Elmers Court New Forest Wedding Photographer 2016 review today which was last summer, and I have a bit of a leaning towards black and white today. I have been really loving editing my clients photography into black and white this year with my new software which has the option for darkroom techniques that I used to use way back in the day of the physical darkroom in my garage. The new software enables me to choose different grade papers, filters and also tinker with the darks and lights, it just gives me full control over the black and white image, its just awesome. This year I have been loving the whole experience and have definitely rediscovered the beauty of this medium. The above photograph shows one aspect that I love about black and white is that I can bleach skin tones with filters, and this just makes the subjects look so glam.The warm dark tones in this above shot with the silhouette just oozes depth. This is what you can really push with black and white and we got lucky here with the sun peering round the cloud at the Elmers Court and giving that high dynamic range of tones from brilliant whites to dark shadow blacks. But we even have a little highlight on the bride’s face which just adds that bit more quality to this shot.   Here I have again slightly bleached the skin tones to increase the depth of tones in the photograph and increase the contrast which also defines the features of the bride and groom. Black and white the majority of the time does need to be high in contrast, especially with wedding photography with the white dresses.  Again lots of contrast here and very little details in the grooms face as he is facing away from the light source but the bride is looking so glamorous while having her hand kissed by her new husband. Used a long zoom here to compress the background view of the Isle of White and boats to bring that more into the photography shot.  The whole shot is framed by the large Pine tree. Also note the composition of the bride and groom with the Brides eye just above the horizon in the background and the groom’s eyes on the horizon that focuses the viewers eye on the important aspect of the image, the kissing hand.  Sometimes called “noise” these days with digital camera, we used to call it “grain” in the days of film, and even though many years of film production manufacturers used to try and produce less and less grain us photographers really still occasionally loved to see a bit of grain as it adds character and warmth to an image. We have grain here while the skin bleaching effect is much more slight in this above shot. I love bridal preparation shots and they work great in black and white. I always love to be able to get the dress in shot with the bride getting ready.