Embracing Nighttime Ambient Light for Engagement Shoots

Engagement shoots typically have a pretty simple formula: shoot during the golden hour in a scouted location that is tried, true, iconic or has a special meaning to the couple. But what about when the sun goes down? What about when New York City (where we are based), one of the brightest cities in the world, lights up in a whole different way? This time of night is often neglected for engagement shoots, when our faces glow in awe as the city dazzles around us, music starts blasting and lovers are out on the streets, holding hands after a nightcap and kissing in dark corners.

Last year we met Christine and Johan, who reached out to us from Indonesia (thanks to a feature in Rf’s April 2014 issue, “Making a Typical Wedding Photo Shoot Atypical”). They were planning a visit to NYC and wanted to have us photograph them during their stay. Apparently, the typical Indonesian engagement shoot is extremely staged and styled in couture, and often costs more than the actual wedding. They go big. And these two knew that by hiring us, they were going way against the grain.

They told us of their love for film director Wong Kar-wai. Not having a clue about him, we dug deep into the Hong Kong Second Wave filmmaker’s work and found ourselves addicted to the thought of only using colored ambient light, like him. We watched every movie we could find, twice. Fun fact: Wong Kar-wai always directs with his sunglasses on. Always.

We started walking the streets at night with a different pair of eyes, collecting notes of neighborhoods that hosted crazy ambient lighting for future reference. The East Village, Williamsburg and Times Square (normally a local New Yorker’s nightmare, but those lights were undeniably inspiring) were among favorites for us. We could not wait to experiment with the plethora of neon signs that adorned dive bars, pizza joints, abandoned phone booths, subway stations, street lights—everything. We also had a plan to bring the couple into our home where we had curated a file of images to project onto them.

The best part was, these two were 100 percent down for whatever we had planned for them, and that’s all we could ever ask for. Since our time with Christine and Johan, we’ve been convincing as many couples as we can to shoot after the sun goes down.

CAMERAS: Canon 5D Mark III (a dream for low light), Minolta SRT 101 (film)
LENSES: Canon 50mm f/1.2, Sigma 35mm f/1.4
FILM: 35mm Cinestill Tungsten Xpro 800 ISO (we love the way this film is overly saturated and vibrant—perfect for the film-still effect we wanted)

TIPS TO GETTING THE PERFECT SHOT AFTER DARK

Step into the nightlife.
Busy neighborhoods that cater to late crowds will usually have the best ambient light and are more condensed, offering a lot of different lighting possibilities within a short walk.

Don’t shy away from colors.
Embrace the freedom of not needing to place your subject in the best light for their skin tone. Hooray! Don’t fear color, because that’s what it’s all about. So hunt for orange, blue, red, purple—any color will do. Place your subject close to the source of light and begin shooting.

Keep an eye on ISO.
Shoot manually and adjust your settings to accentuate the fact that it’s dark out. Bumping up your ISO is the best way to pick up ambient light in any situation. Use 800 ISO if shooting film—this is a must!

Related: 

Making a Typical Wedding Shoot Atypical