- cacti
- Indoors
- wide shot
- Wide
- small couple
- Simple Pose
- Rule of thirds
- Natural Frame
- intimate
- Indoor
- cactus
- Haze
- Greenhouse
- green
- glass roof
- glass
- Cloudy
- cactuses
- Window Light
The story behind the image
Okay, I said. A great idea even.
We ended up choosing the Poznań Palm House – 320 km away from my place of residence … I had to get up very early. As far as I remember correctly at 4:00 am and hit the road. I was there around 9:00 am. After arriving, I met the couple and we had some light conversations and started to make a plan.
The bride and groom still had to change before we went to shoot. When we entered the Palm House – it was wonderful. Beautiful views. Everything seemed so big, even huge. We started photographing at each location because there were a lot of them. In the end, we entered a huge greenhouse with cacti. IT WAS AMAZING! I knew right away that I had to take pictures with a wide-angle lens to show these big cacti. I had the idea of including the Bride and Groom amongst all of this!
I put on the 24-70 4.0L IS USM and set it to 24mm. Would I change anything by taking this photo? No! Everything I planned – it worked. The couple was eager to hear my suggestions right away and the photo was taken in literally 2-3 minutes. You can see the enormity of the surroundings! I find it really quite beautiful.
Directions
Describe how you spoke to your subject(s)
I explained to the couple the position I wanted them to be in and what to do, and that was to have the groom hold the bride up tight while she was facing me. I wanted his hand to be upon her neck with his forehead placed against hers, and then to have her hold his arm with her hands. All this to make a constant connection between them which adds a whole lot more to the intimacy of the moment.
What did you say?
I want you guys to hug each other, and for you [bride] to keep your body facing me while you [groom], hug her from the side. Make lots of connections with your arms and just enjoy this moment together.
Tone of Directions
Calm
Composition
My goal with this composition was to show the scale of the cacti in comparison to the couple and to keep the image interesting I chose not to place them in the center of the image. Instead, I had them placed off to the side and filled the frame up with the vegetation. What this does is that it creates a journey for the viewer as they explore the image; while still keeping notice of the naturally framed couple who take the immediate attention.
Focusing
Describe how you spoke to your subject(s)
To focus on this shot, I moved my single focus point over the couple using the autofocus and then reframed once I held down the shutter button halfway. Since my couple nor I moved during this moment, the focus kept everything I wanted (the couple) sharp.
Focus Mode
Single Shot Autofocus
Focus POints
Single Point
Focused on
the couple
Equipment &
Exif
Camera
Lens
Flash
Filter
1/160 @ f/4,0 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
The photo was taken at 12:21 noon but unfortunately, the day was very cloudy. We had no sun at all. Not a single ray of sunshine. The room was very large and there were a lot of glass windows, therefore it was very bright. It might have been more interesting with sunlight, but I was there only once. The light was very soft though, which made it quite easy to photograph and achieve nice tones. Because there were so many clouds over the sky, the light didn’t come from just one direction. It came from everywhere :P
Light Type
Natural Light
Weather
Indoor
Editing Workflow
How did you edit this image?
As a base, I used a preset from the Vivid ART Collection III series – ART III 01 to be precise. This was my basis. I lowered the Contrast and Clarity. I didn’t use any local adjustments for this photo. Instead, I used two gradient filters on the bottom and left. Over the head of the groom, I removed a large cactus that I felt didn’t add anything to the photo. Most of the changes were made in Lightroom – mainly the color and tones. In Photoshop, however, I used a Tilt-Shift blur and added a slight sun glow on the right side.
Editing Software
Adobe Lightroom Classic
Preset Used
Challenges
Perhaps the biggest challenge was to show the scale of it all. I really wanted to show how ‘epic’ the whole enviornment was.
Solutions
Fortunately, I always take focal lengths from 24 or even 16mm to 200mm with me for outdoor sessions. It gives me so much flexibility during my shoot.
Location
Location Name
Palmiarnia Poznańska
Location aDDRESS
Matejki 1860-767 Poznań, Poland
Loation Type
Greenhouse
Country
Poland
This photo made me realize how important it is to take wide shots in wedding sessions. I have learned to look more broadly at what I see in a given environment. Personally, I love close-up shots very much, but here I couldn’t help but make such a wide shot. They are also important. Now, whenever I’m in a session, I observe my surroundings and see much more. I would like to repeat this shot in the sunlight though. I think that the sun’s rays falling into the Greenhouse would look beautiful. We should always try to take various photos during the wedding session: close, far, details, shots from the drone (if we have one) to diversify the material.
