- Bokeh
- Leading lines
- Vendors
- Vendor
- Unposed
- Soft Light
- Natural
- Mid range
- Indoor
- Candid
- Germany
- Dinner Setup
- Dark
- Center Framed
- Candles
- candle light
- Wedding Details
The story behind the image
Photographing other vendors while they work is not only a huge compliment, but it’s an awesome way to make strong networks with each other and even have more ways to share each other’s work on social media.
Composition
Composing for this frame meant that we wanted to keep the shot wide enough to have context and to capture the details in the room, but close up enough to feel more immersed in the frame. We angled ourselves so the table ran from the bottom left to the top right diagonally, allowing the viewers to travel right the way through the image.
framing
Center Framed
Focusing
Describe how you spoke to your subject(s)
Focusing in a candle-lit room can be challenging, but fortunately, there were enough candles and ambient light to work with to get the focus. Since the vendor was the main subject in this image, we made sure to focus on her.
Focus Mode
Single Shot Autofocus
Focus POints
Single Point
Focused on
The Girls hands
Equipment &
Exif
Camera
Lens
Flash
Filter
1/100 @ f/2 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
We chose to shoot towards the candles and have them fall into the bokeh to create these bubbles of light in the background. Another reason we did this was that the candles would create a beautiful, even if soft, rim light around our vendor, helping to separate her from the background. Finally, the main ambient light source (open doors) was off to our left, which helped light up the front of our subject.
Light Type
Candles
Weather
Indoor
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
The only difficulty we had when shooting this image was that our vendor wasn’t quite aware that we were doing this, and therefore she moved from one spot to the next. But this was a conscious decision not to alert her – we wanted a very natural shot of her doing the finishing touches.
Solutions
What helps is to keep shooting. Rather walk away with 50 bad shots and 1 great shot, than miss the whole moment trying to get that 1 perfect image. If we felt we missed it, we would have simply asked her to just ‘pretend’ to do it all again.
Location
Location Name
Vila Vita
Location aDDRESS
Eventscheune Dagobertshausen, Im Dorfe 14, 35041 Marburg
Loation Type
Wedding / Event Venue
Country
Germany
In the end, you’re a business. And the more ways you can promote yourself, the better. One of the lesser-known ways is to take pictures of vendors in action. They will more than likely be super happy to have some cool shots of themselves and will opt to share them on social media and their website. So long as you agree that they will tag you / link to you then there you go.
Working with candlelight definitely has its challenges but if you can take your time and get things right, you can get some really beautiful and romantic shots. Don’t shy away from challenges and tough situations – take the chance to learn and grow from it.
