Winter Sparklers

I thought it would be easier to put a quick blog post to show you how the light may work for you when you come out of church around about 3.30 / 4pm mid-December. As ever, with the English weather, it could be anything! But let’s assume it’s going to be either bright/sunny or grey/gloomy. (If it’s wet, chances are slim that people will want to hang around?) Here’s a photo from a wedding I did on 12th December one year and both these photos were taken at 3.30pm (ish) moments apart:

one is nice and bright, one is dark ‘n moody. Here’s another one from another winter wedding, this one is 19th December at 4pm:

All three photos had exactly the same light (late afternoon, bright, clear day) but they all have a completely different look. I tend to photograph sparklers at any time of the day the same way, with flash and without flash, which gives us different looks. Some dramatic, some moody, some a little in between!

It’s a little difficult to give a definitive answer about how things will look on your wedding day as there’s always lots of variables but having done a few sparkler shots around that time of day / that time of year, you should be okay to do a sparkler photo at late afternoon / dusk onwards.

Here’s another where the day got dark very quickly, darker background, slightly later in the day.