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Light of your life With the Profoto A1X and B10, Kate Hopewell-Smith has found creating her inspiring wedding photography easier than ever About Kate Hopewell-Smith
“I honestly don’t know how wedding photographers can say flash isn’t essential,” says wedding and portrait specialist, Kate Hopewell-Smith. “I hear the excuse that flash is intrusive and that ISO capabilities are so good nowadays that flash really isn’t necessary,” she explains, “but while high ISOs mean you can take an image in low light, most of the time, it just enhances bad light!” Of course, for Kate, it’s not just about adding light, but how you add it. “With flash,” she says, “if we can improve the light as well as just adding illumination, we will. Weddings are all about compromise and using artificial light makes solving problems so much easier!” That might just mean moving people into better light, she says or adding light to the scene in ways that add beauty to the scene, rather than just filling shadows. Set for success For her wedding work, Kate uses a collection of lightweight and versatile Profoto flashes and modifiers. “We now have two B10s and four A1Xs on the go, and it’s great to have those options. I’ll often use the A1Xs to just add little kicks of extra light, or for hair lights using grids, while with the B10s it’s often more about the key and fill lighting. The whole system is so easy to use with the Air Remote and I haven’t had any issues with syncing at all. Both the A1Xs and B10s are light, portable and have the right power for how we shoot. They’re so easy to modify, shaping and colouring light
After graduating in Art History, Kate worked across numerous creative industries, including TV marketing, fine art publishing and brand design. As she now specialises in wedding, portrait and boudoir photography under her website, and runs a luxury events and destinations business with her husband, she’s no stranger to getting the perfect shot – and Profoto is on hand to help. • katehopewellsmith.com
The beauty of the bride
The rooms that brides get ready in vary so much, in terms of size, decor and, most importantly, in quality of light. If the natural light is good, that’s fantastic, but pictures so often benefit from adding flash, either to just fill shadows or put some much-needed light onto the bride herself, improving skin tone and adding depth to the dress. If the natural light is great, people are often tempted to expose for the shadows, and while that can give soft and dreamy images, when you zoom in they can be hazy. Instead, we like to add a touch of side light, which helps to give the image a little bite without losing the overall feel. I knew I needed side light here, which is best for showing shape and form, but I also needed to prevent any reflection in the window behind, so here she was lit from a single head bounced into an umbrella to the right of the camera.
34 Photography News | Issue 70
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