- Blue Hour
- intimate
- Soft Light
- simple
- Rocks
- Natural Light
- Low Light
- Leading lines
- Late evening
- Italy
- Hug
- calm
- holding each other
- full body
- from behind
- Evening
- embrace
- Dark
- cliffs
- clear sky
- Center Framed
- Wide
The story behind the image
This, this is blue hour. It doesn’t last long, and you absolutely have to be fast, efficient and on point with your couples to really take advantage of it. But when you do, you are graced with incredibly soft tones and the colors that can come out of it in post are always something to make you go “wow”!
We see so many photographers who take out their couples during sunset who stop just as the sun has set. Why? There’s still a bit more light left as it moves to this blue hour. Keep shooting until you can’t shoot anymore.
Directions
Describe how you spoke to your subject(s)
We positioned our bride on the rock with her body slightly turned away from us and towards where the sun set. Next, we asked our groom to come from behind her and wrap his arms around her and get really close. Making sure to hold her hands and to cuddle her. Genuinely cuddle her. As this was happening we asked our bride to turn her head towards her groom.
What did you say?
Put your arms around her and get tangled up. Make a knot, and really cuddle your girl. Make her feel safe, loved and really forget about everything else right now and just be with each other
Tone of Directions
Calm
Composition
We found this rock amongst these rough cliffs that we thought was a perfect place to have our couple. It was right in the middle of the two slopes formed by the cliffs and it also meant they were slightly propped up. Both slopes of the cliff create these leading lines towards our couple which immediately draws attention to them. This is important, especially in a busy landscape.
framing
Center Framed
Focusing
Describe how you spoke to your subject(s)
Focusing during blue hour can be very tricky. Your camera needs a certain amount of light in order to determine the edges being sharp or not. In this case, we simply couldn’t focus through our viewfinder any more so we switched to our live view mode (which uses a different method for focusing). It’s a bit slower, sure, but it managed to lock onto our couple and hold it while we shot.
Focus Mode
Live View Single Shot
Focus POints
Single Point
Focused on
The Brides Face
Equipment &
Exif
Camera
Lens
Flash
Filter
1/100 @ f/1.4 ISO2000 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
At this point, the sun had completely set and whatever light was left over was simply the very last bits of the sunset. It goes by incredibly fast and so we had to be fast. We had our bride turn her body slightly towards where the sun set so we could still get some of that directional light; and it also meant we would see more of the groom
Light Type
Natural Light
Time of day
Blue Hour
Weather
Editing Workflow
How did you edit this image?
The edits are made to be warmer with a big focus on skin tones and light play with shadows and highlights. A few minor local adjustments were made (Gradient and Brush) as well as finishing off with a fine layer of grain. The whites are not blown out nor are the blacks 100% crunched.
Editing Software
Adobe Lightroom Classic
Preset Used
Challenges
The biggest challenge we faced was the fact that the light disappeared incredibly fast. Because of this, our cameras really struggled to get focus until we moved to Live view
focusing.
Solutions
We knew we wanted to stay until blue hour, so we gave a little briefing as to what we wanted our couples to do before hand. Once we got them into their moment, we switched to live view to attempt focusing in this way. Fortunately it worked and we were able to capture this moment during this gorgeous time of the day.
Location
Location Name
Le Calette hotel
Location aDDRESS
Le Calette hotel - Cefalù Via Cavallaro, 12, 90015 Cefalù PA, Italy
Loation Type
Hotel
Country
Italy
If time allows, keep shooting until you can’t shoot anymore. Until your camera simply won’t focus. There’s also no shame in telling your couples that you are going to “try” shoot during this time and that they shouldn’t expect anything. It happens so fast that it really shouldn’t be an issue – and by managing their expectations – you’re good to go. Even if you didn’t manage to capture the shots.
