the look

Camera: Canon 20D 1/15 f/5.6 ISO 200 Lens: 17-40mm f/4
Light: Canon 580EX II 1/16 power triggered by Quantum FreeXwire

There are times when you say - this image is basically just out of the camera and that's it. This is not one of those images. I did a full portrait workup on this: I brightened the eyes, removed uneven skin tone, removed circles under the eyes, smoothed out odd "strapless squeeze", and blurred the background. Finally I added a elliptical vignette for some drama and signed it.

For image capture I had the camera set to manual. It was pretty bright in the room so ISO 200 worked fine and my assistant had the strobe turned WAY down ... around 1/16 power. The light is just out of frame on camera left (I know ... I am sharing the camera side of the nose ... so sue me). This image was taken right after the bride (my sister) had finished getting ready and was striking a bit of a pose for me.

It never ceases to amaze me. I leave a wedding a little frustrated just about every time. See, in my mind I am thinking about all the photos I didn't get... I sit down and start looking at images and WOW - that shot came out better than I thought and holy cow I can't believe I nailed that! My observation is that weddings are like interviews ... they usually go better than you think they did.