- Center Framed
- Cloudy
- Directional Light
- Hold hands
- holding hands
- intimate
- Mid range
- Middle Thirds
- Natural
- Natural Light
- On rock
- Posed
- simple
- Soft Light
- Sunset
The story behind the image
Let them climb, walk, dance, tease and even tickle each other. Basically, let them focus more on what they’re doing than you with the camera. Finally, don’t put your camera down.
Some of the best shots happen just after you asked them to do something – so our biggest tip for you is to always keep your camera up and ready.
Directions
Describe how you spoke to your subject(s)
This was a very spontaneous moment between our couple, as we had just asked them to climb up on the rock and help each other find their balance. Sometimes, simply giving them something to do where they focus less on you, but on each other can bring out some really beautiful moments.
What did you say?
Guys, go climb up that rock there and help each other get there. Be safe though! Don’t fall or loose your balance
Composition
We got into position just off to the side so we could we could firstly use the light directionally (off to the right), and secondly, to frame them within the mountain in the background. As we had quite harsh sun at this time, using the mountain at the background helped avoid filling the frame with a blown out sky.
framing
Center Framed
Focusing
Describe how you spoke to your subject(s)
Focusing here was no challenge since the light was creating enough contrasts on our couple for our cameras to be able to lock on to. We simply moved our focus point over our couple and locked it down.
Focus Mode
Single Shot Autofocus
Focus POints
Single Point
Focused on
The girls face
Equipment &
Exif
Camera
Lens
Flash
Filter
1/320 @ f/1.4 ISO100 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 sun was still quite high at this point of the shoot, and so we chose to position ourselves just off to the side so that we could capture the light from a different angle (and not directly behind them). By moving to the side, we were able to capture a rim light which really helped separate our couple from the background.
Light Type
Natural Light
Time of day
Sunset
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 here was trying to communicate with our couple from such a distance without ruining or interfering with their moment. If we were to shout & yell directions to them, they would have likely been taken out of their moment and thus removing the chances of capturing something truly genuine.
Solutions
It helps to just take a step back and let things happen. Realize that if you didn’t quite get the shots you were after when you didn’t give many directions, that you can always make your way to them and suggest a few things before heading back to your spot. There is no shame in doing something another time.
Location
Location Name
Langbathseen
Location aDDRESS
Vorderer Langbathsee 4802 Ebensee, Austria
Loation Type
Lake
Country
Austria
When using harsher light off to the side (like this image), keep your eyes open for shadows being casted. In our case, in the wrong
position, our guy could have cast a shadow across our girl.
Let your couple “be” from time to time. Give them space to be themselves by asking them simple things to do. Especially when you want to move from one spot to the next.
Don’t stop shooting. Even after they’ve “completed” what you asked, keep shooting. You can talk to them from behind your camera if necessary, but again – some of the best moments happen directly afterwards.
