Epiphany Photography

December 31st, 2007

The Mormon Temple, Littleton Colorado

If there is any one place in all of Colorado where I think a good professional wedding photographer can separate himself from a average wedding photographer it is here. Wedding photography at the Mormon Temple in Littleton Colorado seems straight forward enough- just take the photos outside in front of the temple right? This is just simply wrong. And every Saturday I see photographers doing this, without thinking, and just plain messing up the wedding photographs horribly-and the worse part is that they don't even know what they are doing wrong.

I will begin by a simple rant on courtesy. Wedding ceremonies happen for the good part of the day at the LDS Temple, it is a busy, busy place. It is our job as wedding photographers not only to capture and create fantastic images, but to create stress free situations that consider families and couples. The Temple faces dues east and has no shade trees in front of it for shade, so this means that it is hot. The temple is brilliant white, and has cement all over the front, the entryway, the stairs, the parking lot,- cement reflects heat! photography 101; always have your subjects with their backs to the sun, so they don't squint, and sweat. Every time I shoot at the LDS Temple in Littleton notice photographers posing people in the heat of the sun, on cement, staring into the sun, during the heat of the day!

Not only is this rude, but now we have created a technical difficulty. In the studio this is referred to "white on white." With controlled lighting an exercise like this works, but outside with sweating hot irritated people, in white dresses, against black tuxes, on white stairs, in front of a white building, film or digital cameras just can't capture that many stops of light, detail is going to be lost.

Every couple who gets married at the Mormon Temple wants to have their photos taken in front of the Temple, and understandably so, but there are some very common problems I see when other photographers do this. The Temple has a very high steeple, it is a big building, and every single photographer I have ever seen shoot poses the couple on the stairs here, and then uses a wide angle lens to capture the building in the background. now this is fine for a few photos, but for a nice wedding photograph it is very wrong. first of all, a wide angle lens distorts the image, so whatever is in middle of the frame appears larger and the sides get scrunched down. So, a woman, in white;shooting from below her; making her look bigger- need I say more! The other technical problem is a misunderstanding of the properties of lenses. A wide angle lens pushes the relative distance of the perspective in the frame apart, where as a telephoto lens brings the relative perspective of the distance in the frame together. So in essence the best way to take a photo of the Bride and Groom in front of the Temple, the way to make the Temple look closer to the couple, is to have them stand down by the end of the parkway next to the parking lot, and use the longest lens available and stand in the driveway. use a radio slave or have an assistant hold a shim up to block the sun from their eyes.

Besides being rude, making everybody hot and uncomfortable, making the bride look bigger, and creating a lighting situation which losses photographic quality, the other problem I have with taking all the photos right up front of the Mormon Temple is that it is a super busy place. There are always cars and groups of people, and other brides standing around so if you want other people and bright red Jeep Cherokees in your wedding photographs then go right ahead. I prefer to take the whole group of people around to the north side of the building, it is shaded with beautiful trees all day long. You have perfect lighting, comfortable people, and eliminate all the other difficulties mentioned above. Besides, the formal photographs are supposed to be focused on relationships, not backgrounds anyway. Then, once all the formals are taken, take the bride and groom around the Temple to get the photos with the steeple and Temple in the background.

For more information about professional wedding photography by Epiphany Photography please visit us at http://www.ep-photo.com/