- Beach
- Movement
- Waves
- Water
- Unposed
- Soft Light
- Prism
- Ocean
- Natural
- Moody
- Blur
- Mid range
- lower thirds
- Low Light
- holding hands
- Evening
- double exposure
- Creative
- Center Framed
- Wet
The story behind the image
She decided to see how it feels to be on the other side of the camera and booked a connection couple session with her boyfriend Stef who joined her there for the weekend.
Apart from the professional/photography level, Magali and I have connected on so many personal levels as she carries a powerful and painful story upon her fragile shoulders. As we decided we’d shoot at the beach, she expressed her wish to also go into the salty waters, which I, naturally, supported. Salty water heals in so many ways.
And as they were entering the water, carefully and slowly for it was quite chilly already, I took that spontaneous photograph.
Composition
I positioned the “real them” a little bit offset so I could have enough space for the reflections. My goal was to capture them and the sea as one, reflected in one another, intertwined, united. I am also always extra careful about that horizon line when I shoot at the beach. I don’t like it going through the heads on my subject, so I normally position them a little lower or higher. Here, since the prism effect is used, the horizon line is very subtle and almost erased which made the composing easier.
framing
Lower Thirds
Focusing
Describe how you spoke to your subject(s)
I focused on the couple, since they are on the same plane (level), both of them are in focus.
Focus Mode
Single Shot Autofocus
Focus POints
Multi Point
Focused on
his chest
Equipment &
Exif
Camera
Lens
Flash
Filter
1/800 @ f/F2 ISO500 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
We had a soft and diffused, however almost disappearing natural light as the sun was already set. I had a little bit of difficulty focusing on the couple in low light with a prism – which always makes focusing a little harder.
Light Type
Natural Light
Time of day
Evening
Editing Workflow
How did you edit this image?
My own preset; I mainly just bumped up the contrast + blacks, and muted the blues. I wanted to keep the calm and melancholic feel to the photo through the colors too. I used the gradient as well to dim down the lower part of the image in order to bring more attention to the subjects in the middle part.
Editing Software
Adobe Lightroom Classic
Preset Used
Own personal Presets
Challenges
Focusing with the prism, + standing still with such turbulent waves :)
Solutions
I kept trying with autofocus, although should’ve switched to the manual one.
Location
Location Name
Castelldefels beach
Location aDDRESS
Platja Castelldefels, Barcelona, Spain
Loation Type
Beach / Coastal
Country
Spain
I think I assured myself once again that in the situations like this one: low light + using an extra object in front of your camera to create a certain effect, I’d better go for a manual focus as the autofocus just won’t recognize the subjects. I’d spend less time on focusing and checking the images + I’d be sure I got the picture I was going for.
