Amy and Brad
Cherry Creek State Park
Denver, Colorado
September 21, 2006
Today I got together with Amy and Brad for their engagement portraits. When I met Amy last spring, I immediately liked her friendly personality and cheerful attitude. It was great to finally meet Brad today, after hearing so many great things about him.
Amy and Brad have spent lots of time at the Cherry Creek Reservoir, where they enjoy boating together. It was a perfect choice for us to take their engagement portraits there. We arrived during the last afternoon rays of sun, and stayed through sunset and twilight. It was gorgeous to see the Denver skyline across the lake.
Amy and Brad, I can’t wait to see you again on your wedding day. Three weeks to go!
More engagement portraits
Sorry… I didn’t answer your question about candlelight. Yes, it’s possible to expose a candlelit room without flash, but it is tricky. It would require fast lenses, slow shutter speed, and high ISO. The resulting photos are likely to grainy, with a very warm color tone.
You’ve got a good eye there. 🙂 Yes, flash really can wash out skin tones and eliminate all ambient light. I try to use natural light as much as I can, by using fast lenses with large maximum apertures.
When I need to use flash, I try to bounce it off a ceiling or wall, to soften the light and make it look more like the existing light. I also try to keep a large aperture to let as much background light in, which helps to prevent the background from going black.
Thanks, those are some of my favorites, too.
Oh yes, that light was incredible. It really looked like that, too–I didn’t enhance the photos at all.
Thanks for all the great feedback. I really appreciate it. 🙂
We had a lot of fun with that one!
lol… There’s still plenty of time. 🙂 Or you can do a newlywed shoot instead!
We got a kick out of that one, too!
I hope so, too! A yacht club would offer lots of great photo opps. 🙂
I loved the lines of the sailboats!
Your pictures are stunning, as always Charlotte=)
I must ask though, how do you take pictures that make everything seem so naturally bright even at the time of day you did this shoot?
I ask because I look at lots of wedding photography and I notice that some photographers use flash that washes out people. That or it makes the room dark, but not the subjects because of the flash range. Must a room be very bright in order to achieve a picture where flash doesn’t wash out or center only the subject in the picture and it looks natural? Can it be possible to have a picture with yours kind of lighting to it with let’s say a candlelighting?
Sorry for this to be so long, but I’m just so curious on this.
just a wondfull pair, and very nice photos…
Awesome shots, the lighting before sunset was great. I love the 3rd and 2nd to last shots though. Beautifully done!
Wow, what awesome skies and coloring in the 3rd and 4th photos.
Ooh, very nice. I like the one of them centered on the dock (#9), the one with the flag (#11) – very unique, the one with the gas station (#13 – WOW), #14, #16, and #18 (that’s the last one). I think the best part about this set is that it has a lot of variation – there are boat pictures, beach pictures, day pictures, sunset pictures, and night pictures. If I was getting engagement pictures (ha – I need to do that soon), I would want a copy of many of these pictures, because they’re so different. If that makes sense…
gorgeous as usual! 🙂
I really like the one with the gas pump! *grins*
i’m glad i’m not the only one getting married in about a month who still hasn’t sat for engagement portraits… ARGH! 🙂 these are beautiful and so much fun
hilarious shot next to the “danger: flammable” sign. Too cute!!
wow, you can just see the love. what chemistry!
I am getting married at a yacht club, and now I REALLY hope that we get to take pictures by the boats!
Your pictures are gorgeous, as always!
Great shots. I love the location. Some of your background lines are just fantastic!
stunning photos. i adore the lighting. they look divinely happy!