wedding photographer chelsea: contemporary wedding photography on a rainy day in Chelsea, wedding portraits in the rain…

It’s your wedding day and the rain is pouring down. Isn’t it romantic? It actually is, and there are possibilities to make the best out of the rain on your wedding day. At least in pictures! Wedding photographers in Europe are actually quite lucky. We are surrounded by the architecture of old days, and all features and colours come out stronger, once it’s been hit by the rain – and the puddles on the ground give off nice reflections. London is a gritty place full of atmosphere – rain and dusk and the low light of autumn/winter suits it. From an image point of view, I love it! Although camera equipment and wedding dress are at risk. But there are solutions to that too, which I am about to show you in this chapter.

1: Find the location:

If you don’t mind being out in the rain for a bit on your day, some locations will work really well with rain. So find a portrait location that gets an enhanced effect and becomes extra atmospheric by the rain.

2: Pre plan the locations:

Your photographer could also pre- scout for the locations, so that there are some sought out locations to head to for your day. This can be done during the pre visit to the venue, if this is something that your photographer offers you. Or, the photographer could arrive a bit earlier on your day if it is raining, to find location solutions. (Unless the photographer has been photographing several weddings already at your venue – and already knows the places to be)

York Square, Chelsea

3: Look for roofed areas for your portraits:

It may be that you really don’t want to be under an umbrella in the rain on your day. In this case it could be good to have some roofed areas scouted out before the day. This way you can be outdoors and take advantage of the natural daylight, without being in the actual rain. You can either leave this to your photographer, or you and your partner could be scouting it out yourselves before the actual day. Bear in mind though, that your photographer will know best what to look for from a lighting point of view.

4: Have backup indoor locations

It is always good to have some indoor backup locations for portraits in mind. It might be that it has to be pre- checked by the photographer in order to measure the lights – particularly if it is to be used for portraits of big groups.

Suggestions on accessories in the event of rain:

  ♣ 1: The cute / funky / stylish umbrella

Isn’t it a fab idea to have a cool umbrella in preparation for your wedding day! There are so many interesting umbrellas available to order now – funky or stylish as it suits you. This way, the umbrella could easily become a part of your portraits. Of course, it might not rain, so perhaps best is to invest in an umbrella that could be used after the day a well.  The samples shown here are a few from Dazzle and Glitz who offers a wide range of umbrella. Another good site to check out is Umbrella heaven.

  ♣ 2: Neat rain boots!

  And what do you think about this idea? The weddington boots. A nice pair of rain boots to slip in to if there happen to be some rain on your day. They can even be customized with name engraving! (But please note that the name engraving service has to be booked several weeks before your day)

♣ 3: The full outfit!

If you really wanted to fit in a portrait session in the rain without having to worry about messing up your wedding gear, you could potentially bring along an extra outfit to change in to! Why not? You’ve booked a professional photographer, so take the chance. When are you ever again going to have a romantic portrait session of you two dancing around in the rain? Of course, you might need to have some makeup available to rearrange yourself afterwards. And of course, this is for a couple that don’t mind being away from their guests for a while, in their mission to get some fun memories from their day!

♣ 4: Or arrange the portrait session for a different day

Many wedding photographers would offer you a so called Treasure the dress / Trash the dress – session as an add-on to your wedding package. This way you can have a full couple of hour session together with your photographer, scheduled for a day with better weather conditions.

And lastly, a couple of tips for wedding photographers, looking to make the best out of the photography on a rainy wedding day:

This is what I use: A little rain cape for the camera, which covers the camera as well as the lens. If it rains heavily, of course it isn’t ideal to stay out an hour in the rain – unless somebody is also holding an umbrella over the photographer’s head. But a rain – sleeve like this is definitely of recommendation to get a bit of a portrait session even when the rain is pouring.

And here’s a trick that can be used to create some extra fog- effects on a rainy day: sticky tape around the edge of the lens. Or a fog can be created by breathing on the lens.  The picture here on the left is a shot that Cecelina snapped of me as we where trying out different stuff on a shooting day before Christmas.

So enjoy a rainy wedding day! You know what they say about rain on your wedding day…

It means luck. :