Rain at Weddings

Why I Love this Wedding Picture

I have a feeling this is a blog post I’ll be adding to regularly, as some of my favourite images are ones taken at rainy or windy weddings. I know it’s not what couples want, most imagine their perfect wedding day with blue skies or maybe just the odd wisp of puffy white cloud drifting across while a very light cool breeze takes the edge off the heat…..of course we all know that those sorts of days only come very rarely, sometimes not even once a year! The good news is that rainy wedding days can be fabulous too from the point of view of a wedding photographer in Sussex. One of the most important things about being the kind of photographer I am, shooting natural documentary images, is that I can use everything that happens on a wedding day to my advantage rather than fighting it. Rain is possibly one of the most extreme of these, but is what sorts the men from the boys. When one photographer is trying to control the rain and pose the bride and groom in a way that tries to make the day look what it is not, a great photographer will use what they have to create something beautiful, overflowing with energy, an image that will not only give you a reasonable shot in the circumstances, but give you a shot that could be one of your favourites from your day!

White Umbrellas

My first piece of advice would be to buy a lovely white umbrella. Apart from anything else, every couple I have advised to buy one hasn’t had any rain on their wedding day…! That’s been true for two years now, I know it won’t last forever, and I know it’s only luck, but so far so good. I always carry one in the boot of my car. If you need any further encouragement to buy one then the best reason to buy a white umbrella is that it holds magical lighting powers. The light coming through a white umbrella is beautiful and soft. It will give you lovely skin tones and because the light is coming from above, maybe even enhanced cheekbones…I say might….The alternative, a dark umbrella, will suck up all the light and make the light on you look a bit grim. It’s not totally impossible to get a good shot with a black or dark umbrella, but you won’t get those all important gorgeous soft tones from the light. Shooting in the slightly steely grey light you generally get on raining days is quite tough for a photographer, so to change that around by using a white brolly makes perfect sense.

The Two of You Together

Another reason the rain can make your wedding photos better is that you will naturally cuddle up together under the umbrella. That sort of unprompted intimacy is what will change a photograph from being good to great. It will really be you in that photo you can see, not you posing for the camera. Often shooting in the rain is a fairly brief experience as you will both want to get back inside as soon as possible and the bridesmaid holding the brolly over my camera will want to get inside too! As a result, there will be a lot of energy in the photos.

Windy Weddings

Rain often brings wind too and so if you aren’t too worried about your hair being blown around I can get some wonderful shots of your hair being blown back off your face – like a wind machine on a fashion shoot. Overall rain and wind aren’t the best way to keep yourself pristine, but if you’re up for it we can get some great shots. Of course you can schedule in a quick visit to your room afterwards to get everything back to where it’s meant to be before returning to your guests!

Here’s a link to a wedding at Farbridge that had a lot of rain. Luckily we were able to use it and the breaks in the rain to our advantage – Vicky and Eliot

My Camera Settings

Camera – Canon 5D

Lens – Canon 85mm F1.4

Shutter speed – 1/250 sec

Depth of field – f/2

ISO – 400

Exposure – manual

Here are the suppliers from Vicky & Eliot’s wedding day

Gift list – John Lewis

Wedding car – Chris’s Wedding Cars

Stationery – Soko Studio

Hair and make-up – Kate Goodman

Music – Decade

Ushers outfits – Moss Bros

Vicky’s shoes – Rainbow Club at John Lewis

This wedding was photographed at a beautiful Sussex wedding venue