Shooting a Wedding? Don’t Forget an iPad to Take Pictures of The Rings. Or….

When I mentioned on Facebook I was shooting a wedding on Saturday, Jose Rodriguez (who follows me on FB and who had been to my original “Shoot like a Pro” seminar) wrote, “Don’t forget an iPad to take pictures of the rings” which brought a flurry of follow-up questions from photographers asking why.

Here’s why â” it makes a great surface to create reflections of the rings if a glossy black piano (my first choice) isn’t available. This is a trick I shared in my original Shoot Like a Pro seminar, and it was my wife Kalebra who came up with the idea when we were doing a shoot last year at the reception hall and couldn’t find a black piano.

Above: That’s me shooting a 100mm Macro using natural light to light the rings. By the way â” the iPad mini (shown here) is turned off to give a solid black background. 

So, the day after I post this tip on my Facebook page it’s Saturday and we’re in the middle of our wedding shoot, and it’s time to shoot the rings, and I realize that I left my iPad downstairs with all the gear (we’re up in the Bridal Suite), so I went with “Plan B” – I pulled out my iPhone 6+ and shot them right on its screen to get the reflection of the rings. It worked pretty darn well, but in the middle of the shoot my phone suddenly woke to a twitter notification (see the third pic below). LOL! :)

Above: here’s the rings from Saturday – I love the design of the groom’s ring. 

Above: The wireless trigger is still on there from shooting earlier – this was just window light.

If you’re wondering if I did thatâ¦
â¦classic shot where you lay the ring flat between the pages of a open bible and then fire a flash behind it at an angle so it makes heart shape shadow⦠wellâ¦yesâ¦yes I did! (and the bride absolutely loved it!). She liked it so much, in fact, I was tempted to do a selective color effect (but I restrained myself).

I wanted to share this with you all this morningâ¦
â¦in case you don’t follow me on Facebook or missed it there (the two posts really struck a chord with folks, getting 7,200 likes (that’s a LOT for my Facebook page), and 358 comments. I read every single comment, but what’s been really cool is how many people who literally tried the technique this weekend on their Wedding shoots, or they just tried it with their wedding rings now and posted examples. Some really great stuff, including my favorite taken outdoors, under a tree, on the hood of a Camaro by photographer Laura Beth Robinson. Lots of really great shots!

Anyway, hope you found it helpful, and here’s wishing you all a great Monday! :)

Best,

-Scott

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  1. Great tip Scott! I love finding new ways to improvise on location. Using an ipad screen to create that dramatic look is an awesome idea! I did a blog post a long time ago after shooting a wedding (which I no longer do since I moved solely to commercial & product work) on how to use a flashlight at a wedding to create dramatic detail shots. If you have a second, take a look at what I created using only a single flashlight. http://www.digitalartthatrocks.com/blog/2013/6/29/using-a-flashlight-to-create-dramatic-lighting

  2. Great ipad/ring tip! Would love to also see the shot with the rings, Bible and heart-shaped shadow! I don’t know I’ve ever seen that before.

  3. Just another tip using the bible Scott, at 1 Corrinthians 13.8 it says “Love never fails” thats the page I use for the ring shadow shot with the groom ring for the shadow and the bride ring just under the word love, at f2.8 it looks superb and has a great response.

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