- Center Framed
- full body
- Groom
- Groom Portrait
- Indoor
- Kitchen
- Natural Light
- Soft Light
- Unposed
- Wide
- Window Light
The story behind the image
That being said, we totally wanted to grab a few shots with him in the room as we still had a bit of time to kill. We told him to go in so long, poor himself a bit of gin/whiskey (can’t remember) and hang out while we do our quick location scout test.
While chilling, and sipping away at his drink – we grabbed this frame. Nothing was said to him. He just naturally lent on the kitchen counter and waited for us to do our thing. It’s a cool moment as it also shows the ‘calm before the storm’. Sometimes these little unplanned moments are just too awesome to ignore and can really help build the story.
Composition
We really wanted to keep as much of the room decoration in the picture but at the same time not loose the attention towards the groom. So we chose to shoot in portrait to allow us more vertical real estate and to limit how much of the rest of the room made it in the image. We also tried to frame our groom in the gap of the shelves ( happened by chance) as it created a mini-frame around him.
framing
Center Framed
Focusing
Describe how you spoke to your subject(s)
The focusing was very straight forward; we simply moved our single focus point over the face of our groom and let the camera lock on. Even though we did shift ourselves slightly between shots to fine tune the composition, we didn’t really struggle landing focus.
Focus Mode
Single Shot Autofocus
Focus POints
Single Point
Focused on
The Groom's Face
Equipment &
Exif
Camera
Lens
Flash
Filter
1/125 @ f/2.5 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
The room was relatively dark, considering it was a full clear day outside. There were two windows on either side of the kitchen counter where our groom leant. It was by chance that he found this spot to hang out on, and so we didn’t really need to move him according to the light.
Light Type
Natural Light
Weather
Indoor
Editing Workflow
How did you edit this image?
Editing this image was pretty easy – all we did was add in our starting preset (Protea) and then adjusted the white balance to get the skin tones we liked, adjusted the exposure sliders until we got the mood and tones to our liking and finally did a simple scour of spot removing with the clone tool (removed some dish soap by the sink). Finally, we added a radial adjustment to create a manual vignette around our groom which brings even more attention to our groom.
Editing Software
Adobe Lightroom Classic
Preset Used
Challenges
A challenge with this shot was being ready to take the picture in time before he decided to move. We didn’t want to disturb him or even catch his attention as what he was doing was just perfect.
Solutions
In this situation, keeping quiet and just shooting was the key. Without mentioning or saying anything, we moved ourselves into position, set up our exposure and fired away.
Location
Location Name
Quinta da Penalva
Location aDDRESS
Quinta da Penalva, Sintra, Portugal
Loation Type
Kitchen
Country
Portugal
Moments like these can happen without any warning and it really boils down to just being ready for anything as well as luck. Pure and simple. Not every shot has been carefully, creatively and meticulously planned for. A lot of the times it’s just the stars and moon aligning and luck happening. And thats okay – we all get lucky sometimes.
But how do you increase your chances of being lucky? Well, being agile, fast and experienced with your equipment, your style and your vision. And this takes time; so don’t beat yourself up just yet if you’re new. Keep at it, and soon enough you’ll start to see moments before they happen and you’ll see images without needing to hold the camera up to your eye.
