The groom wanted a photo with his dad and his groomsmen, cigars going. That was the brief and it was a good one.
What actually happened was better than what was asked for. Somebody leaned in with a lighter, somebody else laughed, his dad held his cigar up at the edge of the frame, and for about four seconds nobody was thinking about the camera at all. That is the picture. Not the tidy version they had in mind.
This is a harder frame than it looks. Men in dark suits, in a dark timber room, standing at six different distances from the light.
Straight flash would have blown out the two nearest the camera and left the rest in shadow. Instead I used a continuous light source — a Jerry Ghionis Ice Light, held off to one side — so the light falls across the group rather than at it. Everyone stays readable, and because it is continuous rather than flash, nobody flinched or reset their expression.
Black and white finishes it. Dark suits, wood walls and a dozen skin tones under warm indoor light do not sit well together in colour. Take the colour out and all that is left is expression, which is all this picture needed.
This was my first wedding at the venue, and I think that shows in a good way. Somewhere you have never worked makes you look properly. You are not repeating a shot list from last time. You are reading the room.
Most of the frames I have won awards for came from venues I was walking into for the first time.
Silverwood Resort sits at Errol, between Perth and Dundee, with an events barn and lodges on site. It is not local to me, and that is fine. I photograph weddings across Scotland and travel is built into how I work.
As a recommended supplier there, I now know the site — where the light holds, which corners work after dark, and how the barn behaves when it fills up.
Location: Silverwood Lodges, Inchcoonans, Perth PH2 7RB.
Keywords: Candid (27), groom (59), perthshire wedding, silverwood resort.