Barn weddings are one of my favorites to photograph here in central North Carolina. Each of these rustic venues presents its own unique sets of lighting challenges which I see as creative opportunities in the making.

Often the wood on the walls and ceiling of these barns is very dark and thus hardly reflects any light, natural or otherwise.
This means that I’ll get to use my flash to capture the action so that everything can be seen clearly and so that the colors will be clean and crisp. There’s a lot for me to consider when doing this. Light output power, angle, direction settings and so forth.
The idea is to find a way to creatively light a big dark place in an aesthetically pleasing way. It’s actually kind of fun for me to figure out this puzzle while on the go.

On the other hand, I also really enjoy finding beautiful ways to use whatever light is available such as the colored lights on the dance floor from the DJ set up or perhaps catching that warm amber glow given off by overhead string lights. When it all works out, it’s pure magic!

Most often, I use a combination of a flash and available light to document the romantic ambiance of the room or to make sure that important moments are captured elegantly.
This way all of my creative bases are covered for my clients and I never get bored, lol!

It’s true, barn weddings are not easy to photograph. Yet, there are no others that I look forward to more throughout the year because they make me * think deeper* about what I’m doing at any given moment, thus making me a better technical photographer with every passing barn wedding.
Plus, this kind of “work” is what I call fun ;)

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