Lighting Your Way Through A Wedding With Justin & Mary and the Profoto B1 [RF Video of the Week]

May 9, 2014

By Laura Brauer

Imagine this scenario: It’s your client’s wedding day and you show up to shoot getting-ready shots of the groom, only to discover the venue is a windowless church basement with no ambiancejust blank, drab walls and no light!

Don’t despair, Justin and Mary Marantz will talk you through the lighting process in their newly released “The Guys/Groom Getting Ready” video segment (part of a 20-video series called “Walk Through a Wedding with Justin & Maryas they use the Profoto B1 to save the day during several key moments in one couple’s wedding day.


Created for Profoto and released twice a month, each video shows Justin and Mary narrating as they navigate through different shooting angles, positions and lighting setups on one couple’s wedding day. As Mary says on the video, “Show me the situation where the photographer planned to go all natural light, and I’ll show you a situation where it goes wrong, and that typically happens with the guys’ getting-ready shots.”

In this scenario, the groom and his groomsmen are getting ready in a room with no natural light, so Justin brings in one B1 head and a 2 x 3-foot softbox, placing the softbox in a spot where a window might naturally be. “From there I work around the softbox, from the 45-degree, 90-degree and 120-degree angles,” he explains. “During the whole process, I never move my light; I just let the action unfold naturally as I follow natural interactions, like trying to put on cufflinks, how to tie a bowtie, etc.”

Previous video releases include “The Iconic Bridal Portrait,” “Shooting the Wedding Dress,” The Girls/Bride Getting Ready” and “The Bridal Details,” all of which convey how the B1 can save the day when natural light isn’t an option. “We also discuss how we sometimes prefer the B1 even when we have natural light available because the B1 just gives an image a little more punch,” says Mary.

Last year, Justin and Mary put on their “Walk Through a Wedding” Workshops worldwide (to London, Australia, the Netherlands and beyond), took their “What’s Next Tour” across the country on their very own tour bus and authored their first book, The Guide. The duo have also been featured in Inside Weddings, Style Me Pretty and Martha Stewart, and they recently co-founded twin wedding blogs, The Black Tie Bride and The Well Groomed Groom.

Toolkit for The Guys/Groom Getting Ready:
Profoto B1 500 AirTTL
Profoto Air Remote TTL-C
2 x 3 RFI Softbox
Speedring
Light stand
Canon 5D Mark III
Canon 50mm, 85mm and 135mm lenses

Check out our other Videos of the Week, and email Libby Peterson with submissions.