When I get a Bride and Groom that are confident, and will at least listen to creative ideas without shuddering, I tend to get very excited and all those ideas and visions I’ve had for some time start to bubble forth.

So, on Saturday I had just such a couple, and the fact the Groom was arrested an hour before the service and frog marched to the Church by three Imperial Storm Troopers and an Imperial guard, gave me the green light on a few projects I’d been saving for the right couple. The hotel was the Alma Inn at Laneshawbridge. An excellent venue for intimate weddings or receptions.

This particular image I’ve had in mind for over twelve months, and if I were to be honest, I don’t feel it’s fully worked to the best advantage here. The ceiling was too low, and the foot of the bed had a wooden board that was likely to catch the Groom’s feet if he wasn’t careful (and who wants to be responsible for taking the Groom to hospital on his wedding night?).

Well, we have to work with what we have, and this is what I got. I’m quite happy using the Nikon Creative Light System, which takes care of a lot of the exposure etc automatically, and it’s damned good too. And I’m also perfectly at home using a fully manual set up, dialling in the required amounts of power to each strobe, taking full command.

Here, I chose to go with a fully manual setup, as I knew if I were to use the CLS option, the white dress and white walls would likely confuse the hell out of the CLS system , and I’d have to dial up some exposure compensation anyway. Now, being a lazy photographer, I couldn’t face setting it all up automatically, and then having to dial it up bit by bit, so I set it all up manually to begin with.

First SB-800 camera left at six feet with a stofen on, at 1/16th power. Second SB-800 camera right at six feet with a stofen on, again at 1/16th power. Why two? To eliminate shadow and give a more voyeuristic look to the image, along with the final post processing I had in mind.

Nikon D3 with Nikkor 24-70mm f2.8 at f5.6 1/125th sec 200ISO.

Took two shots to get the light levels right, and then three shots to get the keeper. Post processing? Not a lot really, convert to black and white, add “”film grain” for authenticity, along with a healthy vignette for the same reason.

What would I change? A bed without the foot board, a higher ceiling and a longer run up so the groom can get more height and straighten out.

Well, it made me laugh anyway!.