We make every effort possible to try to give our website a wide variety of galleries to choose from. The hope is that we can show each couple who is interested in San Francisco city hall wedding photography a portfolio that matches their own style or plans. This particular wedding would be great to review if you were planning a simple civil ceremony at SF City Hall followed by a trip to Baker Beach to capture more pictures. The beautiful Golden Gate Bridge is also a beautiful backdrop. Baker Beach is a favorite San Francisco location of ours because there are so many different areas to photograph our Bride and Groom. There are trees, the ocean and of course the Golden Gate Bridge. It is like being able to capture multiple photoshoots in one! This wedding also features an Asian couple which might be important to some.
San Francisco Beach photography is not as easy as it seems (or any beach for that matter). You are dealing with many different things that are not present in other places. For one thing, you have the bright sand and sun to deal with. This can sometimes make your photos look like Silhouettes. This can be fixed by using off-camera flash which we always use. It is also possible to just turn the couple towards the sun, but the problem that is that it can be hard on the brides and groom's eyes. You don't want to the newlyweds have to squint to look at the camera. In these circumstances, I will simply ask the couple to look at each other or kiss. Keeping their eyes on each other avoids the squinting problem for the most part. We do a lot fewer smiling at the camera pictures on the beach.
The other major photography challenge is exposure balance between the newlyweds and the Golden Gate Bridge. Sometimes the bridge can have major sun on it, but the couple is in the shade. So in this situation, I first set my exposure for the Bridge and then I use my off-camera flash to balance the light on the subjects. It often takes a few tries to get it perfect, but once I do, we get amazing photos of both! And using off-camera flash keeps it looking more natural and not "flashy". The idea here is to keep the lighting subtle and not too obvious. Soft lighting is the key, but enough for balance.
Everyone loves a deep blue sky right? Sure, but it's not always that easy when it comes to wedding photography. Depending upon the lighting conditions and angles, blue sky can sometime look sort of washed out and white. Here again, the sun position is important as is the time of the day. If we are shooting into a bright sun, its very hard to get blue. We tend to try to get the sky right first and then adjust everything else. It usually works out well. Using a polarizing filter helps with this problem and it can even be adjusted at the editing phase. The best situation is blue sky with clouds. This gives the beach background some interest and contrast. I always love it when we have conditions like that but you just never know.
Of course when it comes to the beach, you can't beat the Sunset pictures. Baker Beach has some beautiful ones. Add the Golden Gate bridge and you have the makings of a fantastic San Francisco wedding picture. The bridge takes on an even more amazing color at close to Sunset. The challenge is to get everything into the picture! A great way to end your San Francisco city hall wedding portrait session is to capture the sunset with the bride and groom looking on or posing. We try to only deliver top-notch wedding photography for your SF City Hall marriage day and have been doing it for over 14 years.