Andy’s wedding on a glorious day at Cannon Hall. As the bride was Russian there were some interesting traditions that were a bit of a break from the norm. Cannon Hall, near Barnsley, is a great location and wedding photographers are spoilt for choice. The couple were very relaxed and open to hopping over the odd fence for a good photograph! Here are a couple of our favourites, but a bigger gallery is available to the couple, family and friends here, (password groom’s surname)
Eskimo Kiss
The Bride looking beautiful
Happy days
Cannon Hall in the background
Sarah and Chris’ Wedding at Gomersal Park Hotel, West Yorkshire
May 27th
We had a great time last Saturday covering the wedding of Sarah and Chris. The weather was absolutely fantastic and everyone was really relaxed and cheerful, not too many camera dodgers! The actual ceremony took place at Mirfield Parish Church with the reception at Gomersal Park Hotel. The happy couple soon got used to wedding photographs from all angles and looked great all day. There is a wedding photography gallery here for family and friends to look at (the password is the grooms surname). There are some colour versions and some black and whites but clients always receive both versions. I have put up a few of my favorites here too. A big thanks to Sarah & Chris for asking us to cover their wedding day and I hope they are enjoying Vegas!
Last minute jitters!
A Moment alone
The Happy Couple
Bride looking Radiant
A Great Wedding Photography Book
Mar 21st
Captured by the Light
In the interest of continuous improvement of my wedding photography skills I thought I would do a quick post about a wedding photography book I am reading at the moment, it has plenty of great ideas and solutions to tricky lighting issues that often arise when photographing a wedding (I dare say there is a lot more, I’m only 50 pages in!). The book is called Captured By The Light and it’s by David Ziser. He has a great site that I’ve been following for a while now called Digital Protalk. It has loads of information for wedding photographers or just photographers in general from gear reviews and video tutorials to business advice for wedding professionals. It’s definitely worth a look and if you like it I would really recommend the book
No photos today I’m afraid, although it looks like spring has finally arrived, I’m looking forward to getting out and doing some landscapes soon!
Amazing wedding centrepiece decoration at Oulton Hall
Feb 17th
Amazing wedding decoration at Oulton Hall, Wakefield
We covered a wedding at Oulton Hall just outside Wakefield last year and got these shots of what, in my opinion, were some of the most amazing centrepiece decorations for the tables I have ever seen. As wedding photographers we get a bit of a sneak preview of where the guests will be eating to photograph some of the details such as cakes, favours, name labels etc.
Now Oulton Hall is a really fantastic venue with a real wealth of photographic opportunities both inside and out but when the doors opened to this room I was literally speechless. Each table had a fairly large tree in the middle with loads of cool fairy lights, flowers and butterflies hanging from it. As they were all twisted and gnarly it really had an enchanted Forrest feel to it, I loved it. Anyway just thought I’d put it up on the site if any brides out there were looking for decoration inspiration!
Amazing wedding decoration at Oulton Hall, Wakefield
Brides Skin Retouching and Smoothing in Wedding Photography
Feb 3rd
I have to start out by saying wedding make-up artists do a fantastic job and this is in no way a comment on their skills, all of the brides I have had the pleasure of photographing really have looked amazing without exception. A bride should look her very best on her biggest day and leave it to the wedding photographers to capture the details for them to remember. There are always 2 photographers covering all the angles, in photography terms. We take photos from large wide, 150+ people group shots to the slightest change in emotion on the happy couples faces and for this we sometimes need to be zoomed in, way in!
Wakefield Wedding Photographer before Skin Retouching
Wakefield Wedding Photographer after Skin Retouching
We all know about the levels of photoshop retouching super models go through even after hours of make-up procedure. Unfortunately in the high definition age we live in, cameras pick up every detail, good or bad and my job as a wedding photographer is to highlight the good bits and mask or hide the bad. I am of the opinion a bride wants to look her very best on her wedding day and as photographers, we are employed to use our wedding photography skills to produce the very best images. This is why I do a certain amount of retouching of the brides skin in photoshop. It is also worth noting that it is easy to go overboard with skin smoothing and if done incorrectly you will end up with a plastic, botox-to-hell, psycho-doll-type look, and nobody wants that.
This is a typical example of the type of skin retouching I do, not too much but enough to really make the skin glow.
Formal Wedding Photography Photoshop Alteration
Feb 2nd
I get asked about my editing process by wedding clients quite a lot and how much photoshop work do I do with my images. I do quite a lot of skin smoothing, which I plan on posting about soon, but there are times when a client sends me back an image and asks if I could just change this or that. As I give unedited (throw away) shots to the clients as well as the ones I choose to process, I often say if there are images in the throw away pile that you would like something done to, just let me know and I’ll see what I can do. I must stress this doesn’t happen very often as clients are happy with the edits.
