- Bounced Light
- Minimalistic
- white room
- symmetry
- symmetrical
- Soft Light
- simple
- Portrait
- Natural Light
- natural frames
- minimal
- Center Framed
- Leading lines
- Indoors
- Indoor
- hanging dress
- full length
- fabric
- Dress
- Details
- white walls
The story behind the image
We found this room that was being used for storage at the time and asked the bride if we could move things around to set up a few detail shots. She agreed and we got to work. While moving things, we noticed all these lines created by the planks of wood, and our eye for composition just blew up. We knew exactly where we wanted to shoot the dress and that was that.
Composition
The leading lines are the most obvious to notice when looking at this image. All the lines lead straight towards the dress which creates a natural direction for the eyes to follow. It also creates a feeling of symmetry which is inherently pleasing to humans. We placed the dress on it’s hanger, hung it up on the door and shifted it to find a composition that hid the door handles while also being central to our composition.
framing
Center Framed
Focusing
Describe how you spoke to your subject(s)
Shooting white on white can be a bit tricky for the camera as it’s looking for contrasts to determine what is in focus and what isn’t. In this case, we moved our focus point to the edge of the dress where it meets the background since this is where the most contrast was. As the dress & the background were on the exact same plane, they both landed in focus which was exactly what we were after.
Focus Mode
Single Shot Autofocus
Focus POints
Single Point
Focused on
The edge of the dress
Equipment &
Exif
Camera
Lens
Flash
Filter
1/80 @ f/5 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 room became a giant softbox due to the fact that it was painted white and there were two large windows letting in sunlight just to the right of the frame. It was really easy to photograph in and position something since everything had a soft light; which worked in our favour not only because it was super simple but because we wanted to go with a minimalistic shot for the dress.
Light Type
Natural Light
Weather
Indoor
Editing Workflow
How did you edit this image?
The editing was kept very simple with this shot. We applied our Marula preset and adjusted the exposure, contrasts, and tones to our liking. We add a tad touch of warmth with the white balance and finally finished off with a bit of grain to add texture to the highlights.
Editing Software
Adobe Lightroom Classic
Preset Used
Challenges
THe main challenge we had was actually sticking the dress up on the door. The door was not staying in place when we left it and when it moved the dress was at risk to fall off & get dirty/broken. We also had the risk that someone could barge in from the other side of the door not knowing what we were doing inside.
Solutions
Firstly, we realized that when we open the door slightly we can use the top of the doorframe to hook the hanger on it. That worked out just fine. Secondly, to keep the door from swinging open and also to keep people at bay, one of us went outside and held the door handle while the other shot pictures.
Location
Location Name
Private Home
Location aDDRESS
Vantaa, Finland
Loation Type
Private Home / AirBnB / Apartment
Country
Finland
Sometimes simplicity is the way to go. You don’t always have to overcomplicate things when creating your images. Keep the composition simple, the editing simple, the focusing simple. It’s also a good idea to scout the room(s) when you arrive so you already have a mental picture of where you want to take what photos where and whether or not you need to clean up/tidy up things.
