- Africa
- Side Light
- Melli and Shayne
- Moody
- Mountains
- Movement
- Natural
- Natural Light
- Neutral Tones
- Soft Light
- M&S
- South Africa
- Storm
- Sunset
- The Roots Preset
- Walking
- Warm
- Wedding
- Wide
- Melli & Shayne
- Looking Back
- Bride
- Framed within
- brown
- calm
- Cape Town
- Center Framed
- Clouds
- Cloudy
- Couple Shoot
- Directional Light
- Framed within mountain
- Look back
- Free
- full body
- Golden hour
- Groom
- holding hands
- Lead
- Leading
- Leading lines
- Wind
The story behind the image
Directions
Describe how you spoke to your subject(s)
Have your couple lead each other when moving from one spot to another, and genuinely ask them to help by offering a hand and looking back. This not only looks really great in terms of story telling, but it’s genuinely helpful to the follower especially over rough terrain.
What did you say?
Hold your dress up when you walk, it’ll make it easier for you to find your feet. And keep your connection to each other – don’t be afraid to genuinely help. We’ll tell you when to stop.
Tone of Directions
Normal
Composition
With so many elements in this spot, we simply had to shoot wide. We framed it so that the couple was heading towards the mountain in the distance, and we kept enough space to show all of the landscape features. They are not exactly dead center, as this also left a bit more room for the eye to wander and explore where they could be going.
Compositional Rules
Leading LinesRule of Thirds
framing
Center FramedWideFull Body
Focusing
Describe how you spoke to your subject(s)
We focused on our couple using the single point auto focus so we could be in complete control over where and what the camera was locking on to.
Focus Mode
Single Shot Autofocus
Focus POints
Single Point
Focused on
The Groom
Equipment &
Exif
Camera
Lens
Flash
Filter
1/500 @ 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
At this point, the sun was just about to drop below the horizon which meant the light became softer and softer. This allowed us to side-light the couple which adds dimensions to the frame without being too contrasty. Just keep in mind when side lighting, it’s quite easy to have their faces fall into the shadow, so pay attention to that and never worry about asking to do this whole shot again =)
As we didn’t want to blow out the highlights in the sky, we underexposed the frame slightly just so it retains those details. In post, we can always bring up the exposure & shadows leaving us with so much more control.
Light Type
Natural Light
Light Quality
Soft,Directional
Time of day
Sunset
Weather
CloudyStormy
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 only challenge we faced was the fact that we were going to lose our couple behind the bushes pretty soon after they started walking.
Solutions
We simply asked them not to go too far down the path, but instead, turn around and walk back up. And to do this a good few times :)
Location
Location Name
Signal Hill
Location aDDRESS
Signal Hill, Cape Town, South Africa
Loation Type
Mountains
Country
South Africa
South Africa is an incredibly beautiful country and while it does have a reputation of not being the safest, it’s all about how you approach it. Just be vigilant and don’t necessarily flash your expensive gear in dark alleyways, and stay in groups – you’ll be absolutely fine.