After Photoshop Alteration - Wakefield Wedding Photographer - Gents to the right have been moved in
Before Photoshop Alteration - Wakefield Wedding Photographer
With formal wedding photographs I tend to get through them quite quickly so I can concentrate on the informal side which, in my opinion is where the great images are to be captured. I also tell the bride and groom if they want a quick shot with uncle bob (or any other guests for that matter) just shout and I’ll get some no problem. In this shot the grand parents had missed the formal shots so we grabbed some just before the wedding breakfast. This version ended up in the throw away pile but the groom liked it but asked if I could possibly move his grandad to be closer in. It isn’t a very complicated procedure in photoshop and he, or his grandparents, were happy with the result.
Wedding Photogaphy Black and Whites
Jan 29th
Seems like a while since my last post, I’ve been changing the site round a little to be more wedding focused, as opposed to photography focused in a bid to get a few more visits from potential brides. I read somewhere that I should refer to myself in the third person more, possibly starting each post with: Pete Barnes, a wedding photographer from Wakefield says… seems a bit strange but there you go. Anyway…
As a wedding photographer I am often asked by clients if I supply images in black and white? My eyes light up as I love producing black and whites, I personally feel people just look better in black and white but I also appreciate the client is always right and if I forced BW’s on every client I wouldn’t be getting much business! When I give the couple their images I always include a few of the best shots in black and white but I also give them the colour versions as well then they get the best of both worlds. How come you don’t do all the images in both versions? Well this brings me on to my next point.
Black and Whites aren’t just converted at the touch of a button, of course they can be and some wedding photographers do batch processes where the images are just converted to BW with no input other than clicking ‘run process’ I prefer to be a little more bespoke when converting photos to black and white. An example would be if I had a photo of the happy couple under a nice blue sky and converted it to black and white what colour would the sky end up? It could be Black, White or any shade of grey in between, these are processing choices you let the photographer choose, and he should as you have hired them to produce the best images of your wedding possible. If there is no input from the photographer you usually just get a bit of a bland, low contrast, grey photo with little impact, I see these all the time and as a black and white enthusiast it gets to me a bit.
It wouldn’t be very professional to get another photographers black and white, process it how I would and post it here so the examples below are from one of the weddings I covered last year. The first shot is a simple quick conversion to black and white with minimal input from the photographer processing the shot. The second shot is how I typically process my black and white shots, in my opinion it has a lot more impact as it has more contrast (but not too much) it has a slight warming in the shadows and a nice vignette to really draw the eye in.
A quick and simple black and white conversion
A more 'in depth' conversion with more punch
It isn’t to say these processes can’t be automated to some extent, they can, but the extra work in my opinion is worth it to create a great image instead of a photo that could be better. Of course this is all subjective and there is no right answer, if you prefer colour images anyway none of this is really applicable but if you do like some of you images in black and white it’s good to know that there is more effort than you may have thought when producing a good black and white
Welcome To My Blog
Dec 22nd
Hi, thanks for visiting my blog. I am a wedding photographer based in Wakefield, West Yorkshire and this is where I keep people informed with what I’m doing, or have been doing recently. I try and offer a few tips on how I get some of the shots but I also encourage feedback, so if you want to leave a comment or a question, please do, I’ll try and reply asap, unless it’s spam and then I ignore it, and rightly so!
Thanks again for stopping by, hope you like my work.
Wedding at Sandburn Hall near York
Oct 30th
These are a few shots from a recent wedding we did near York, the wedding was at a church in a lovely little village called Strensall and then the reception was a few miles away at Sandburn Hall. The weather unfortunately was pretty bad, rain followed by prolonged periods of rain but the couple were really relaxed and didn’t let it get to them, probably a little bit more relaxed after the “I Do’s” but that’s to be expected. Sandburn hall has a bit of a barn like feel with loads of wooden floors and beams to make use of and some big windows for great natural light shots. It’s always good to have a nice interior to work with when it’s difficult to get outside.
I really feel I’ve been very fortunate with the couples I’ve had the pleasure of photographing this year and this was no exception. The bride was so photogenic, I kept going more outlandish with the poses and she still looked great! I’m posting a few shots here and a small gallery for friends and family, there are quite a few Black and Whites but the couple will get both colour and mono versions in high resolution on the DVD to print at their leisure.
A view down the aisle
First Kiss
Another Kiss, there are usually quite a few of these
Back up the aisle
Some quick shots on a classic red bus
Some shots at the car, between cloud bursts, nice sky though 
Smiling brides make great photos
Great big windows and diffused light also help
The happy couple
Sometimes photos don't need direct eye contact
She had been on her feet all day
A classic Black and White
Bride blowing bubbles, the balloons helped too
This shot drew quite a crowd
A few informal shots before the meal
A great couple and a pleasure to take their photos