- Bridal Portrait
- Leading lines
- Unposed
- Sultry
- Soft Light
- Serious
- Roots Presets
- Private Home
- Persian
- Natural Light
- Natural
- Moody
- Looking down
- Indoor
- calm
- Highlights Shadows
- Head Piece
- Germany
- Free
- Directional Light
- Deep
- Dark Room
- Contrasty
- Closed Eyes
- Close up
- Center Framed
- Window Light
The story behind the image
Directions
Describe how you spoke to your subject(s)
When we saw our bride naturally fall into this pose, we didn’t want to disturb her. Saying anything risked her looking up towards us out of politeness and missing such a natural moment. We very gently & soft-spokenly asked her to not lookup. This just allowed us that little moment longer to shoot even more frames.
What did you say?
[Bride] without looking up – just keep what you’re doing. It’s absolutely gorgeous. The way your head is tilted downwards is friggen amazing
Tone of Directions
Calm
Composition
We framed this so that the headpiece was the first to grab the attention. By having it right in the middle, we are able to take the viewer’s attention to the headpiece before letting the viewer explore the rest of the frame. It’s a dominant composition, which is exactly the feeling we wanted to go for.
framing
Center Framed
Focusing
Describe how you spoke to your subject(s)
As this moment happened pretty spontaneously, we had to be quick with moving our focus point. While we knew the headpiece would be relatively in focus, we chose to focus on our bride’s eyelashes as they too have a role in this image. Humans are naturally drawn to eyes in an image, and it’s never a bad idea to keep them sharp.
Focus Mode
Single Shot Autofocus
Focus POints
Single Point
Focused on
The Brides eyes
Equipment &
Exif
Camera
Lens
Flash
Filter
1/200 @ f/1.6 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
In the getting ready room, we were blessed with large windows off to our right while the rest of the room was painted in a dark color. Since we had plenty of space, we had our bride stand across to the window light so that we could create some dimensions to her via the highlights & shadows. We also made sure not to stand too close to the window otherwise the contrast would have been a bit too harsh.
Light Type
Natural Light
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
When a moment like this comes out of nowhere, getting into position and getting your settings right while also trying not to disturb your subject and potentially disrupt the moment definitely is a challenge.
Solutions
There is no secret formula to being proficient with your camera than to just learn it as best as you can; and practice. All the time. As for not disturbing the moment, we spoke incredibly softly. Almost like our bride wouldn’t hear us, yet still audible. We also started the sentence with “Without looking up” which immediately tells her to “not move”.
Location
Location Name
Private Home
Location aDDRESS
Nuremberg, Germany
Loation Type
Private Home / AirBnB / Apartment
Country
Germany
When you see a moment happen that you don’t want to disturb, but feel that you have to say something in order to not let it slip by; then absolutely approach it with delicacy. Start your sentence with exactly what you want your subject to do. Don’t beat around the bush because they will likely get confused as to what you want and then it’s over.
Shoot a lot. There is no real excuse if you’re shooting digital as memory cards are pretty affordable. Shooting a lot, even of the same moment, helps up your chances of getting that perfect moment. You can always pick out the best one later when you cull.
