Primed for Authentic Portraits

By Jenn Gidman
Images by Tony Bigley

Tony Bigley isn’t afraid to get his feet (literally) wet taking photos with his SP 35mm F/1.4 lens.

Before he was a wedding and event photographer based out of Beaufort, South Carolina, Tony Bigley was a professional musician who traveled the world for more than a decade. “My band got signed right out of high school, and I was off,” he says. Eventually, however, the grind of the music industry took its toll, and Tony itched to do something different. “Unless you’re the next Justin Bieber or Shawn Mendes, it’s hard to make it,” he adds. “I needed to find another job.”

Tony turned to marketing and advertising and even owned his own agency, but he became frustrated at forking over big bucks for photography. “We’d have $400 budgets to take pictures of menu items,” he says. “I thought, I bet I can learn how to take a picture of a sandwich. I’d always loved photography, and the next thing I knew I’d jumped feet-first into it, doing work for my agency and astrophotography on the side.”

Being a people person, Tony soon found himself taking pictures of local models, including one of the stars of Outer Banks, then family portraits and even wedding photos—all of which now can be found in his portfolio at King of the Hill Photography. Tony’s most recent lens of choice for his portraiture: the Tamron SP 35mm F/1.4 Di prime lens.

“I love how sharp that lens is, and how fast it is, too,” Tony says. “I’m not usually a ‘spray and pray’ photographer, where I’m firing off several photos per second. But when I have taken pictures in rapid succession like that, the vast majority of them are super-sharp.”

The 35mm’s F/1.4 maximum aperture is a necessity for Tony, since he never knows where he might end up shooting a wedding or family portrait and what the lighting might be like. “One couple wanted to get married at sunrise, and it was still dark out,” he recalls. “I convinced them not to start the ceremony until the sun peeked over the horizon, but I wouldn’t have been able to capture even those images without being able to open all the way up to F/1.4.”

For Tony, his photography is all about instilling fun and candidness into every session. “I always want to make sure everyone in front of my camera is comfortable,” he says. “That means I have to figure out everything from family dynamics—like not placing this person next to that person, because maybe their relationship isn’t terribly close—to working with children with special needs. If a kid is having a tough time during a shoot, all it might take is me saying to him: ‘Hey, you want to go jump off that dune with me?’ That’s something I’ve learned to master over the years, and I think that reflects in the photos I create.”

TONY’S QUICK TIPS

• Have clients dress based on where you’ll be shooting.
I definitely get asked a lot: So what should we wear? Many of my engagement and family portrait clients seem to gravitate toward the white-shirts-with khakis look, which is generally a clean, neutral look for photos, especially if you’re not sure where in your home that picture may end up. But here in the Carolinas, our beach sand is so white that if you shoot a little overexposed, you risk losing the details in your images. So if they ask, I’ll recommend wearing navy blue with khakis, or navy blue dresses that will pop off the sand. Always keep your location in mind when that question comes up.

• But let your subjects be themselves.
Whenever a potential client contacts me to set up a shoot, I’ll usually check out their Facebook page to try to figure out what they’re like and what they might look best in based on that. I don’t want anyone feeling uncomfortable because of what they’re wearing, even if it technically “looks good.” For instance, I don’t know that I’d automatically recommend most couples or families wear black T-shirts and jeans to a session. But it looks great on the older couple you see here, who are one of my favorite families to photograph, because that’s just who they are. They feel good wearing what they’re wearing, so they look good wearing it as they’re splashing through the water. And that comes through in the joy in their faces.

35mm, F/2, 1/200 sec., ISO 320

• Be a low-profile part of the shoot.
This is especially true at weddings, where newlyweds are often pulled away from their guests and the activities to take yet more photos. I long ago decided to take a different approach as a wedding photographer. Of course, there are going to be certain required portraits that you have to cross off your list. But after those, you should go with the flow of the couple, not the other way around. One of the biggest compliments I ever got was after a wedding when the couple and their guests told me they barely noticed I was there. And that wasn’t at the expense of the photos they wanted—I still captured them, but while I was blending in with everyone else.

