- Beach
- calm
- Center Framed
- Cloudy
- Dark
- Evening
- lantern
- looking at bride
- Low Light
- Moody
- night
- Outdoor
- Stormy
- Wind
The story behind the image
It was at this moment that we were about to say “Congratulations you guys! We’re done! Let’s go get warm, fed & drunk!” But we didn’t. We say this very image in our mind; where our groom held the light up close to them and leaned in to cuddle while our bride would look out or look at the light. We had no idea at the time if it’d even work or if it would have been worth it, but we did it anyway.
After getting a few shots of this, and then going through the whole editing process a few days later, this very shot was one of the hardest to edit. It was so challenging that we almost discarded it because we felt that it just wasn’t worth it. But, we took a break. We revisited it later and tried editing it again with new eyes, and we figured it out! We found a way to get it to how we wanted it to be!
Sometimes it’s all about taking a little break.
Directions
Describe how you spoke to your subject(s)
We had our couple sit really, really close to each other, and lean in. We then asked our groom to raise the lantern up close to their face so it could bring more light; and while doing that to just gently lean against the bride’s forehead with his. At this moment, we then asked our bride to turn slightly to look at the candle; and simply let them be. Like watching a campfire together.
What did you say?
“[Groom], hold the lantern up high so it can light both your faces and really get close to her. Now, turn and lean with your forehead against her temple and close your eyes, take a breath, and just enjoy her right now. [Bride], you can look out towards the candle, completely relaxed and enjoying [Groom]’s cuddles”
Tone of Directions
Calm
Composition
We had taken a few wider shots as well as landscape shots of this moment, but we stuck with this portrait version because it felt more intimate. We were also able to keep our bride on one of the intersections of the rule-of-thirds grid that naturally help balance the frame. By keeping the couple in the middle, we draw all the attention to them and their intimate moment.
framing
Center Framed
Focusing
Describe how you spoke to your subject(s)
Focusing on such low light is never easy. At this point, a lot of it was a hit or a miss, but we still tried our best to nail it as close as we could. We shot through the viewfinder and moved our single point over the groom’s face since he was lit the most. This light absolutely helped find the focus and since both the bride and groom’s faces were so close to each other – none of them were out of focus.
Focus Mode
Single Shot
Focus POints
Single Focus Point
Focused on
The Groom's face
Equipment &
Exif
Camera
Lens
Flash
Filter
1/640 @ f/1.4 ISO2000 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 only light we had in this shot was coming from the candle. By having it raised up and just to the side of our subject’s face, we were able to light one side of them, while allowing a bit of shadow to appear on the other side. This adds so much more dimension to the couple as they aren’t flat in the frame. We did ask that they not keep the candle too close to them predominantly for safety reasons, but also to control how intense it lit them.
Light Type
Artificial Light
Time of day
Blue Hour
Weather
Stormy
Editing Workflow
How did you edit this image?
Editing this picture took the most amount of work as it was a very tricky lighting situation to work with and one we are not so experienced in either. We really struggled with getting it right, and so by taking a break from editing it for a few days, we were able to come back and try new approaches. We started with our base Protea preset, and then focused only on the skin and the tones. We tweaked everything from the exposure, shadows, highlights, saturation as well as the HSL until we got tones that we quite liked. Afterwards, we then added in some radial adjustments to darken the corners of the image. We then focused in on the candle and enhanced this with radial adjustments too by dropping the dehaze slider and increasing the white balance warmth.
Editing Software
Adobe Lightroom Classic
Preset Used
Challenges
There were quite a few challenges in this shot, but the one that was definitely the hardest was the editing part. It was a hard balance between finding something that looks natural, looks good, and looks consistent with the rest of our work.
Solutions
We stopped editing this specific shot for a while and came back to it later with completely fresh eyes. We tried different approaches and eventually we found that by doing a lot more local adjustments (brush, gradient, radial), we were able to have a lot more control over problematic parts.
Location
Location Name
Sankt Peter-Ording
Location aDDRESS
Sankt Peter-Ording, Germany
Loation Type
Beach / Coastal
Country
Germany
Allow yourself to take a break when it comes to editing. Sometimes we’ll stare at the screen for so long that we’ll get used to certain colors and certain imperfections that we just don’t notice it anymore. By taking a break, even a few days, you’ll be able to see things you couldn’t before. And, you may even have a whole new sense of motivation too.
When ‘playing with fire’, absolutely always, no matter what, who, when, or why – safety. is. first. Since we were more than just the couple and the photographers, we always had a bunch of eyes on what was happening.
