- Blue Hour
- Looking down
- Walking
- Unposed
- Sunset
- Natural Light
- Natural
- Movement
- Moody
- Mid range
- mid framed shot
- Interracial
- broken rules
- holding hands
- hand in hand
- Evening
- Directional Light
- Dark
- colorful sky
- Colorful
- cliffs
- Center Framed
- Wind
The story behind the image
That’s exactly how this shot came about. We were walking back to the hotel, while still in good light, and told them to just simply walk as they would normally. We then moved around them finding the right angles. We chose to use this image as the light and the color of the sky was way more pretty than in any other angles we found.
Directions
Describe how you spoke to your subject(s)
We celebrated the end of the shoot with the couple and then asked them to walk normally back to the hotel. We let them know that we’ll still be taking photos and that they should just ignore us and go right ahead. Also, not to walk too fast. They naturally held hands and the rest happened spontaneously.
What did you say?
Woohoo! Well done guys! Let’s head back to the hotel and get you to your party. When you’re walking, we’re still going to be taking photos so don’t mind us. Just walk as you would, even hold hands if you like, and we’ll take our shots. Just try not to run or walk too fast because we still need to float around you guys.
Composition
We chose to keep this shot a bit more full with the couple instead of completely wide since we found the emotion, wind in the hair, and light all were more significant closer up. We kept the bride in the middle of the frame, with the groom trailing on the left. This feels a bit unbalanced but when you noticed the colors of the sunset to the right, the image feels that much more balanced. Also, when there’s movement, it’s generally a good idea to leave a bit of space to where the subjects are moving to. But of course, rules can be broken.
framing
Center Framed
Focusing
Describe how you spoke to your subject(s)
Even though it was quite dark at this time, our cameras did a great job of focusing. We simply moved the focus box over our couple and let the AI servo tracking do its thing. We kept the shutter button half-pressed throughout to keep the focus tracking while we moved our positions slightly. Of course, if we went too far or too wild, we’d lose focus and would simply have to re-press the shutter button.
Focus Mode
Live View Continuous
Focus POints
Single Point
Focused on
The Bride
Equipment &
Exif
Camera
Lens
Flash
Filter
1/80 @ f/1.4 ISO1600 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
This was taken right after the sun had set and we were losing light quite fast. Since we were just shooting to end the story, we didn’t really position our couple in any specific position though fortunately, the sun was right in front of them. This meant that they were lit from their fronts which really helped us with our exposure.
Light Type
Natural Light
Time of day
Sunset
Editing Workflow
How did you edit this image?
To edit this shot, we applied our protea presets and had to adjust a few things. We got the exposure and contrasts all sorted out to the mood we wanted ( paying attention to not blow out the sky ) and tweaked the white balance to get the warmth and tones we wanted. We then ventured into the HSL sliders to adjust the oranges, reds, yellows, blues, and purples to see how much of those colors we could bring out or mute. Finally, we added a vignette via a radial filter as it helped us to bring more attention to our couple by darkening the edges of the frame.
Editing Software
Adobe Lightroom Classic
Preset Used
Challenges
The biggest hurdle was to find a composition that worked the best while shooting as we also had to pay attention to our own footing since we were walking over rocks.
Solutions
It helped to have the couple walk relatively calmly and slowly which allowed us to experiment with the angles. We also shot a little wider knowing that we could crop in while editing.
Location
Location Name
Alba Suites Hotel
Location aDDRESS
Estr. de Albandeira, 8400-403 Lagoa, Portugal
Loation Type
Cliffs
Country
Portugal
As always, keep shooting. Shoot until you can’t anymore. It’s not only good for coming back with more impressive shots, but it’s also storytelling. Think of an ending to your session and document it – as it’s always nice to go through a gallery that takes the viewers on a journey.
