Recent Wedding Image with Profoto B1

For most of my career I have been using small speedlights as my main lighting option for outdoor portraits. Over the years I have experimented with larger lights but recently I have switched over to the Profoto B1 system. I honestly do not think there is any special magic in studio lights vs small speedlights (cause usually the difference is either very specific or negligible) but there are a few things I love about these Profoto B1 lights. The first is that they are super easy to use with the wireless Air system (no more telling my assistants to go up and down in power) and the second is that using larger studio lights has allowed me to use larger light modifiers that I usually wouldn't mount to my small strobes.

After shooting weddings for about 7 years now, sometimes I like to try something different during my wedding sessions...you know mix it up a bit and explore some styles that are not my typical go to lighting setups. The two images below are the exact same setup only I gave the first image a bit of a desaturated look to the already moody lighting. The light modifier here is the Profoto 3' octabox, and I placed it sort of angled down from camera left and set above my couple. Traditionally I do not like to underexpose my ambient light too much as it gives that overly "strobist" look that I think calls too much attention to the flash. However in this case the setting sun was already pretty dark and I opted for a bit larger lighting ratio than I normally prefer meaning more strobe and less ambient.

Again, I want everyone to know that this is not about using Profoto vs Alien Bee vs SB-910. This is more about using a light modifier you think fits the overall mood you are going for and also balancing the ambient light with flash in a way that gives you exactly the look you are going for. The large octabox works great for this style because it is a large soft light which is flattering light on most people's faces but it also can be angled off to the side so you still get some shadows moving from side to side.

Anyways, just wanted to share these two images because I thought they were cool and because they venture outside of the normal type of wedding images I usually shoot on a regular basis. Anyone else have any images that are a little outside of their normal approach that turned out cool on the day of the wedding?