I didn’t have to talk much on the set because the clients knew exactly what they wanted. There was no hesitation. I asked my couple to lean back then I told him (he was much taller than her) to put his head on her shoulder. I was in a position above them with the camera.
Lean back to back. You [Guy] now lightly put your head on her shoulder and close your eyes
Calm
Since my couple was in such a position where their heads were facing upwards, I wanted to find a composition where I could capture their emotions. That’s how I found myself above them with the camera pointed down. I shot this with a 35mm and later cropped the image to a square format as I felt it just balanced everything out. We have a few lines in the composition too (if you look closely); the one follows from the breasts of the girl and the other of the pecs of the man. These lines create a form of symmetry and balance and help to direct the viewer’s attention to their emotional faces.
Center Framed
I chose to focus on the guys’ eyes. Since both their eyes are roughly at the same distance from me, and on the same focal plane, there was no problem keeping them both in focus. By shooting with a wide aperture, I was also able to blur out the breasts into the background.
Single Shot Autofocus
Single Point
The Guys' 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.
I used natural light for this shot as the light was very soft and diffused due to the clouds. I knew that if I wanted to have the best light (to have a bit of highlights & shadows) I had to have them face upwards towards where the light was coming from. This created highlights on their face with a soft shadow that fell down on their sides.
Natural Light
Cloudy
I edited this shot in Lightroom and converted it into Black & White. I wanted to have the feeling of nostalgia that you often get when looking at film photos, so i edited it to keep the whites from blowing out and the blacks from being too harsh. I then added in quite a lot of grain to really give it a texture. Finally, I created a manual vignette with the radial brush to have even more control over where the darkened edges were happening.
The biggest challenge on the set was that everything happened in February when the temperature was below zero. Fortunately, these are thermal hot waters, so the clients agreed to the challenge.
I try to talk as little as possible so that they can sink into that “wave of love”.
Plaža Vrućica
Srpske Toplice Banja Luka 78000 Bosnia and Herzegovina
Hot Spring
Bosnia Herzegovina
Use natural light and do not be afraid of shadows because they are an integral part of good photography.
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