Preparation and details

Learning goal

You will be able to photograph the objects and preparation moments of a wedding morning as frames that complete the day's story. You will choose the rings, the invitation, the wedding dress, the shoes and the family's heirlooms, and set aside a corner of the preparation room to set them up quickly on a plain surface, in good light. You will ask the family for the story of the objects and show an heirloom not only as an elegant object, but as the trace of a bond. You will follow the makeup, a button being fastened, a mother's hand touching her daughter's hand, without intervening, like a witness. You will shoot the portrait of hands of different skin tones, a hand carrying a ring or a henna pattern, keeping the detail of the pattern and the skin.

The question

The bride's mother puts a small, velvet-covered box in front of your friend. When the lid comes off, a scent spreads first, the scent of an old chest: a handkerchief with yellowed edges, two thin wedding bands and cream-colored shoes in a satin pouch. "Will these go into the album too?" she whispers. At first your friend thinks these are small things next to the faces. But seeing the hand that opens the box tremble, they aren't sure. Why do the ring, the dress and the shoes matter?

Context

You will remember the lesson where you chose the florist's scissors and half-finished bouquet to tell her world (Lesson P.11), and making inanimate objects speak through light and placement in the still life lesson (Lesson 16.8). And in the previous lesson you wrote, together with the family, a list of the frames they absolutely want to see (Lesson D.3).

The wedding morning is when this knowledge comes together. The day is still calm: the ceremony hasn't started, the guests haven't arrived, the light often comes in softly through the window. These hours are a chance for frames there will be no time for during the rest of the day. Detail frames don't take the place of a face in the album; but they tell the story that surrounds a face. Years later, when a family leafs through the album, it happens that they stop at the frame of a ring, a handkerchief or a pair of shoes.

Simple explanation

What do details tell?

A detail shot is a frame in which the objects that complete a wedding's story, the rings, the invitation, the wedding dress, the shoes, the flowers or family heirlooms, are photographed up close and with care. These frames do two jobs at once: they open a breathing space between faces in the album, and they keep the details of the day that faces can't tell. The date on an invitation, the names engraved inside a ring, the story of how a pair of shoes was chosen, can change a photo's meaning years later.

An heirloom gains meaning when it is photographed not only as an elegant object, but as the trace of a bond. That is why the object's story is asked of the family: whose was this handkerchief, at which wedding was it carried, where will the bride carry it today? The answer changes how the frame is built. The handkerchief can be photographed not alone on a table, but in the bride's hand or next to an old photo of the grandmother. An heirloom photographed without asking its story looks like an ornament; an heirloom photographed with its story becomes a hand reaching from one generation to the next.

How are the details set up?

A detail station is a plain area set aside in the preparation room so that detail frames can be shot quickly and in good light: a table near the window, a window sill, a light-colored cloth or a textured wooden board. The wedding morning is crowded and messy; looking for a new place for every detail wastes time. When the photographer arrives in the morning they set up this corner first, bring the details there one by one, and put them back in their places when done. Objects belonging to the family are handled carefully; anything fragile or valuable is shown to the family and handed back before and after the shoot.

For details, the light is most often the soft, side light coming from the window; this light shows the embroidery of a fabric, the shine of a ring and the texture of paper. Shiny surfaces, especially rings, reflect everything around them; the angle is changed so that a lamp or the photographer themselves doesn't appear in the ring's reflection. When several objects are set up together, a plain arrangement in which each object reads is chosen instead of a crowd that fills the frame.

How is the preparation followed?

Getting-ready coverage is following the makeup, hair, dressing and farewell moments of the wedding morning without the photographer intervening, like a witness. A mother fastening the wedding dress's buttons one by one, a father pausing at the threshold of the door, the moment the siblings see the bride: these are shot not by posing, but by waiting. The photographer moves quietly around the room, sometimes catching the room's bustle with a wide frame, sometimes a face from afar with a long lens. Privacy is respected during undressing and dressing; what will and won't be photographed is asked in advance.

