- Back light
- Back lit
- Center Framed
- Ceremony
- Church
- First Kiss
- Indoor
- Mid range
- Natural Light
- Rule of thirds
- Soft Light
- Window Light
The story behind the image
For this first kiss, this shot was more “accidental” than planned as the first kiss happened to be incredibly passionate and slow-tempo’d. For this reason, after securing our safe shots with the main lenses we used (50mm + 35mm), we quickly switched over to the 85mm to grab a different perspective. We only did this once we were certain we had our safe shots.
This image isn’t tacked sharp. In fact, it’s pretty much out of focus – but what matters most is the emotion it conveys. Our couple, upon receiving it, never once mentioned or complained about the lack of focus. Instead, they said that this was the image that encapsulated their moment they shared. We were close to not delivering it since it wasn’t “technically” perfect. But we’re glad we did.
Composition
Composing with such a long lens doesn’t really allow you too much freedom, especially when it’s of a moment that goes by pretty quick. We played it safe by having our couple in the direct center and filling the whole frame with them with a bit of breathing room above and around them. We didn’t pay too much attention to the background or any other compositional elements as it was likely going to be covered in bokeh. Which, it was.
framing
Center Framed
Focusing
Describe how you spoke to your subject(s)
It turns out that we focused on the back of our bride’s head, and being somewhat close to them, the focal plain was quite unforgiving resulting in our groom (who should have been in focus) being out of focus. We shot this through the viewfinder with a single point, though in the moment, and the rush to get that shot lead the point over the bride’s head.
Focus Mode
Single Shot Autofocus
Focus POints
Single Point
Focused on
The Brides head
Equipment &
Exif
Camera
Lens
Flash
Filter
1/500 @ f/1.2 ISO500 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
There were two large windows on either side of the couple at the alter, but the one off to the left was where the sun was shining through the most. It wasn’t the easiest light as the room was so small, that the harsh light pouring in pushed our highlights pretty high. We exposed for the skin of our couple to try and retain a workable dynamic range (enough details in the highlights & shadows) to recover later in post.
Light Type
Natural Light
Weather
Indoor
Editing Workflow
How did you edit this image?
This was a pretty tricky image to edit as the focus made the image feel a lot softer than what we had liked. We spent quite a bit of time with the dodging and burning to “fake” some sharpness to a certain degree. After applying our protea presets, we adjusted the global exposures to get the tones we liked (tweaking the HSL to correct for the skin tones). We also enhanced the light slightly by using a radial filter as this helps “mask” the out of focus parts.
Editing Software
Adobe Lightroom Classic
Preset Used
Challenges
Despite missing focus, the main challenge was editing. We were not super happy with how soft it felt. It was this point where it didn’t look intentionally out of focus so it just didn’t sit right.
Solutions
We spent extra time trying new techniques to see if we could “pseudo sharpen” it. Giving the illusion, from a distance, that it was more or less in focus.
Location
Location Name
SCHLOSS FREUDENSTEIN
Location aDDRESS
Castel Freudenstein Str. Masaccio, 39057 Appiano sulla strada del vino BZ, Italy
Loation Type
Chapel
Country
Italy
Only attempt creative shots of moments like this when you know you have your safe shots. Or at least, you have another photographer who you can rely on to capture the moment perfectly. The risk of missing a decent shot is not worth it just to try something new. Even if that’s a new lens or composition.