35mm, F/2, 1/250 sec., ISO 100

• Set up a routine in tried-and-true shooting locations.
Although where I shoot varies, there are certain go-to locales I often take my clients to often, like a local forest preserve and a beach with photogenic sand dunes. When I’m in these spots, I have a “circle” of shooting stations that we hit—we’ll take a photo on the dirt road, for instance, then head into the flower field, then walk onto the bridge. Knowing exactly where I’m going to take pictures at these locations saves me time and stress.

35mm, F/2, 1/200 sec., ISO 100

35mm, F/2, 1/125 sec., ISO 100

35mm, F/2, 1/200 sec., ISO 100

• Relate to your subjects with humor.
You want your portraits to show some dynamism—to evoke a feeling that something’s happening, that a story is taking place behind the scenes. And that means getting your subjects to relax. The fact that I’m a social butterfly definitely helps in this regard, because I don’t have any qualms about using humor to prompt some sort of reaction.

I photographed a family where the daughter warned me multiple times that her dad, a grumpy older gentleman, hated posing for photos. He said something when we started like, “Let’s just get this overwith.” As I was taking pictures of other family members, the daughter suddenly asked if we could do a few with her dad. I joked, “Well, you ask him, because I’m not getting yelled at by this guy.” Everyone laughed, and that loosened the mood. Or when I’m doing an engagement shoot and I can tell the guy doesn’t want to be there, I’ll add some levity during the shoot and say something like, “Dude, I know how awkward this feels to be holding that kiss for 15 seconds.”

Children can be especially challenging. When I get a kid who seems reluctant to play ball, I always tell them a quick story about how I hated being in photos, too, from age 8 to about 17. And how I now regret never appearing in any, because there are basically no pictures of me to look back on from that entire era. I tell them, “I know this sucks now, but you’ll be glad one day that you have them.”

35mm, F/2, 1/200 sec., ISO 100

• Read the room.
I try to get a sense from the first few photos how physically affectionate the bride and groom are with each other. Are they constantly touching each other and holding hands and kissing each other, or are they more reserved? That’s going to dictate the tone and style of your photos. It can be a disaster if you try to force the couple against the natural grain.

35mm, F/2, 1/400 sec., ISO 100

That goes for bridal party and family shots, too. If I’m trying to capture an image of a line of people walking, I’ll know after those initial interactions whether I’ll have the group hold hands as they’re walking, or if I’ll just instruct everyone to walk in a straight line at the same speed without that physical connection.

It’s not just the physical aspect I try to gauge. I want to get a sense of everyone’s personalities and the group dynamic. I’ll sometimes ask outright if the group is the type that likes to get down in the sand on the beach, or if they enjoy making funny faces. If they do, you’re going to get terrific photos. If they don’t and you make them do things like that anyway, your subjects may be uncomfortable, and that’s going to come across in the photos.

35mm, F/2, 1/200 sec., ISO 100

• When the light’s not quite right, think on your feet.
For one wedding I was hired for, the timing required me to start taking pictures at 11 in the morning—not an ideal time from a photographic standpoint. So I did my job, but I told the bride that if she came back to the beach with her groom at the end of the day, during the golden hour, I could give her the portraits she deserved. She brought her husband back to the shore that evening, still in their wedding attire, while I wore my board shorts, because I knew we’d be getting into the water. The husband figured they’d just be getting their feet wet, but because all the festivities were now over, the bride dragged him in for some shots where they were actually sitting in the water and kissing. It extended my session with them for the day an extra two hours, but it was worth it to give them photos they never would’ve had otherwise.

35mm, F/2, 1/160 sec., ISO 100

To see more of Tony Bigley’s work, check out his website and Instagram.