Eric and Emily : Rainy Wedding on Minnetonka

It was supposed to rain all day on Emily and Eric’s wedding.  Not that I’d ever wish rain on someone’s wedding day, but when that happens I certainly get a chance to get unique shots… and you really just have to make the best of it.  And Eric and Emily really did… Their willingness to spend a few minutes out in the rain (some of which was umbrella-less in a deluge) was awesome.  It’s not often I basically get told “whatever, I don’t care if we get wet” by a bride on her wedding day….  I’ll post more some other time, but for now this image makes me happy.

It’s better larger.  Click for a bigger version.

Minnetonka Minnesota Wedding Photograph

For you photo nerds out there: The image was taken with a D800 on a tripod, f/3.2, 70-200 f/2.8 @ 70mm and a 1/13th shutter with a remote SB800 at full power* with a wide angle diffuser on a stand behind them (triggered with a radio popper PX signal from my SB900 on camera), this got me the majority of the image which was then composited with a few other frames/images taken at longer (1 second) shutters and deeper DoF (f/11) to fill out the scene and give it some depth. Mix (screen mode FTW) in PS to taste… obviously.
*the flash duration of the SB800 at 1:1 is 1/1050th … I think this is why the rain is slightly ‘comet-looking’.  I think a higher ISO and resulting lower flash power would get a much shorter flash duration (getting to 1:4 power gets you down to 1/2700th duration) and really get the rain to ‘freeze’ better..

Author: Joe

Wedding Photographer based out of Minneapolis - St. Paul Minnesota specializing in candid work but also offering cool, artisic portrait imagery.