- Bridal Portrait
- Natural Light
- Snowy
- Snow
- simple
- Rocks
- Portrait
- off center
- negative space
- Natural
- Bright
- Mountains
- lower thirds
- Lake
- ice
- Cold
- calm
- broken rules
- Soft Light
The story behind the image
Directions
Describe how you spoke to your subject(s)
I asked the bride to get on the rock because I wanted her higher than the ground. Therefore, I helped her up with her long skirt because the ground was slippery. Then once stable, I told her to enjoy the peacefulness of the moment and the silence of the mountains, to look around, and then to lightly touch the flowers
What did you say?
Kristina, i would love you to be framed on that rock, with the mountains around you. Once there, enjoy the moment. Hear the sound of the silence, the quite beauty of the winter season on the mountains. I would love to see your profile, so turn a little bit, and hold your flowers looking at them
Tone of Directions
Calm
Composition
For this frame I wanted to frame the bride by putting her exactly in the center, surrounded by the snowy landscape. But when i saw the results, something didn’t work. So I tried putting the subject slightly lower, off-center, so as to give more breathing space at the top. In this way, however, the foothills of the mountain and the horizon line were right behind the subject, disturbing the bride’s silhouette. So I also looked for a rock to shoot higher up, and finding it I noticed that from above it worked much better
Compositional Rules
Leading LinesRule of Thirds
framing
Lower ThirdsWideHigher AngleFull Body
Focusing
Describe how you spoke to your subject(s)
I always shoot with a single point of focus, it wasn’t hard in this case because the subject was very far away from the background.
Focus Mode
Single Shot Autofocus
Focus POints
Single Point
Focused on
bride's flowers
Equipment &
Exif
Camera
Lens
Flash
Filter
1/2000 @ f/2.8 ISO250 WB-Auto
The way the EXIF is written out follows the common photographic method (with the inclusion of White Balance at the end). Here it is broken down:
Shutter Speed @ Aperture ISO White Balance.
Light & Weather
I knew that since we were shooting in the snow we might run into some light management problems, so we chose to start shooting during the first light of the morning. Being in a lake, surrounded by the mountain, I also knew that it didn’t make sense to go to the location as soon as the sun would rise because there wouldn’t be much light anyway. We were in a valley, and it would be some time before we could see the sun. So we went to the site about an hour after sunrise, so that light would still be very soft, but the lake would still be illuminated. We woke up at 5am, drove for more or less 1 hour, and arrived to the site at 6.30 – avoiding the crowd of tourists.
Light Type
Natural Light
Light Quality
Soft
Time of day
Afternoon
Weather
Snow
Editing Workflow
How did you edit this image?
I edited this shot on Lightroom, using my custom preset with warm tones. I adjusted a little bit the white balance in order to enhance the shades of orange. During the session the white balance was set to auto, and the raw had tones tending toward blue. I wanted to warm it, especially the shadows, to make sure they tended toward orange, while I added some blue on the highlights. I decreased the whites, and raised the shadows a bit, so that the final image would be “softer” and more dreamy looking
Editing Software
Lightroom
Preset Used
own custom preset
Challenges
the problem of tourists were solid. we were worried that once we got to the famous braies lake we would find it crowded.
Solutions
arriving on site very early even though this meant waking up very early allowed us to avoid the crowds
Location
Location Name
Braies Lake
Location aDDRESS
39030, Braies BZ
Loation Type
Mountains
Country
Italy
I am pleased with this shot and especially with the editing I was able to do. if I could change anything, I would shoot from even higher than the subject, perhaps with a drone or ladder. the location did not allow me to climb higher than this but looking at the shoot now, if the subject had a little more space between his head and the beginning of the mountains in the background, the photo would have turned out even better.
Regarding the logistics of the photo: always remember to have the bride wear thermal pants and mountain shoes if you are shooting at high altitude! Under the wide skirt you can’t see them, but the bride will be much more cooperative and will pose for you more willingly. Keep her warm!
