There are so many unique and fun backgrounds to use for capturing SF city hall wedding pictures that is is almost mind boggling. We never run out of new places and ideas for wedding photography at this historic building. Check out this post to obtain some new ideas for city hall wedding photography locations and techniques.
Silhouette Wedding Images at San Francisco City Hall
We try at every San Francisco city hall wedding to get at least one Silhouette image assuming the light is right. There is something particularly dramatic about only seeing the outline of the couple. It definitely adds something different to a wedding portfolio of images. In this wedding photo, we placed a remotely controlled Flash unit which was triggered by a radio slave behind the couple and aimed at the bottom of the dress. Since the wedding dress is white, it acts as a reflector and lights up the background. It also caused a little bit of a glow behind the bride and groom. This is the best way to get the effect we wanted and doesn’t take very long at all. Once the lighting is established, its just a matter of posing the newly married couple in the best possible way to make a nice silhouette.
We try this with different backgrounds at city hall and hope to make each image unique and special for the bride and groom. For example, this was the first time we ever captured a wedding image of any kind in this location.
Capturing the City Hall Wedding Dress Details
Sometimes we obtain a partial silhouette because of too much ambient light in the room, but other times (like the photo at the top) you can only see the outline of the couple. This makes for a very dramatic image if the wedding photographer can position the newlyweds just right. Photos like this also reveal different details of the bride’s wedding gown that may not be evident with full light. We have discovered over the years that you really cant take enough pictures of the bride’s wedding dress! Lighting, camera angles and the actual pose all impact how it looks.
One of our favorite poses to do for these types of images is to have the couple almost kiss. That is pretty much what is happening here in this image. We asked the newlyweds to almost kiss and not pucker their lips too much. This added some drama to the image and the couple loved it! One of the true pleasures of San Francisco city hall wedding photography is working with our couples to obtain that magical creative image that they will treasure for a lifetime. When they let us know that we accomplished, it gives us a great feeling. We appreciate all of the 5 star reviews that come our way, but just receiving an email from city hall newlyweds thanking us makes it all worthwhile!
Wedding Photography Images that Appear Candid
The gorgeous bride above appears to be relaxing and just hanging out in a San Francisco city hall window. Her shoes and garter are all being displayed in a very natural way. This is one of my favorite shots of the bride because it has the appearance of a non-posed wedding photo. The window sill is such a great place to capture photos like this and we know just how to use it after years of practice. I also like the way the bride’s veil cascades down behind her.
We always try to suggest some photos like this that don’t look posed, but still contain all of the elements needed for a great city hall wedding image. In the photo below the couple really loved the fancy city hall elevator so they asked us for a picture while riding it. Only at San Francisco city hall can an elevator become a background for wedding photography! After seeing this type of image, we have started to receive more and more requests to take elevator pictures and we are happy to do it for our couples. Another fun pose (not pictured here) is to take a picture of the couple as the doors are closing. It makes for a very romantic and intimate wedding photo. To make this idea work, the wedding photographer needs to back up considerably more than you see here. We would actually show the doors and wall surrounding the elevator.
