Inside a White Marquee at Noon
A marquee is a wonderful thing to be inside on a hot day. It is also, photographically, one of the more deceptive spaces at a wedding. It looks bright, it feels comfortable, and it produces images that are strangely lifeless until somebody makes a few small changes.
Why marquee light behaves oddly
Sunlight hitting a white canvas roof does not stop there. It passes through and scatters, so that light arrives at the people underneath from the entire ceiling at once rather than from a single direction. That is exactly what a photographer normally wants from a big soft light source, with one important exception: there is no direction to it.
Direction is what gives a face shape. Light arriving mainly from one side means one cheek is brighter than the other, and that difference is what tells your eye that a face is round rather than flat. Light arriving equally from everywhere removes that information. Faces read as flat, eyes lose their sparkle, and the whole picture goes slightly soft in a way that has nothing to do with focus.
Because the light comes from above, there is a second effect. Overhead light drops shadow into the eye sockets, under the nose and beneath the chin, which is the same problem as harsh midday sun, just gentler. Softer, but in the same unhelpful place.
The colour problem nobody expects
Light picks up the colour of whatever it passes through or bounces off. Ivory canvas is fine. A coloured lining, a striped roof, or a marquee pitched on bright green lawn is not, because a noticeable amount of light reaching people's faces has come off the grass and arrives green. On a large open lawn in full sun this is stronger than most people believe, and it is hard to correct afterwards without pushing the grass and the flowers into odd colours too.
It is one of the reasons decking, matting or a light-coloured floor under a marquee changes photographs more than it seems it should. It also explains why portraits taken just outside a marquee, standing on a paved path rather than on lawn, often look cleaner than portraits taken standing on the grass a few paces away.
The fix is nearly always the sides
Everything improves the moment the light has somewhere to come from. In a marquee that means the walls.
- Open one side, not all of them. A marquee with every wall up is a box of even light. A marquee with one side open has a giant soft window along that edge, and every face turned towards it suddenly has shape.
- Put the top table where the open side is, rather than at the dark end. Speeches happen there, and speeches are the most photographed seated moments of the day.
- Think about which side to open. The shaded side gives soft, even light. The sunny side gives a strong bright strip and deep shadow just inside it, which can be beautiful but is harder to seat people in.
- Keep the cake and the signing table near an opening, not tucked against the far wall for tidiness.
None of this requires equipment or extra cost. It is a conversation with the marquee supplier and the person doing the floor plan, and it is worth having before the layout is fixed.
What a photographer does inside one
Mostly, we work the edges. Standing so that guests and couple are between the camera and an open side puts the good light on their faces. Portraits inside a marquee are almost always made near an opening rather than in the middle, for the same reason.
Overhead shadow gets managed by asking people to lift their chins very slightly and turn towards the brightest part of the tent, which sounds fussy and takes about two seconds. And where there is a pale surface to work with, a light tablecloth, a paved path, a white wall just outside, we place people so that some light bounces up from it, because a little light from below fills those eye-socket shadows without any equipment at all.
The other thing worth knowing is that a marquee changes completely as the day goes on. At noon it is bright and flat. Late in the afternoon, when the sun is low, light comes in through the sides rather than the roof, and the same tent becomes one of the loveliest spaces at the wedding. If there is any flexibility in when the formal photographs happen, later is almost always better.
Questions worth asking
- What colour is the lining, and is the roof translucent or blocked out? Both change the colour and quantity of light dramatically.
- Which sides can be opened, and will they be open during the meal? Weather and wind sometimes decide this, so it is worth having a preference on record.
- What is the floor? Grass, decking, matting or a solid floor each bounce a different colour upwards.
- What lighting is planned for the evening, and what happens to it in a power cut? Marquee lighting is usually on a generator or an inverter at some point in a South African wedding, and it is worth knowing whether the decorative lighting is on that circuit or only the essentials.
What to accept
Midday marquee light is kind to skin and unkind to depth. Expect gentle, low-contrast images with soft shadows and a slightly airy feel, which suits some couples perfectly. Expect flat frames if nothing is opened, and a warm, directional, far more atmospheric set once the sun drops and starts coming in sideways.
Open one wall, seat the important moments near it, keep people off the bare lawn for portraits, and a marquee at noon stops being a white box and starts behaving like a very large, very flattering window.
