Bridal Editorial Photo Session with Elinchrom SNAPLUX in Paris, France

Bridal Editorial

Yuliya Panchenko Photography

Semaine de la mode de Paris (Paris Fashion Week) is one of the most popular events in Europe where a series of designer presentations hold biannually events in Paris, France. One event being held in spring/summer and the other during autumn/winter. Paris Fashion Week is held at a variety of venues located throughout the city. This year, I had the amazing opportunity to attend the winter event. 

Being in Paris I decided to do a bridal editorial shoot. It was one of the busiest months in Paris. Full of designers, models, artists, and of course photographers. All of us, thrilled to be attending the event. Also, it was one of the coldest months of the year. The crowds and weather quickly led me to my three biggest challenges. 1) One of the most iconic places in Paris, the Eiffel Tower is where the shoot was going to be happening. The Eiffel Tower is already a busy area, so the additional attention meant there was extra preparation that was going to be needed. 2) My model is going to be wearing a gorgeous bridal gown from one of the local bridal boutiques, Selestia Paris. With the weather being so cold, I was worried my model was going to freeze before we could complete the shoot. 3) Finally, I needed to put together a team to make this shoot a success. 

 With all the devoted and ecstatic people who had traveled to Paris to be a part of this event, it ended up not being too challenging to find a team. I found a great group of talented people who made the entire session a smooth, fun, and exciting experience. We all came from different parts of the US and were all just excited to shoot in one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Of course, I could not have made this shoot happen without my beautiful model Courtney, makeup artist Ally, and videographer Eliar Tabrizi. Courtney’s elegance made is so you couldn’t even tell how cold it was during the shoot. The gown she wore was made of beautiful nude chiffon fabric and had a gorgeous, elegant flow to it. The design of the dress allowed us to create some unique, dynamic images that can sometimes be hard to capture. The flow of this dress made capturing slow movements, such as a running down the steps, look astonishing. 

As many of you know, I am a huge fan of Elinchrom equipment. So, of course, I used Elinchrom ELB 400  battery pack and a small SNAPLUX Octa Box for this shoot. The SNAPLUX Octa Box was just launched by Elinchrom and I was beyond excited to be the first to test it. What I really enjoyed about the new SNAPLUX Octa Box, is that it’s easy to compact and perfect for travel. This makes it incredibly useful for outdoor shoots, especially in crowded places like the Eiffel Tower where you need to move fast due to extremely limited time for a shoot. The Snaplux opens like an umbrella contains an outer diffuser and has a grid allowing you to control the direction of light. It’s very light and compactable which allows carrying it around to be a breeze. The exquisite soft light quality truly worked perfectly for the outdoor session. The Snaplux helped tremendously with the success of this shoot and I look forward to using it in many of my future shoots!

Although it was super cold, cloudy, and rainy during the week, we were very lucky the day of the shoot. Our shoot was the only time we were actually able to see the Paris sky. It was a beautiful blue sky with some wispy clouds which added an amazing texture to the captured images. Although, we faced so many challenges, the entire experience was spectacular. The team all connected with each other quickly, which made the shoot fun for everyone. Creating a moment that will be cherished forever. Because nothing can inspire artists better than, a beautiful and romantic city, Paris

Photographer: Yuliya Panchenko

Videographer: Eliar Tabrizi

Model: Courtney Price

Makeup Artist: Ally Cahee

Wedding Gown: Selestia Paris

Lighting: Elinchrom (Elinchrom ELB400, HS Quadra Flash Head, Snaplux Octa Box)

Camera: Nikon D850

Lenses: NIKKOR 70-200 (f 2.8), NIKKOR 14-24 (f2.8)