HOW i SHOT THiS

  • Bride
  • Landscape
  • Wedding Dress
  • Wedding
  • Walking
  • Sunset
  • Soft Light
  • Prime Lens
  • Outdoor
  • Norway
  • Natural Light
  • Movement
  • Mountains
  • Melli & Shayne
  • Laughter
  • Horizon Line
  • Canon
  • holding hands
  • Harsh Light
  • Groom
  • Golden hour
  • Funny
  • full body
  • Free
  • Energetic
  • Elopement
  • Directional Light
  • Couple Shoot
  • Couple
  • Center Framed
  • Wide

The story behind the image

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When we got a request to shoot a vow renewal in the Arctic Circle of Norway, our hearts literally stopped. We used to live in Scandinavia and so any chance to go back was always a win in our eyes. Sadly though, only one of us (Shayne) could do the trip at the time.

When I got to Tromso, Norway – I had a few days in total and part of these days was one where I was to location scout. The night before, Melli & I looked on Google Maps for some interesting spots around the area and we ended up finding this little coastal town called Hillesoy. I drove there the next morning (about an hour or so drive) and explored the whole area. I climbed up the hill/mountain to see if it was worth it with the couple (it wasn’t quite), walked along the coast, went through marshes – basically, got completely dirty.

I found this spot on the coast that offered not only spots for them to read their vows in silence, but paths to use, beaches to explore, and hillsides overlooking the arctic ocean. One thing I did note though was the wind being quite chilly, and also the sunset. It just didn’t set. It was a constant ‘golden hour’. Needless to say, it was a darn dream to photograph this.
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Directions

Describe how you spoke to your subject(s)

Making them laugh and smile is key here. Throw in jokes and make them feel comfortable about it. Have them walk towards you (or by you) while keeping their faces towards the light source. Encourage them the whole time and don’t be afraid if you sound silly! The more laughs, the better!

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What did you say?

Put your hands down! You look crazy walking with your hands in the air! Walk towards me… and look out to your right (towards the sun)

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Composition

My aim in composing this image was to show the environment and their full bodies. This brings the viewer’s attention to multiple places of interest as they are shown where they are, who they are, and how they are dressed. Keeping them center framed also brought the first attention to them while leaving the eyes to wander around after.

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framing

Center Framed

Focusing

Describe how you spoke to your subject(s)

Focusing was fairly straightforward for this shot as we had our single point directly over our couple. As the couple was walking towards me, I had to keep refocusing with each picture (easy to do as I Just release the shutter, and fully press it again) as I, at the time, was not a fan of the Servo focusing mode of the camera.

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Focus Mode

Single Shot Autofocus

Focus POints

Single Point

Focused on

The Grooms Body

Equipment &
Exif

Camera
Canon 5D Mark IV
Lens
Canon 35mm f/1.4 L II
Flash
None
Filter
None
1/500 @ f/2.0 ISO1000 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

Using directional light (Light coming from an angle) during sunset can create an incredibly dimensional image by showcasing highlights and shadows. I had them walk towards me while looking out towards the sun. This meant their faces were lit most of the time and we could really play with the shadows that fell off on the other side.

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Light Type

Natural Light

Time of day

Sunset

Weather

Editing Workflow

How did you edit this image?

To edit this shot, we used an experimental preset that we’re developing which aims to keep things nice and warm without going overboard. We wanted the whites of the dress to stay pure, but the skin tones to have that warm, silky feel to them. We adjusted all our exposure sliders to get the look we were after and then spent a bit of time in the HSL panel tweaking the hues & saturations to get the skin tones we were after. We then added a few radial filters in the image to enhance the sunlight as well as create a manual vigentte. Finally, we finished off with some grain to add some texture to the image.

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Editing Software
Adobe Lightroom Classic

Challenges

The biggest challenge I had here was the sheer cold temperatures and wind that came from the coast. We had to be fairly quick with our shots as the couple got super cold really quickly.

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Solutions

In between the shots I made sure they dressed up warm again and got their body temperatures back up. It’s so important to look after your couple and make sure they are having a good time.

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Location

Location Name

Hillesoy

Location aDDRESS

Hillesoy 9110 Sommarøy, Norway

Loation Type

Beach / Coastal

Country

Norway

Make sure to pack warm with boots and bring something for your couple to help them out too. The parking is quite central on the island and you would have to walk/hike to get to the coasts. It’s easy though.

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