I simply asked them to stand in a certain way without too much energy or laughter. My goal with this was to create a really strong, contemporary image and by removing the usual “laughing, smiling and kissing” moments, we’re left with two beautiful humans.
David, stand here in the light and look over your left shoulder and just contemplate. Completely at ease. Lilian, I want you in the back in that spot of light and to gaze over to David.
Calm
The main goal in the composition of this image was to create mood and give the image a little bit of that abstract feel to it. I achieved this by making sure the light was on them and underexposing the background. The less clutter I could have in the frame the better the image would be.
Broken Rules
WideNegative Space
I focused on the bride for this shot. Whilst I debated in my own mind where to focus I figured that naturally one would want to focus on the subject closer to the camera, so I did the opposite.
Single Shot Autofocus
Single Point
Bride's eyes
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.
This was completely natural light. The light was behind me but hitting my couple directly. This is possibly the hardest light to work with because typically it’s so harsh that you’d want the light behind them. But in this image, the harsh light is EVERYTHING that makes this moody image work. Make sure you tell your couple not to look at the light directly… (for obvious reasons).
Natural Light
Harsh,Front Lit
Afternoon
Clear
I used my own preset here and made sure to keep the edit dark and moody. I wanted to embrace the negative space created by the darkness and accentuate the couple in the spotlights. I kept the skin tones more on the warm side via the white balance and HSL sliders and finally adjusted the sharpening to just bring a little bit more out of the image.
The main challenge was to make the harsh light work well on their faces.
Tilting their faces in the right direction worked a treat. Groom’s face had to be more of a profile look whilst the bride had to tilt her face up (chin up) so as to not have too much shadow on her eyes.
Sydney CBD
Pitt Street Sydney
City
Australia
Don’t second guess yourself on tyring to do a shot that is a little abstract. In fact, I told my couple that I’ll give this frame a go, but if it didn’t work out we can just move on. Be honest with them. Not all shots work out but you’ll never know if you don’t try it.
Where are we going?
Account
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