- bouquet
- calm
- Center Framed
- Closed Eyes
- creative light
- Dark
- Directional Light
- gentle
- Harsh Light
- Indoor
- Mid range
- Moody
- Quiet
- Sitting
- soft
- Window Light
The story behind the image
Strong light was breaking through the branches of the trees behind the window. It was coming in through one of the windows in the knight’s hall. It didn’t look too good when we looked at it through a wide lens, but when we seated Karolina in front of it and narrowed the field of view, magic happened.
Directions
Describe how you spoke to your subject(s)
We seated Karolina on one of the chairs that stood next to us. We positioned her at about a 30-degree angle to the window (toward us) so that her body would look three-dimensional in the photo.
The light was challenging. It was glaring in our eyes and changing position all the time. So, we asked the Bride to grab the bouquet, put it on her lap, and close her eyes. We wanted her to gently change position and try to feel the sun on her face.
What did you say?
Ok, now put the bouquet on your lap, close your eyes and turn towards the window. We want you to feel the sun on your face. Turn slowly if you feel the light has escaped somewhere. Relax and focus on this moment.
Tone of Directions
Calm
Composition
We chose a vertical frame to show more of the silhouette. This is a very classic portrait. The eyes are positioned at about 1/3 of the frame, and we moved the whole body in the opposite direction to Karolina’s gaze. By doing this, the photo is more calm and harmonious.
We left some air around the body because we really liked the dark background. It reminded us of Rembrandt’s paintings, and it really suited the castle atmosphere.
framing
Center Framed
Focusing
Describe how you spoke to your subject(s)
We set the focus on Karolina’s face. Her face was the most exposed to the light, and we wanted her eyes to be exactly in that place.
We practically always use the continuous autofocus mode, but it’s a matter of working style. With still scenes, we have plenty of time to create the correct frame, but even then we want to be able to react immediately, without waiting for the focus to catch. Continuous autofocus and the ability to set the focus point virtually anywhere in the frame help us do that a lot.
Focus Mode
Single Shot
Focus POints
Single Focus Point
Focused on
Bride's face
Equipment &
Exif
Camera
Lens
Flash
Filter
1/1250 @ f/1.8 ISO320 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 light was diffused throughout the room, but we found a few spots near the windows where it shined more strongly. We avoided these in preparation so as not to overburn the background, but they seemed perfect for solo portraits.
These were challenging conditions – we wanted to keep a lot of details in the shadows and at the same time not overburn the Bride’s skin/dress. We wanted an effect similar to the works of Velázquez or Rembrandt, which we really like – strong light on the face, a dark background and a silhouette hidden in shadow.
Light Type
Natural Light
Time of day
Sunrise
Editing Workflow
How did you edit this image?
As always, we used our preset. The original photo was very cool, so we improved the white balance and applied warm grading. We also had to lower the contrast a lot and bring out the shadows, so the photo wasn’t so heavy on the eye. We wanted to make it show the details of the dress and the beautiful veil the Bride had on her head.
In Photoshop, we removed unnecessary elements from the background, some unwanted hairs and did a full retouch. We also finally set the right contrast.
Editing Software
Preset Used
Challenges
The biggest difficulty was mastering the light. It was difficult to set the correct exposure without overexposing the white dress or veil.
Solutions
In moments like this, the dynamic range of the matrix matters a lot. However, no matter what kind of camera we use to take pictures, we keep a few things in mind.
We always try to work at low ISO – this way we increase the dynamic range of the photo.
When shooting high contrast scenes, we would rather not expose the photo than overexpose it – we can always extract details from the shadows, but we can’t save the overexposed parts.
If we photograph a still moment, a landscape, a detail or a church stained-glass window, we happen to use exposure bracketing. In one moment, we take a few photos with different exposures, and then we combine them in Lightroom or Photoshop.
Location
Location Name
Łagów Castle
Location aDDRESS
Tadeusza Kościuszki 3, 66-220 Łagów, Poland
Loation Type
Castle
Country
Poland
We often surprise people with the location we want to take their picture. From our couples’ perspective, we photograph them in almost complete darkness, in empty glades, or we set them up in strange light.
The eye sees differently than the camera. It often looks too wide or focuses too much on insignificant details. In these small, seemingly ordinary fragments of the world, there may be a lot of hidden magic.
It is not worth closing our eyes to what at first seems to be ugly or uninteresting. Sometimes it’s enough to look at things from a different angle or change the camera settings to discover something valuable.
