- Adobe Lightroom CC
- Natural Light
- Tiffen Black Pro-Mist Filter
- Sunset
- sunny
- Single Shot
- Single Focus Point
- Quiet
- None / Simple
- Nikon D750
- kissing
- AF-S Nikkor 85mm f/1.8G
- Intimate Framing
- intimate
- Emotive Preset + own adjustments
- Close up
- Center Framed
- calm
- Backlit
- Autofocus
- Austria
- Woods
The story behind the image
Directions
Describe how you spoke to your subject(s)
I asked them to face each other and stand very close to each other (because I was very close with my 85mm they shouldn‘t stand miles apart from each other). Always using a very calm voice, because I knew intimate photos won‘t come with an aggressive, laughing or energetic voice. After bringing them into position I asked them to do the little “exercise” I gave them and because they were so close to each other they had simple no other thing in mind than to kiss.
What did you say?
Please touch each others faces with your noses and also with your hands, but in a very soft way – like the other one is made out of glass. Very fragile.
Tone of Directions
Quiet, Calm
Composition
Having such a beautiful sunset as background and seeing both of them amazed and completely in love, I couldn‘t resist a very intimate framing. I would say that this is my favorite thing to capture very intimate scenes. The closer you are the more intimate it feels for the viewer.
Compositional Rules
None / Simple
framing
Center FramedClose UpIntimate Framing
Focusing
Describe how you spoke to your subject(s)
Always using a single point focus, because I love to have 100% control. This is also the reason why I move the focus point manual – I want the control. Maybe I‘ll change that one day, but over the past years I never wanted to give away any control.
Focus Mode
Single Shot
Focus POints
Single Focus Point
Focused on
the eyes
Equipment &
Exif
Camera
Lens
Flash
Filter
1/1250 @ f/1.8 ISO640 WB-Manual
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 sun already hided behind the hills and I just used the glow and the colors that were left from the sun.
Light Type
Natural Light
Light Quality
Backlit
Time of day
Sunset
Weather
Sunny
Editing Workflow
How did you edit this image?
First thing and most needed step: more face, more details, more of the couple, because they were underexposed. And also very important to me to reduce the huge color palette to the most important colors without missing the right skin tones. I also wanted to let them glow a little bit more (beside my pro-mist filter), so I played with clarity.
I payed more attention to the area around the eyes, because it‘s a such a focus point while looking at the photo. So I sharpened the area around the eye to put it more into focus and also cleaned the skin a little bit around it. Normally I rarely do any retouching, but in this one specific photo the area around the eye is very important for the viewer so I cleaned it a little bit.
Editing Software
Adobe Lightroom CC
Preset Used
Challenges
The greatest challenge was to keep the colors of the sunset. You risk to loose the faces of the couples (at some point editing won‘t help anymore) or the risk of a bright white sky.
Solutions
I know how far I can go with editing, as I‘ve done a lot of backlight-photos before.
Location
Location Name
Pömling
Location aDDRESS
Pömling, 3644 Emmersdorf an der Donau
Loation Type
Woods
Country
Austria
Intimate gestures, like a honest and deep kiss, only happen when you 1. give them room for it, 2. don‘t judge them, 3. don‘t laugh about them, 4. talk to them calmly and 5. have a grounded personality. Be the one who they can trust.
