- Center Framed
- Dinner
- gentle
- holding each other
- Indoor
- Mid range
- Natural
- Natural Light
- Rule of thirds
- Soft Light
- Speeches
- Unposed
- Window Light
The story behind the image
In this image, we had seen our groom standing with his arm over his bride looking out towards the dinner party and as we moved to get into position – he changed. He dropped his arm and was about to head off somewhere. That moment we saw was definitely one we kicked ourselves for missing.
But to our fortune, the groom turned towards us and caught our eyes. We signaled to him to put his arm back on his bride as he did a moment ago and without hesitation, he fell right back into that position. While this moment could be seen as “staged”, the truth is – it did happen. We just took it upon ourselves to find a way to capture it.
Directions
Describe how you spoke to your subject(s)
As our groom turned towards our direction, we made eye contact and very softly (as to not draw attention to ourselves from anyone else) asked him to put his arm back around his bride like he was just doing. We used a lot of our own body movement too so he understood what we meant without too much thought.
What did you say?
[very softly and while looking directly at our groom] Could you just put your arm back around {bride} like you were just doing? perfect!
Composition
The composition in this shot is all about balancing the frame. We had our groom fall on the right third of the image, with our bride in the middle while also allowing some space on the first third to show the setting of the environment. So there are 3 main points of interest in this composition. The dinner, the bride and the groom. Balanced throughout the frame.
framing
Center Framed
Focusing
Describe how you spoke to your subject(s)
Sometimes we want to compose an image from a certain angle that would be quite awkward for us to bend over and look through the viewfinder to find the frame. In this case, we held our camera low and switched on liveview. That way we could easily see what we were including and excluding from the frame while also allowing the camera to focus on our couple.
Focus Mode
Single Shot Autofocus
Focus POints
Single Point
Focused on
The Brides Face
Equipment &
Exif
Camera
Lens
Flash
Filter
1/400 @ f/2.2 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
The main light source was coming from the open doors just behind and to the left of our couple. Since the barn was quite big with a few more windows around, there was a decent amount of ambient light filling the room. We positioned ourselves to frame the composition to allow just a bit of the door light to appear in the image as to not let it wash out with too much flare.
Light Type
Natural Light
Weather
Indoor
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 had here was actually building up the courage to ask our groom to go back to this position. We really wanted this image but were also conflicted at that moment about staging it, and in return have an image that looks very unnatural.
Solutions
We came to the realization that it’s just simply worth it. If we said nothing, the moment was gone anyways. And if it didn’t turn out as great as we had hoped, then perhaps it wouldn’t have made it in the final gallery. No harm, no foul. We have no regrets asking our groom to do this for us.
Location
Location Name
Private Home
Location aDDRESS
Helsinki, Finland
Loation Type
Private Home / AirBnB / Apartment
Country
Finland
It can happen to all of us that we just miss a moment. Don’t let anyone tell you differently. After all, there are a ton of things happening all around us the whole time and we simply can’t be in 10 places at once.
It doesn’t hurt to ask someone to redo something so long as it would be natural. Try not to force it and rather than go and direct the person/people into that position again, just signal with your body langue or hand gestures to do it once more. You may come out with an awesome shot, you may not – but you won’t know if you don’t try.
