In intimate sessions, I try to talk a lot more. Few photos and a lot of communication. There were always two other photographers trying to learn from this process. So it was extremely important that there was trust and respect. I played music they liked and told them to imagine they were the only ones there. Enjoying each other, a kiss at dawn in the nude. And the magic appeared.
Guys, forget about all of us here and just embrace each other. Hold each other gently, listen to the music and go in for a kiss when you feel you want to. This is a moment of just you two alone.
Calm
I composed the whole image thinking about the diagonal that would form the line of light coming through the window. It was clear that I wanted to divide the photo into two parts and that the line of light would be the separation. For me, the whole point of this photo was to get as much intimacy and naturalness as possible. A simple but sensitive moment.
Center Framed
I used a single point for the focus of this photograph. Looking for it to stay in the eye and the point of light separating the two models.
Single Shot Autofocus
Single Point
Guy's eye.
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.
The light was dim inside the cabin. So I knew that the light coming in from my back was going to be the focal point. So I tried to always make it my reference point for the image. The hardest part was knowing that I could only shoot three images because it was a challenge within the workshop. I was happy with the result considering all the difficulties.
Natural Light
Indoor
I used my “Draco” preset. Then I tried to lift the shadows a bit and adjust the highlights so that the line separating them didn’t burn out. I tried to give a golden tone to the skins with the HSL always looking for an orange hue. I lowered the contrast so that there was not too much difference between the dark and lighter areas of the image.
As I said before. The biggest challenge was knowing that I only had one chance to get the photo right, to compose and expose it correctly. Still, I think it’s interesting that we often put ourselves in this situation of thinking twice and thrice about the photo before shooting. Think about the settings and parameters and give ourselves that time to digest everything well.
I had to realize that being calm and taking a bit of time to really think about what shot i wanted was the best way to go about it.
Playa Viva
Playa Viva
Cabin
Mexico
My biggest tip for doing these types of photos is to get the intimacy and connection with the couple so they don’t worry about being naked in front of you. To achieve that, we are the ones who have to “get naked”. Open up to them and be completely honest to get a unique result.
Where are we going?
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