A hand portrait is a portrait in which, instead of a person's face, their hands are photographed while holding a task or an object. Hands putting on a ring, a wrinkled hand holding a handkerchief, a mother's hand touching her daughter's hand, can tell more than a face. Hands of different skin tones read differently in the same light. The patterns left from the henna night can disappear on dark skin because the tonal difference between the skin and the pattern is small; a light coming from the side brings out the pattern's texture, and the exposure is set to keep the skin's detail. On light skin, on the other hand, the henna pattern looks saturated; the color is left in its own tone without being exaggerated.

Visual evidence

At a cousin's engagement party, your friend had photographed the details on the table, in the middle of a messy crowd. Right next to the rings stand a half-finished glass of tea, a hair clip and a lipstick with its cap off. On the ring's shiny surface, the reflection of the ceiling lamp sits like a stain.

On the wedding morning, when your friend comes into the bride's room, they first clear the small table next to the window and spread over it a light-colored cloth the mother gave them. Before opening the box, they ask the mother the handkerchief's story. The grandmother carried it in her hand at her own wedding sixty years ago. Your friend places the handkerchief next to the grandmother's old black-and-white wedding photo set on the table and photographs it in the light coming from the window.

Then they step back and watch the mother fasten the wedding dress's buttons. On the bride's dark-skinned hand there is a pattern left from the henna night; your friend asks the bride to turn her hand a little toward the window; in the side light, the pattern appears on the skin. When the mother's light-skinned hand touches her daughter's hand, the two hands are in the same frame, both in their own tone.

Common mistakes

Summary

The ring, the dress and the shoes matter, because detail frames keep the details faces can't tell and open a breathing space between faces in the album; an heirloom becomes the trace of a bond when its story is asked and the frame is built around that story. Details are set up at a plain detail station near the window, preparation moments are followed without intervening, like a witness, and hands of different skin tones, henna patterns included, are shown in their own tone with side light.

Mini assignment

In this assignment you will photograph a family heirloom at home and a hand holding it.

1. Clear a surface near a window, spread a plain cloth over it and set up a detail station.
2. Ask someone in your family the story of an heirloom, and set up and photograph the object so that it tells that story, next to a photo or another object.
3. Photograph a hand holding the object first in light from the front, then in light from the side, and compare in which light the detail of the skin, and of a pattern if there is one, reads better.

Check yourself

• In the frame, is the object in a plain arrangement rather than inside a crowd?
• Does the frame tell something of the object's story?
• Do the hand and the skin keep their detail in the side light?

Glossary

Mini quiz

1. What do detail frames contribute to the album?

• A) They take the place of faces
• B) They open a breathing space between faces and keep the day's details
• C) They make the album thicker
• D) They show off the photographer's equipment

2. How does an heirloom frame gain meaning?

• A) When it is shot with the most expensive lens
• B) When it is shot on a crowded table
• C) When its story is asked and the frame is built around that story
• D) When its colors are saturated in editing

3. If a lamp's reflection appears on the ring's shiny surface, what is done?

• A) The angle is changed
• B) The ring is taken out of the frame
• C) The ISO is raised
• D) The reflection is left as it is

4. If a henna pattern disappears on dark skin, what is done?

• A) Painting the pattern in editing
• B) Leaving the pattern out of the frame
• C) Lighting it with a flash from the front
• D) Turning the hand toward side light and setting the exposure for the skin's detail

Answers

1. B — Details tell what faces can't and balance the album's rhythm.
2. C — The story turns the object from an ornament into the trace of a bond.
3. A — Shiny surfaces reflect their surroundings; when the angle changes, the reflection disappears.
4. D — Side light brings out the pattern's texture; the skin stays in its own tone.

Summary card

• Details complete the story and let the album breathe.
• Ask the heirloom's story; build the frame around that story.
• In the morning, set up the detail station first: window, plain surface.
• Clean the reflection on the ring with the angle; a plain arrangement instead of a crowd.
• Follow the preparation like a witness; ask about privacy in advance.
• Hand portrait: side light, pattern and skin in their own tone.

Bridge to the next lesson

The preparation room was bright with the light coming through the window. But on entering the civil ceremony hall, the light suddenly drops: a few dim chandeliers on the ceiling, purple lights on the walls, and the registrar asks that the ceremony be photographed without flash. Your friend looks at the faces going dark in the viewfinder and thinks how loud the shutter's sound will be in the silence of the hall. How do you shoot in a dim hall? The next lesson takes up high ISO, the fast lens and the silent shutter.