Black and White Elopement Photographs at the Lady’s Tower in Elie

Black and White Elopement Photographs at the Lady’s Tower in Elie

I thought I’d do something a little different for this post and make it almost completely black and white. I make no secret of the fact that I have a passion for black and white photography (have a look at my personal website and you’ll see quite a few) and have always used it for the weddings I photograph. When French visitors Marine and Kevin told me that they would like plenty of their photographs to be monochrome I was delighted and thought it would be interesting to share their black and white elopement photographs at the Lady’s Tower in Elie, Fife.

Not a Fan of Black and White? Don’t Worry 😉

If you’re not a huge fan of black and white then don’t panic! I only edit this many photographs in monochrome when people specifically ask me to. For the vast majority of my weddings and elopements I would generally include about 20% black and white in a normal edit, and many of those BW images have a near-identical colour version sat next to them too so it’s not as though you are missing out on anything. If you wanted absolutely everything in colour then that’s totally fine; hopefully you won’t though…

Photographing Weddings on Film

When I first began wedding photographing weddings, many years ago, I photographed each and every wedding on film. I’d have rolls of black and white film and rolls of colour film. You could digitally turn a colour photograph into a black and white one but you could never change a black and white image into colour since, well, there never was any.

Nowadays everything is photographed digitally and in colour. Each of the exposures I made at Kevin and Marine’s elopement at the Lady’s Tower in Elie was originally in colour. Then, as I work through every single picture at the editing stage I evaluate the image and decide whether I think it will look best in colour or black and white. Whilst the Lady’s Tower is undoubtably beautiful, on a dull overcast day there isn’t very much colour to capture (although Marine’s incredible tattoos certainly brought some much-needed vibrancy to the day) and BW wedding photography really comes into it’s own.

Using black and white photography at elopements adds a unique beauty to photographs because it focuses on light, shadow, and texture instead of colour. This simplicity draws attention to details like patterns, shapes, and expressions, creating a stronger emotional impact. Without the distraction of colour, the viewer can focus more on the story or feeling behind the image. I think it also has a timeless quality, making it feel more universal and enduring.

For the main image for this blog post I did choose a colour photograph from their elopement. This was because the contrasts of the yellow sands, the varying shades of blue and the little ping of colour in the very centre creates, I think, quite a compelling image and the colour definitely adds something. Incidentally, this image was photographed right next to the Lady’s Tower at Ruby bay – a place Kevin insisted on visiting because he shares the same surname!

Thank you to Kevin and Marine for allowing me to share some of their elopement photographs at Lady’s Tower. We had such a brilliant day and it was really great to work alongside wedding planner Gabrielle of French Wedding in Scotland and the ever cheery celebrant Alan Barr.

If you would like to see another elopement at the Lady’s Tower take a look at Silda and Matt’s wonderful wedding on my blog.