- bouquet
- Laughing
- Trees
- Soft Light
- Smile at flowers
- Shade
- Playful
- Over Shoulder
- Natural Light
- Mid range
- Jokes
- Bridal Portrait
- green
- Free
- Flowers hold
- Energetic
- Close up
- Center framing
- Center Framed
- Bushes
- Wide
The story behind the image
It can happen that you simply don’t have enough time to take your bride or groom out to a cool location for their portraits during the getting ready and by taking a moment during the couple shoot to take more portraits is always a huge plus.
It also serves as a break for your couple. It gives them a little “rest” from all the mega loving & cuddling together and can totally relax & allow themselves to get into the moment.
For this shot, we took refuge on a shaded path from the harsh sun and our goal here was to have our bride show how content she was. How happy, and relaxed she felt during her day.
Directions
Describe how you spoke to your subject(s)
Being a relatively “still pose”, we had our bride stand just under 90 degrees (side profile) to us with her back towards the light / opening of the forest (where the light came from). We then asked her to cradle her flowers like a baby, and then to look over her right shoulder and down at the flowers. We threw in a bunch of jokes, compliments & goodness to get her feeling really good.
What did you say?
When you look over your shoulder, look down at your flowers and smile at them. Make your flowers feel loved! Smile at them! Do it! They can feel it!
Composition
We composed this shot from her hips upwards as we wanted to capture more of her emotion & the “beauty” look of the portrait. As we had already taken full body shots of the same setup, we moved up closer and framed her in the direct center. Center framing your subject on a simple background is a sure way to create a balance in the frame and make it feel whole.
framing
Center Framed
Focusing
Describe how you spoke to your subject(s)
When doing portraits, we always try and focus on our eyes. If they are closed or are not part of the composition, then we’ll move it to the point of interest which we feel is the most important. It could be the smile, the flowers, the lips or even the hands & details.
Focus Mode
Single Shot Autofocus
Focus POints
Single Point
Focused on
The Bride Face
Equipment &
Exif
Camera
Lens
Flash
Filter
1/640 @ f/2.5 ISO125 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
As we were not too deep into the shaded pathway amongst the forest, we could still capture directional light from the entrance of the forest. We had our bride stand with her back towards the light because we wanted her to turn her head over her shoulder to look at her flowers – resulting in her face being lit from the front.
Light Type
Natural Light
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
We had no particular challenge with this image except that we had to keep an eye on the pose. Sometimes your subject can turn ‘too far’ over their shoulder which makes them look really uncomfortable & unnatural.
Solutions
To help with this, turn their whole body slightly more towards you instead of exactly 90 degrees (side profile). By opening the shoulders more to your direction, they would find they don’t need to reach too far and can find themselves in a much more comfortable posture.
Location
Location Name
Freigeist Hotel
Location aDDRESS
Gesundbrunnen, 37154 Northeim, Germany
Loation Type
Hotel
Country
Germany
Always make sure to capture full body shots too. It’s really nice to have a choice later on and to even deliver both images to your clients.
It’s okay to make silly jokes when posing your bride or groom. If you’re going for genuine smiles & laughter, you’ve got to genuinely make them do that. Those, are always the best smiles.
