HOW i SHOT THiS

  • black & white
  • Blur
  • broken rules
  • calm
  • Center Framed
  • Creative
  • Dark
  • Evening
  • holding each other
  • Moody
  • Motion Blur
  • Movement
  • Natural
  • Overcast
  • Soft Light
  • Wide

The story behind the image

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This image was taken mid-way through my couples adventure elopement day, we saw a field of beautiful weeds and we quickly pulled over. I had some regret after leaving the meadow for not doing some shutter drag or capturing any blurred movement which is what inspired this edit. I played around with how I wanted the movement to look, clearly, my couple is standing still in this, I was worried it would look too weird with this pose but it eventually was my favorite version.

I had some raws of them running towards me but not across the frame. In retrospect, I would have loved to have them running across and had the movement going in the same direction.
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Directions

Describe how you spoke to your subject(s)

I asked the groom to snuggle into the bride’s neck, once he did that I asked him to step closer and put his hand in his pocket. I asked Kendall to look down at her shoulder and close her eyes.

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What did you say?

[Groom], can you snuggle into [Bride]’s neck and while you’re doing that, get nice and close but keep your one hand in your pocket. [Bride], i want you to now look down across your shoulder and really enjoy this moment together.

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Tone of Directions

Calm

Composition

I tend to be boring with composition, I position my clients center frame way to much. This was no exception, but I do think with motion blur this was a good choice so the blur surrounds my clients. Even something as ‘boring’ or ‘safe’ as center framing the couple can bring out a beautiful image.

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framing

Center Framed

Focusing

Describe how you spoke to your subject(s)

The z6ii focus is pretty incredible. I use a focus area and rarely miss focus, the large box was over their heads in this image.

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Focus Mode

Live View Continuous

Focus POints

Single Point

Focused on

brides eyes

Equipment &
Exif

Camera
Nikon z6ii
Lens
Nikkor 28mm f/1.4
Flash
None
Filter
None
1/5000 @ f/1.8 ISO100 WB-7200 K

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 specific time the image was taken there was fog covering the sun, so the light was muted and flat. Because of this, I didn’t have to worry too much about where to position my couple. This soft light doesn’t last forever though – so we did have to move quite quickly before things got a little too dark.

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Light Type

Natural Light

Time of day

Evening

Weather

Cloudy

Editing Workflow

How did you edit this image?

I started off in Lightroom applying ex film 8 by archipelago collective. I wanted the black and white to have a lot of contrast in the lights and shadows to pick up the movement. I adjusted the crop and then imported into photoshop. There I applied motion blur in the drop-down menu in a new layer. I then used the brush to erase the blur over my clients. I adjusted the opacity of the eraser as I moved from their heads down to their feet, as I wanted it to be a gradual shift.

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Editing Software
Adobe Lightroom Classic

Challenges

I really struggled “erasing” the movement over my couple and where it should be erased in a graduated way. specifically over the vail. I edited it 5 different times, and kept coming back to it. Being happy with it at night and waking up and realizing it was terrible

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Solutions

I eventually just kept working on the strength of the eraser and adjusting it slowly to almost only 5% over the vail.

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Location

Location Name

big sur california

Location aDDRESS

Big Sur, California, United States of America

Loation Type

Garden / Field

Country

United States

I would love to do this affect again in a movement shot, but I know the brushing will be much more time consuming. One thing that I would advise everyone is to just try new ideas. Whether thats out shooting or while you’re editing. No one said you have to be placed in a box and do things a certain way. Experiement. Fail. Succeed. Find your voice.

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