- Alps
- Model
- Styled Shoot
- simple
- Reflector
- Posed
- Natural Light
- Mountains
- Middle Thirds
- Back lit
- Mid range
- intimate
- Harsh Light
- Center Framed
- calm
- Bright
- Bridal Portrait
- sunny
The story behind the image
When the weather did clear up, we didn’t want to waste any time and took our bride out to the spot and started shooting. We feared that if we waited for the right light, that the weather would have turned for the worse and we would have walked away with nothing.
Shooting in harsh light is not the easiest. Thats for sure. But sometimes a nifty little diffuser can save you a lot of headaches. If you don’t have a diffuser near by, think outside the box. All you need to do is create soft light on your subject. You could use a white bed sheet (if you want to keep one just in case in your bag), an umbrella or even a t-shirt.
Just keep in mind that the translucency of the item that you use has an impact on the softness of the light. Things that don’t let light through (a wooden slab, for example) would cast a strong shadow. Whereas a white piece of material will give you a much softer shadow.
Directions
Describe how you spoke to your subject(s)
We had our bride turn her shoulder towards us and bring her face and chin down just so it gently touches the shoulder. Along with this, we wanted to create a “deep, thought provoking mood” and so we simply asked her to close her eyes. We also made sure she kept her bouquet up high so we could keep it in frame.
What did you say?
Turn to your side and have your shoulder towards us. Gently turn your head so your chin touches it. Raise your shoulder slightly and close your eyes
Tone of Directions
Calm
Composition
We wanted to bring the attention straight to this mood and our brides expression. We framed it close up and had her fill the frame diagonally so we had enough room to show where she was amongst the mountains while also keeping the impact on her directly. We wanted to have the bouquet included in the frame and so we made sure she held it high up enough to do so.
framing
Center Framed
Focusing
Describe how you spoke to your subject(s)
Our goal in this shot was to have our couple sharp and on point. We move our single point focus dot over one of their faces so long as they are on the same plain so that we know that their eyes, smile and emotions will be sharp. We do not use back button focusing, so that means we’re always
depressing the shutter button to make sure it’s locking on to our spot.
Focus Mode
Single Shot Autofocus
Focus POints
Single Point
Focused on
The Brides face
Equipment &
Exif
Camera
Lens
Flash
Filter
1/2500 @ f/2.5 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
As the sun was very harsh on this clear sky day, we had to solve this by using a diffuser between our bride and the sun. Its very easy to achieve when you have it as you simply pay attention to where the shadow casted by the diffuser falls on your subject and keep it in position while shooting.
Light Type
Natural Light
Weather
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
The main challenge we faced here was with the light being incredibly harsh and causing really strong shadows on our bride. Even though we had our bride amongst neutral coloured grounds (which reduced color casts), we still struggled with getting our softly lit portrait without the help from something to shade the sun.
Solutions
We always keep a diffuser in our car (just above our spare tyre in the boot) as an emergency resort. This diffuser worked wonders for doing the close up bridal portraits – however, as the diffuser is pretty small in comparison to the size of our bride, we couldn’t use it to photograph full body shots. We had to wait until the sun dropped a lot more.
Location
Location Name
No specific name
Location aDDRESS
Riedboden, mittenwald, germany
Loation Type
Mountains
Country
Germany
If you can, always keep a diffuser or something that you can use as one somewhere handy. In our case, we have a diffuser in our car most of the time and bring it out when its absolutely necessary. It’s an easy to use tool and can pack down quite small so travelling with it is no problem.
When you’re going for a deep mood; try close your brides eyes and even have her relax her smile to the point where she has the tiniest of smirks, or even none at all. Just make sure that she doesn’t look “angry” or “upset”.
