My goal was to feel like they had already known each other for a long time. I talked in a calm voice and told them about the feelings I wanted them to feel. I sat them on a big stone, so I could get a wide shot of their dresses, and then pulled closer.
Girls, can you get really close to each other – forehead to forehead. Yes, exactly! And now grab each other’s hand, keep calm, relax.
Calm
I wanted the picture to feel intimate, so I decided while shooting to “cut” their heads to get the main attention on their faces and hands. The picture was originally horizontal, but I really love plying with cropping in Lightroom. To get the focus even more to the feeling and the moment between them, I decided to crop the picture to a portrait, which worked really nice. I liked the composition even more now.
Center Framed
I always put my focus point where I want it to be manually. I tried focusing on the faces of the girls, which went quite nice. It would be cool if the hands had a bit more blur, but that’s alright.
Single Shot Autofocus
Single Point
Face of the Girls
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.
It was pretty cloudy that day because of that, I had a really nice diffused light. You’ll see that the left girl is getting much more light. I like that because it gives the picture more depth.
Natural Light
Cloudy
I always try to let the true colors shine. I try to pull the colors a little more to the green side and not the magenta side so that it’s a little more neutral to the eyes. Originally, this picture is horizontal, but I really love playing with cropping and I wanted to focus more on the girls and the feeling the picture gives me. So, I went and just cropped the sides. I really loved how the view just goes straight for the girls and nothing distracts it. When I finished with my “base color” in Lightroom, I opened the picture in photoshop with new eyes and adjusted the colors more to the neutral side thanks to India Early Photoshop Actions. I also sharpened it one more time in photoshop to give it a crisp look.
The biggest challenge for me was that the two girls weren’t a couple or even knew each other quite a while. To get the intimacy, I wanted with two strangers affords more communication on my side so that they get what I wanted.
Always try to put yourself in their shoes and try to communicate as much as possible. Nothing should be embracing for you, just get the models or the couple to have fun, open up and be themselves. Because being in front of a camera can be really strange, when the one behind it is just saying nothing. You can even tell them what you are doing and explain your thought process because people can interpret something into your silence. Just open up.
quarry on tenerife
Tenrife, near Arico
quarry
Spain
Just as I told you above, get out of your comfort zone and try something new. Don’t do something because you have always done it this way. Enjoy the process of creating new compositions, even while editing. Ask yourself, why am I doing this. And if you don’t have an answer, do it in a way you find one! You will never lose the fun this way!
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