- Beach
- Island
- Sunset
- Soft Light
- running
- Pushing
- Playful
- Natural Light
- Movement
- Leading lines
- Laughing
- humour
- Blue Hour
- holding each other
- games
- Funny
- Fun
- full body
- Energetic
- Cloudy
- Clouds
- Center Framed
- Bright
- Water
The story behind the image
It was 50/50. Should we do it? Yeah or Nah? Yeah alright. And that was absolutely the right thing. Not only did we have a super good time for the next 30 mins of however long the light lasted, we actually came back with some pretty awesome shots to share!
So, the message here is to just do it. If you have the chance to shoot something, do it. At some point, picking up a camera can start to feel like a chore. Like just “work again”. But sometimes you need to get through that moment and let it remind you of how fun it can actually be.
It’s an amazing thing to turn your passion into your career. It really is. But it’s a challenge to keep it a passion throughout the career :)
Directions
Describe how you spoke to your subject(s)
We asked our friends to just be themselves and be silly. We had them walk down the beach away from us, with arms around each other and while doing so, to bump into each other, tease each other and just… be. We cheered them on as they giggled, and kept the energy up high too .
What did you say?
Bump into each other! There you go! (Girl), try and push him into tho the water! Even give each other a playful kiss while doing it!
Composition
We chose to shoot this in portrait since we only really wanted a little bit of the distant rock and palm tree to make an appearance. That way, it didn’t dominate the focus of the viewer. We also tried to get our couple more in the center but they fell slightly off to the side. It’s not perfect but that’s just it. You don’t need to have a perfectly composed image for it to be great. It’s just got to capture something beautiful.
framing
Center Framed
Focusing
Describe how you spoke to your subject(s)
Being quite a high energy scene to capture, we really had to pay attention to where our focus point was at all times. We positioned it over the middle of our couple so it allowed us a bit of wiggle room in case we couldn’t keep them exactly where we wanted.
Focus Mode
Single Shot Autofocus
Focus POints
Single Point
Focused on
The Guys back
Equipment &
Exif
Camera
Lens
Flash
Filter
1/320 @ f/1.6 ISO500 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 during the blue hour, as we only had about 10-20mins of light left to shoot. Blue hour is that point where the sun has already dropped below the horizon, but only just. The sky turns from the golden sunset color to a blue hue. Stunning. And super pretty to shoot in and warm up in post later on.
Light Type
Natural Light
Time of day
Sunset
Weather
Editing Workflow
How did you edit this image?
Edited with “The Roots Presets Classic”, the edits focus on keeping the skin tones creamy warm while balancing the tones of the rest of the image. Using the included toolkit, we were able to quickly boost the blues to bring back a bit of those tropical colors.
Editing Software
Adobe Lightroom Classic
Preset Used
Challenges
The biggest challenge we had here was the amount of time we had to shoot. From the point where we decided to actually do the shoot and the point where it became too dark was approximately 30minutes. So, we had to get going – and going fast.
Solutions
Under such a time constraint, the best thing to do is to (as best as you can) decide on what shots you want. You aren’t given the luxury of taking your time – you’ve got to move quite fast. That, with also giving off the right ‘mood’ for your couple can be tricky – but just staying calm and focusing more on having a good time with your couple is key. If you don’t get all the shots you wanted, so what. Move on. Don’t dwell on it – especially if it’s a “free, fun shoot”. Just go out and have fun.
Location
Location Name
The Frog Rock
Location aDDRESS
UNAWATUNA, SRI LANKA
Loation Type
Beach / Coastal
Country
Sri Lanka
Maybe it’s the same for other established professionals in the industry, maybe it’s just us, but sometimes it’s hard to pick up a camera and go out and shoot just for fun. If you ever find yourself in that situation – there’s no harm in taking a little break in your quiet season. Better yet, if you can put together a shoot that you know will be hella good fun, do it. Learn to love your craft again.
When shooting during the blue hour, it’s definitely wise to have already started a bit before. That way, you don’t need to rush yourself or your couples through that beautiful light. Give yourselves enough time and planning and things will be just fine.
