- Back lit
- Blue Hour
- broken rules
- calm
- Creative
- holding each other
- Leading lines
- Natural Light
- photoshop
- Soft Light
- symmetry
- Walking
- Wide
The story behind the image
I immediately fell in love with this mountain and its magical atmosphere. Within a few weeks, I then organized the styled shoot. I wanted to highlight this fairytale-like place with vintage-inspired clothes. My goal was to create timeless and whimsical pictures. I also tried to combine the unique landscape and our couple as harmonically as possible.
This styled shoot was a dream come true because I really put my heart into it and everything really worked out so well – especially our beautiful couple plus the amazing sunset. However, there was one big challenge: the later it got, the windier and colder it became. We took many warm-up breaks because our bride was freezing a lot.
This slowed down the shooting extremely. After sunset, I ended the shoot early because I was too worried about Cat, who I guess was too brave to say anything. God bless her. ;) As beautiful as the location was, my couple was more important to me than taking a few more pictures. The submitted photo is one of the last pictures we took.
Directions
Describe how you spoke to your subject(s)
In this photo I told the couple to take each other by the hand and to enjoy the special mood of blue hour. The sun had just set.
What did you say?
Sami, could you take Cats hand once again and lead her gently along the way? Cat, it would be amazing if you’d held your bouqet up a little bit higher. This will be all about your silhouettes.
Tone of Directions
Calm
Composition
To talk about the composition I first have to talk about how the final image came together: After I edited the photo in Lightroom, I copied the image four times in Photoshop and arranged them for the final result. I also used masks and multiple layers to do this. I wanted to create art rather than a traditional photo. As you can see, by multiplying the edges and arranging them using the rule of thirds, I created a frame within a frame. It also works great because it looks like the couple is walking clockwise in a loop – symbolizing their eternal love for each other.
Compositional Rules
Broken Rules
framing
Center FramedMiddle ThirdsWideFull BodyNatural FramesNegative Space
Focusing
Describe how you spoke to your subject(s)
I placed the auto focus directly on the couple by tapping on my camera screen.
Because they walked very slowly, it was very easy to track them.
Focus Mode
Single Shot Autofocus
Focus POints
Single Point
Focused on
The groom's face
Equipment &
Exif
Camera
Lens
Flash
Filter
1/2500 @ f/1.4 ISO200 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
This photo was taken during the blue hour: The blue hour is the period of twilight when the sun is at a significant depth below the horizon. I used this kind of light to light my couple from behind, creating a silhouette and emphasizing the beautiful sky and the amazing scenery. Blue hour doesn’t last very long, so you don’t have that much time to shoot before it completely gets dark. I think shooting at blue hour is easier than shooting at golden hour because your camera can’t struggle with the focus so much. Because during golden hour, the light can hit your sensor in different ways, making it sometimes harder to get the focus right and dealing with sun flares. During blue hour, we get the calmer and even smoother “rest” of the sunlight.
Light Type
Natural Light
Light Quality
Soft,Backlit
Time of day
Blue Hour
Weather
Clear
Editing Workflow
How did you edit this image?
I used a preset for backlit pictures I created for myself and adjusted it to the image. I was going for warm and earthly tones. The final image was put together in Photoshop as I mentioned earlier. So, after I edited the photo in Lightroom, I copied the image four times in Photoshop and arranged them for the final result. I also used masks and multiple layers to do this. I wanted to create art rather than a traditional photo.
Editing Software
Adobe Lightroom Classic
Preset Used
own custom preset
Challenges
The hardest part was arranging the layers to create the final picture.
I had to mask out certain parts of the pictures and look out for symmetry.
Solutions
It was more of a trial and error thing, but it worked out in the end. :)
I also used the rules of third to arrange the layers.
Location
Location Name
Walberla (Franconian Switzerland)
Location aDDRESS
91356 Kirchehrenbach, Germany
Loation Type
Mountains
Country
Germany
I usually keep my pictures very natural and edit them only in Lightroom.
However, I wanted to try something different and make something special out of an already beautiful picture. It was fun to arrange the images in Photoshop and play around. The final result definitely stands out and works as an element of surprise: Whether it’s a gallery or your insta feed – it’s a scroll stopper. Maybe not everyone will like it. But I think it can be a fantastic way to wow your client and your audience while also telling a story.
