Portrait photography can run the gamut in type and style—everything from the traditional “head and shoulders” shot to lifestyle and environmental, candid and street, glamour, boudoir, maternity sessions and much more. This week, we present mix of compelling wedding and portrait shots, and natural light photos that are illuminated with dappled light, golden sunsets and more.

Traci Edwards of Adventure and Vow says this image, taken with a Nikon D750 and a 35mm Sigma Art lens, was illuminated with the help of an on-camera flash that was strobed from the top right corner.

“We took several images because there was a lot of traffic in the park that night with the Milky Way being visible,” says Edwards. “We waited for the perfect moment when a car drove by, giving light to the Joshua Trees in the background of the frame.”

[Read: Best Natural Light for Photography: 5 Types and Tips]

Photographing actress Gabourey Sidibe and her fiancé Brandon Frankel in a series of images for BRIDES magazine, says photographer Erich McVey, was “soooo much fun. Gabby is in her element at all times, on camera and off. All the credit [for these images] goes to her.”

Adds McVey: “I always try to be as nice, fun and low-pressure as possible, which translates to better moments and better images regardless of the subject’s on-camera experience. I think Gabby’s photos would have been eye-catching regardless of the person behind the lens.”

McVey says Gabby is “one of a kind” and he loved that I was able to see her personality emerging in all of the images he took. “You didn’t have to be there to see it. It shines through in the images, and I’m proud of our team for capturing it.”

So how does a photographer get a gig like this? “I’ve known Anna [editorial director Anna Price Olson], at BRIDES for years, but prior to this project we’d only worked together on real wedding features. Anna reached out to check on my availability for the upcoming cover with Gabourey Sidibe (I could not have been more pumped about the opportunity not only to shoot the cover but to shoot Gabby!) and shortly after that I got the OK for to bring me on. It was very exciting.”

Photographer Rosa Garrido says this image was taken during a golden sunset in the south of Spain, where the light is “amazing and wonderful tones are achieved.”

Garrido says she likes how the bride is looking fondly at her bouquet, knowing that her big day has finally arrived. “Every bride pays a lot of attention to detail because each one makes her different and unique. Here, I am showcasing both her gorgeous dress and flowers.”

This photo by Charlotte, NC, wedding photographer Scott Stockton was captured in Las Vegas outside of the Paris hotel during the Bride and Groom portion of this wedding.

Stockton placed his couple in the middle of the Arc de Triomphe, where he says natural light was pouring through. “I wanted this grand shot under the Arc with a wide angle lens,” he explains. “I knew I wanted to light my couple to make them pop but I didn’t need to use a flash. Then, as I was preparing a flash to use for fill light, I noticed that natural light that was coming in was bouncing off the walls and the ground, which bounce lit my couple perfectly.”

[Read: Tamron 35-150mm Lens: One Photographer’s Review]

Stockton continues: “There’s a mood with this shot that I really love. Here’s this beautiful enormous structure with beautiful details taking up the entire frame, and then in the middle, very short in stature, is this bride and groom being bathed in natural light. Even standing under such a huge, beautiful and impressively made Arc, the couple stand out because they are lit perfectly from the sun. The message I get here is, when you find that person that you’re truly in love with, no matter what else is going on, you shine.”

Emma Saville says she had this image in her head before she even stepped foot into the space where it was taken—at the Aberdeen Art Gallery in Scotland.

“I wanted to convey the idea of ‘life’ just happening around this bride and groom, who were in the bubble of their wedding day,” she explains. “I knew I wanted to capture it on the classic marbled checkered floor that is in the main entrance of Aberdeen Art Gallery and I knew I wanted them to look calm with their eyes piercing directly into the lens. Eryn and Chris were totally on board with adding some creativity into their images, which was fitting given we shot the image in an art gallery. The image was taken on a tripod and was originally shot in landscape however, I preferred the final image cropped to portrait. The image was edited in LR using my own custom preset.”

Dig into our Photo of the Day archives for even more compelling, eye-catching, natural light photos and other elements you won’t want to miss out on!  Send us your wedding and portrait photos, editorial, documentary and commercial image submissions: jacqueline.tobin@emeraldx.com