Window light and an accident

When I arrived at the country club for this wedding, I was immediately drawn to this location. I determined that I would photograph the bride here, set against the window. I metered the indoor ambient light and under exposed by one stop. I wanted some detail, not a total silhouette. When the bride was ready, I placed her under a down light and made an exposure. I adjusted a little and then shot away. It reminded me of somthing I had seen on DWF (digitalweddingforum.com) from an old manor home in England.

This next image was a happy accident. With the veil over her head, I wanted to do a window-light lit portrait of the bride. When I had positioned her, I noticed that the veil was in a shaft of sunlight that totally blew out all detail in that side of the image. I moved her forward until the veil over her face was in the shaft of light. I directed her to look back at the camera while her face was turned into the light. This caused her visible eye to be off-center in her eye socket. It put all the white of her eye on the left side and emphasised her eye, adding impact.

Both of these images were shot with a 28-70 zoom.