- Blue Hour
- calm
- Center Framed
- Evening
- gentle
- grey sky
- Him behind her
- holding hands
- intimate
- leaning heads
- leaning in
- mid range shot
- Outdoor
- Portrait
- Quiet
- Rocks
The story behind the image
This shot was the very last shot we could take before our cameras simply couldn’t shoot any more due to the low light. It was a real gentle moment between the two and it happened almost without us having too much direction. Anyways – the biggest thing we want to bring out here is to just keep shooting. Shoot until you literally can’t shoot anymore because you might just have your favourite shots only at the finish line.
Directions
Describe how you spoke to your subject(s)
We had the groom sit/ lean on the rocks and then we encouraged the bride to lean onto his lap with her body facing us. We then asked them to hold their hands together and to snuggle up for the last shots of the session. We said all of this in a calm, yet very positive tone as we wanted them to end the session feeling excited, good, and, well – in love.
What did you say?
That’s beautiful you guys! Let’s have you lean in and rest your foreheads together while holding your hands down low. We’re nearly done guys – just enjoy this last moment together and really snuggle in.
Tone of Directions
Calm
Composition
What mattered the most to us here was the emotion that was present between the two. We chose to shoot this in portrait because we wanted to limit the amount of scenery in the shot. Too much of it would have taken away the impact of the moment. We filled the frame about 4/5 with our couple as we wanted them to be the dominant subject, with a little touch of breathing room around their heads. We also had our camera slightly above their eye level and tilted downwards to increase the chances of a more flattering angle.
framing
Center Framed
Focusing
Describe how you spoke to your subject(s)
Focusing was definitely a pain in the ass for this shot as everything was so dark. The camera did try it’s best to find focus and in the end, it was just a matter of luck. What happens is when it’s so dark, the camera briefly raises the ISO to let enough light into find it’s focus before resetting it back to how it was.
Focus Mode
Live View Continuous
Focus POints
Single Point
Focused on
The Bride
Equipment &
Exif
Camera
Lens
Flash
Filter
1/160 @ f/2 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 set completely and it was literally the last little bits of light left. Because of this, we tried to find a spot where the sun was behind us so whatever light was available, was able to light our couple enough for us to see them. Fortunately, this worked quite well when we edited the shot as we could recover enough details.
Light Type
Natural Light
Time of day
Blue Hour
Editing Workflow
How did you edit this image?
To edit this shot, I applied our experimental preset which generally is quite light in terms of what it manipulates, and immediately noticed the amount of noise it brought out. So the first thing I did was increase the noise reduction sliders (luminance and Chromatic) to remove the noise before doing more adjustments. I tweaked the exposure, contrasts, and the usual things but I spent most of the time in the HSL panel trying to get the skin tones to that warmth that we like. This was of course aided by increasing the White Balance as much as possible. Finally, I removed the bra strap in photoshop as I knew this was something the Bride asked about, and going that extra mile is worth it.
Editing Software
Adobe Lightroom Classic
Preset Used
Challenges
Amongst many challenges, focusing was definitely the one that we had to overcome the most. Being so dark, it really was hard to nail the shot all the while our couple was having their moment together.
Solutions
The only way we solved this was to just try. Keep refocusing or trying new spots on the couple to see if the camera was able to find it’s lock.
Location
Location Name
Cala Tarida, Ibiza
Location aDDRESS
07829 Sant Josep de sa Talaia, Balearic Islands, Spai
Loation Type
Beach / Coastal
Country
Spain
It’s always nice to end the shoot on a good note, so when you’re setting up the shots and you know it’s going to be the last ones, then tell your couple. let them know that they’re done & free afterwards and you may just squeeze out that little moment of pure, authentic beauty from them knowing that they had their awesome shoot.
