HOW i SHOT THiS

  • After sunset
  • Laughing
  • Sunset
  • Soft Light
  • Portrait
  • Natural Light
  • Movement
  • Middle Thirds
  • Jokes
  • calm
  • Italy
  • holding hands
  • Golden hour
  • full body
  • Cloudy
  • Center Framed
  • Walking

The story behind the image

Show more
We are an absolute sucker for that notorious golden hour. So much so that we’d rather take a 30-minute session in amazing light than an hour in ‘not so great light.’ Who wouldn’t? This day with our couple was spectacular right from the start – but as some weddings go, time can become a bit tight.

One thing that didn’t help the already short-time slot we had for the couple shoot was that we actually got a bit lost trying to navigate our way back out of a protected area of a tiny Italian city where the ceremony was held – which meant we got to the reception location a bit later than we had hoped. Needless to say, we were pretty stressed as we were losing sunlight with every minute, and we obviously didn’t want our couple to panic about where we were.

Fortunately, our couple was incredibly cool, and we took advantage of the last 30 minutes of light before it simply became a bit too dark to shoot. We didn’t venture too far from the reception location and did the most we could, and ended up having such a great time together.
Show more

Directions

Describe how you spoke to your subject(s)

So what are you guys gonna do when you get to the party? [bride], you’re gonna drink, aren’t you? You’re going straight to the bar! [Groom], you know what we’re talking about, don’t you?

Show more
What did you say?

As we were closing up the shoot, we simply asked our couple to walk hand in hand with our groom taking lead. We encouraged our bride to look towards her groom and we threw in some lighthearted jokes to get them smiling & giggling.

Show more
Tone of Directions

Calm

Composition

As we were on a driveway, we wanted to hide the fact that there were the guest’s parked cars just on the other side so we chose to frame this in portrait. We kept our subjects in the mid & lower sections of the image to give them more presence than the sky.

Show more
framing

Center Framed

Focusing

Describe how you spoke to your subject(s)

We find that using our live view to focus on our couple while we’re doing walking shots is quite a bit easier than the conventional “through the viewfinder” approach. It helps us to see the composition more easily while also keeping our eyes open for our surroundings (to not trip for example). Once we’ve got our focus locked, we try and keep the same distance as much as possible. If we change, we refocus.

Show more
Focus Mode

Live View Single Shot

Focus POints

Single Point

Focused on

The Grooms face

Equipment &
Exif

Camera
Canon 5D mark IV
Lens
Canon 35mm f/1.4 L II
Flash
None
Filter
None
1/500 @ f/2.2 ISO250 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

This was taken just after the sun had dropped below the horizon. It still gave off enough directional light but it wasn’t nearly as harsh as it would have been if it was above the horizon. The sun set just behind our couple and it worked to our advantage as it allowed us to backlight them as we walked back to the party. This backlight helps separate the two from the background.

Show more
Light Type

Natural Light

Time of day

Sunset

Weather

Cloudy

Editing Workflow

How did you edit this image?

We applied our Kilimanjaro preset, shifted the orange hues to the yellows slightly and added our grain & vignette edits. We also focused in and used quite a bit of local adjustments such as the radial filter to enhance the sun while also creating a more controlled vignette in certain areas.

Show more
Editing Software
Adobe Lightroom Classic

Challenges

The biggest challenge we had was not keeping our couple away from the party for too long. It’s so easy to get carried away but we always have to remember this day isn’t just about us and our portfolio – it’s entirely about our couple and while it’s fun to couple shoot, it’s also fun to hang out with friends & family and enjoy a party.

Show more

Solutions

It helps to always keep an eye on the time and to make decisions based on whether something is 1) worth it, and 2) going to take a lot of time or not. If we noticed that a certain pose or shot wasn’t working – we didn’t linger on it for too long. We moved on to the next thing.

Show more

Location

Location Name

Private Home

Location aDDRESS

Via Turrita, 06081 Sterpeto PG, Italy

Loation Type

Private Home / AirBnB / Apartment

Country

Italy

There are a ton of stories behind a photo – even your most favorite wedding photographer out there could tell you a good tale or two. That’s the beauty of a photograph. It holds much more than just digital pixels & fancy colors.

If it ever happens that you end up being late somewhere, the first thing you need to do is try and reach your couple and let them know. Do whatever it takes, and try your absolute hardest to get there on time (but also safely – no use in a photographer who can’t shoot anymore).

During short couple shoots, don’t be afraid to move on from a certain shot or pose. It’s totally okay to change to something else if you think it’s just not working out for your couple.

Read More

Login to your account

Oh no :(

This content has been marked as Premium and requires an active subscription in order to access it. We’re so sorry about that. But hey, here’s what you can do:

Join the
family

Get access to everything on the site as well as a ton of perks & benefits.

Have an account?

Well then, let’s get you logged in and hide this annoying thingy-ma-jig.