- Bright
- calm
- Center Framed
- Dinner Details
- Dinner Setup
- full body
- holding hands
- Leading lines
- lower thirds
- Soft Light
- Sunset
- Walking
The story behind the image
Directions
Describe how you spoke to your subject(s)
I asked them to hold hands and walk slowly away from me down the dock. Leslie had the most beautiful custom detailing on the back of her dress so I wanted to capture that as well. But I mostly wanted the photo to feel like a truly intimate, quiet moment with just the two of them after all the buzz of the day died down.
What did you say?
Hold hands and take a minute to walk down toward the end of the dock together.
Tone of Directions
Calm
Composition
I really wanted to highlight the leading lines of the hanging florals and lights heading down the dock with the gorgeous sunset in the background. I couldn’t frame the couple directly in the middle because of the table, so I put them just to the side keeping the rule of thirds in mind. I wanted to shoot fairly wide to get the whole set up in the shot.
framing
Lower Thirds
Focusing
Describe how you spoke to your subject(s)
Since the shot was wide and the couple was fairly far away I didn’t need to worry too much about the focus. I just set it on the couple to make it easy! I like doing wider shots like this in live mode so I can see exactly what the photo looks like.
Focus Mode
Single Shot Autofocus
Focus POints
Single Point
Focused on
The back of the bride
Equipment &
Exif
Camera
Lens
Flash
Filter
1/640 @ f/1.8 ISO640 WB-9300K
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
This was your very typical “blue hour” lighting. The sun had gone down past the horizon and the sky was beautifully pink and blue reflecting on the water. It was a tiny bit dark but mostly even lighting.
Light Type
Natural Light
Time of day
Sunset
Editing Workflow
How did you edit this image?
I loved the natural colors and lighting in this photo so I didn’t want to change much! All I did was apply my custom preset. The only adjustment I made was desaturating and increasing the luminance a tad in the oranges so the skin tones weren’t as dark and vibrant in comparison.
Editing Software
Adobe Lightroom Classic
Preset Used
Challenges
Only having a short amount of time for portraits at sunset.
Solutions
Planned out shots I wanted in advance and made sure we started at the right time!
Location
Location Name
West Shore Cafe and Inn
Location aDDRESS
5160 W Lake Blvd, Homewood, CA 96141
Loation Type
Wedding / Event Venue
Country
United States
When shooting in darker lighting situations like this I almost always use live view and the touch screen on my camera to make sure it’s focused. I have terrible vision at night so sometimes using the viewfinder doesn’t cut it for me and I find this a lot easier!
