Wedding Photographer Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC, United States. Traci Arney shares a wedding photography technique.

My background and degree are in fine art photography. I try to see the world from a different perspective than other people and shoot a wedding using those same principles. My goal is to tell a beautiful and very personal story from a fine art perspective. I use a lot of questionnaires and really try to get to know my clients before the wedding. I focus on things that are important to their personal story. There are definitely elements of documentary in my work, but it tends more toward the cinematic and dramatic. When shooting, I will commonly manipulate the environment, shoot through objects, use layering, and many elements of artistic framing in order to create interesting images.

I love to push the boundaries of what is typically accepted as standard wedding photography. I like bravery in both my clients and in my shots. It always makes for exceptionally moving images. Whether it is a bride climbing a windmill or a a couple hiking into a valley for their engagement photos, the most important thing is that the images tell a beautiful story and that we find their level of comfort and just step slightly over that line. Where their protective walls come down, the images are so powerful and genuine.

Another vital tenant of my work is that I edit all images myself. Because of my education as well as a background in darkroom printing, maintaining the integrity of the look of a piece from start to finish is important to me. I primarily use Lightroom for my editing and will use Photoshop whenever necessary.

My bride, Crystal, was a beautiful modern woman in every aspect. For her bridal session, we chose The Museum of Art in Raleigh, NC. I wanted to provide a unique portrait of her that talked about her modernity. The museum is a highly reflective backdrop and creates a beautiful luminosity. I found a sliver of deep shadow and tucked her into that shadow. The light barely touched on her earring and lit it beautifully. Her veil picked up the luminosity of the museum itself. Then with a little dodging and burning in Lightroom, the image was exactly what I had envisioned.

The main challenge was getting the bride placed correctly in the varying light so that she was deeply shadowed but her earring and veil were not.

This shot is all about composition because there is very little detail involved. I was looking for compositional element such as triangles, leading lines and contrast to make the image work.

The wedding photo was taken with a Canon 5D, 85mm 1.2 Lens, 1/200 sec at 1.2, ISO 100

I metered on her earring and let everything else fall off

All post processing was done in Lightroom. The image was manually converted to black and white with emphasis placed on increasing the contrast. Then I used the brush tool to dodge and burn to get the look I wanted. The image was all framed in camera. I edited this in Lightroom the same way I would have from a negative in the darkroom.

I adore this shot! Powerful portraits of people are difficult to achieve but when you get it, it's like magic. This shot just feels like who the bride really is. It is abolutely a personal favorite of both mine and the couple's. It has also been well received in competitions.