The lovely Sarah got married a while ago, but decided she wanted to have a bit more fun with and in the most expensive dress she’s ever purchased! Bucking the trend of trashing said dress, she decided to get dressed up in it and play the Bride again whilst taking an afternoon stroll in the woods with me. It was a beautiful sunny October day and as such the sun was pretty low, I used this to my advantage. I shot into the sun, using it to both add catch light to Sarah’s hair and a little artistic flare (pun intended!).
 
First, attracting some unusual looks from passing dog walkers, we stopped in a small grove of trees with an open meadow behind. Using the meadow as a background we first took a few shots under the shade of the trees:
 
 

 
I love this portrait, full of happiness and laughter but not at one of my jokes. Selective focus and shooting in the shade with bright light behind has helped highlight Sarah in the frame made by the two tree trunks.
 
 

 
This is one in a short series we have called “Where did the squirrel go?” It’s another using the bright autumn light become the background and Sarah is framed by the tree trunks and branches. The shallow depth of field helps isolate Sarah from her surroundings and the black and white focusses the viewer’s attention on her and not the autumn colours of the forest floor.
 
 

 
A flattering, desaturated portrait. The sun here was used as a catch light in Sarah’s hair with a silver reflector to bounce the light back on to her face. I love the cheeky bit of purple Converse shoe poking out from under her dress here and the “Think of something your husband did to annoy you this morning” expression on her face.
 
 
We moved into the meadow afterwards for this shot:
 
 

 
Sarah once again keeping herself entertained! Using the sun to highlight her hair and dress again with a gold reflector to fill in the shadows. Needless to say this one ended with a bit of a grass stain!
 
 
In post-processing, I decided to experiment a little with a few shots from this session to add to the fairytale styling. The two shots below are the result of layering textures over the shots in Photoshop CS5. Both are textures taken from beaten and old paper, the layers were set to soft light and hard light overlays respectively and toning was added to the top layer to give the effects in colour you see here. The bottom shot also has a copy of the original photo added as an overlay to boost contrast in the original so the texture was not too overpowering.

 
The effect in this shot is obvious, making it look like an old sepia lithograph.
 
 

 
In this the effect is more subtle but can be seen most obviously at the base of Sarah’s dress. Of the two I think this is my favourite experiment.

All in all, a successful Treasure the Dress Shoot. If you liked this post and would like to have a Treasure the Dress Shoot of your own, our prices start at £150 with all your shots on CD.

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