- Beach
- intimate
- Sunset
- Stormy
- sand dunes
- Outdoor
- Moody
- lower angle
- holding hands
- calm
- gentle
- embrace
- dry grass
- Dark
- colorful sky
- Cloudy
- windy
The story behind the image
Directions
Describe how you spoke to your subject(s)
We asked our couple to stand facing each other and to hold hands like they were about to dance. What was important was to allow the dress to catch a bit of the wind and float; and so we asked them to try and move their bodies to allow this to happen. It was just simply moving side to side until they found the right direction. Finally, as they were holding hands, we encouraged them to get really nice and close, and snuggle into each other.
What did you say?
Guys, the wind in the dress looks insane! Hold your hands like you were to be dancing with each other, and get really nice and close. Even snuggle into each other. And while you’re doing this, move a little bit, side to side, to help let the wind catch the dress
Tone of Directions
Calm
Composition
We purposely had our couple stand on this hill as we wanted to shoot slightly lower down from them which would completely hide the rest of the beach & car traffic behind them. It also meant that we could place them on the background of the awesome sky. Since we didn’t have too many compositional elements in this frame to work with, we kept them in the center with enough breathing room around them to show context.
framing
Lower Thirds
Focusing
Describe how you spoke to your subject(s)
The focusing was actually really slow due to the low light. There was no special trick that we did and just had to keep trying and trying until we nailed it. What we did do though was shoot in single shot and just refocused each time as it helped us to really find that lock. We tried to move our focus point on the shoulder of the bride as the dress made it be a bit more contrasty, theoretically helping the camera to find its focus.
Focus Mode
Single Shot Autofocus
Focus POints
Single Point
Focused on
The Bride's Shoulder
Equipment &
Exif
Camera
Lens
Flash
Filter
1/400 @ f/1.8 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
As the light had set just off to the left of the image, we still wanted to catch whatever rays it had left – and so we positioned our couple so that they would be turned slightly towards the light. It didn’t matter too much if they moved out of position since it really wasn’t such a strong directional light, but we chose to do it anyways just in case we could come back with a nice range of highlights and shadows to play with.
Light Type
Natural Light
Time of day
Blue Hour
Weather
Cloudy
Editing Workflow
How did you edit this image?
For this edit, we wanted to keep it more on the dark/evening feel as this is what the moment was all about. The last remnants of light. Naturally, our couple are a bit darker than what we would usually go for but we liked the overall feeling of it. We started with our Protea presets as a base, and then systematically went through each slider and adjusted things to get the tones we liked. We then added in quite a few radial adjustments to enhance the light coming from the left of the image, as well as to create manual vignettes as well as to brighten certain parts of our couple. We then took the brush and did some very light dodging and burning on the couple.
Editing Software
Adobe Lightroom Classic
Preset Used
Challenges
The focus was definitely the biggest challenge here as it was really so dark and the camera really struggled to find it’s lock. It also didn’t help that the couple was moving, on purpose, and so it definitely made it that much harder.
Solutions
We tried positioning our single focus point in different places and set the camera to burst mode, and literally shot enough frames to make a movie. We didn’t mind – we just really wanted to increase the chance of getting that perfect shot.
Location
Location Name
Sankt Peter-Ording
Location aDDRESS
Sankt Peter-Ording, Germany
Loation Type
Sand Dune
Country
Germany
There is nothing wrong with coming back with a ton of photos from the session. Digital files cost almost nothing in comparison to film, and memory cards are becoming even more affordable each year. When you shoot a lot, not only do you get higher chances of nailing that one perfect shot – but you’re also exposed to a bunch of images that ‘didn’t work, and while you’re culling and going through them – you’ll start to understand why they didnt work. It may have been the focusing, the light, the exposure or even the pose the couple was in.
We have learnt a tremendous amount from our own mistakes this way, and this is largely why we have a habit of filling up a good few memory cards even when the shoot may be under 2 hours.
