- 10 people
- Harsh Light
- symmetry
- sunny
- Serious
- Posed
- Natural Light
- natural frames
- Moody
- midday
- lower thirds
- Large Group
- hard sun
- 10 person
- Group Photo
- Group
- full body
- Front Lit
- Dark
- Creative
- Contrasty
- Center Framed
- calm
- broken rules
- black outfits
- Wide
The story behind the image
A pitch-black venue, in direct sunlight with a wedding party that is freezing their butts off, that’s a tricky combination if you ask us! We had scouted the venue beforehand so knew of a few cool spots that we wanted to work with. Of course, no matter how much planning you do, the weather and the location of the sun can always throw you a curveball. In this case, it was a happy curveball.
While Cat was taking photos of the wedding party I wandered off to look at the other side of the building. That’s when I noticed the sun casting a perfect triangle onto the ground. Inspiration struck in the form of excitement and thinking to myself “I have to find a way to use this!!” I knew that because the building was so dark that if our couple and their friends were in the stream of light I could create something really dramatic and moody, but the question was, what should they be doing in the stream of light? I decided to go with the vibe that the building and light had already created for me. Mimic the rigid lines and starkness of the building and light.
Directions
Describe how you spoke to your subject(s)
The first thing we did was get our couple and wedding party excited and set the expectations for this shot. We said something on the lines of, “Guys!! we found this awesome area behind the building and the light is just perfect!!” Because their wedding party was pretty big we knew we’d have to set up some form of expectation to get the shot right. “Okay, so I know this might seem a little weird but you’re just going to have to trust me on this one!”
Once everyone found a spot, I rearranged people based on height so that I could see everyone’s face from where I was planning on taking the shot. I took about 20 shots in total and after 3-4 shots I would review and adjust a little. I pretty much knew that I wasn’t going to get everyone’s expression just right in a single frame so as you can see from the before and after I did photoshop the best expressions onto the one final image.
The whole time I’m taking photographs I’m saying “Oh my god, this looks amazing!! You guys look soooo good” – the positive reinforcement is great to keep them in the mood and excited to be in the photograph. Plus when you have them standing around like they’re in a police line up it helps to compliment them!
What did you say?
We’re going to start with everyone standing slightly apart from each other. Find a spot in the sun to start and I’ll come around and adjust as needed. Okay, so everyone turn your body so you’re facing me, and while keeping your body where it is, turn your head to the left and close your eyes. Oh my god, this looks amazing!! You guys look soooo good
Tone of Directions
Calm
Composition
I could tell from the way the reflection of the sun was hitting the ceiling of the building where they were standing that I wanted to include it in the frame. With the wedding party taking up the bottom third of my frame I filled the other two-thirds with the black lines of the roof.
framing
Lower Thirds
Focusing
Describe how you spoke to your subject(s)
In this particular shot, I focused on the bridesmaid closest to me. Center AF point, then locked my focus while I reframed. I know on today’s cameras you can just about trust any point the camera gives you but I’m a little old school and have just become used to focusing with the center point and re-framing. I think when you do that it forces, in a good way, to move the frame around and consciously make decisions on framing. If I had used an AF point in the bottom third of my camera that perfectly fell on the main subject’s face, I wouldn’t adjust or move my frame. The choice of framing is already made at that point. By using the center AF point, I’m making one choice at a time. First that I want to focus on the bridesmaid and then I move onto framing. Instead of stacking my choices, I feel like I have more freedom and time to think. I could have increased my aperture to something like f5.6 and gotten everyone sharp, but I took the shot from fairly far away, and with the depth of field getting larger and larger the further away from the subject you are I figured it was enough.
Focus Mode
Single Shot Autofocus
Focus POints
Single Point
Focused on
The subject closest to me
Equipment &
Exif
Camera
Lens
Flash
Filter
1/8000 @ f/3.2 ISO200 WB-5200K
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
It was direct sunlight coming in from the west at about 40 degrees from the horizon. With such a large group and not a lot of time, it was easiest to have everyone turn their heads towards the sun and close their eyes. If you’re looking at the sun, I basically know you’ll be lit evenly, quick and dirty but it works every time. Making sure I exposed for the subject’s faces and making sure everyone looked in the same direction I knew I would get the look I was hoping for. If I had another shot at this frame I think I would have considered having everyone take five steps backwards and on a queue all walk forward slowly while looking over their left shoulders. Adding a little movement I think would have elevated this shot.
Light Type
Natural Light
Time of day
Afternoon
Weather
Sunny
Editing Workflow
How did you edit this image?
To be honest my presets are from VSCO from a million years ago. I don’t even think they sell them anymore. Throughout the years we have tweaked and tweaked, saved over the previous iteration over iteration. At this point, I’m confident in saying the presets we use for our images bare no resemblance or have any “genes” as it were to the originals.
As with a lot of our images, there was an emphasis on making the image dark and moody. That meant bringing down the exposure in the shadows. Luckily with the style of this building, being so angular, the gradient tool was perfect!
There was some cloning and healing to get rid of some plants and signage in the background as well as some dirty spots on the concrete floor tiles. As mentioned before we also photoshopped a few expressions from other shots onto this one. Not something we love to do, but felt it added a fair amount to the final image and was worth doing.
Curves and split toning are for sure a big part of our ending process. Giving those shadow areas the amount of contrast they have is pretty much all from curves. And the color and tones of course are from split toning.
Editing Software
Adobe Lightroom Classic
Preset Used
Personal Preset
Challenges
Capturing the best expression is hard enough with two people but with 10 is near damn impossible.
Solutions
Taking lots of photographs of the same moment and trying not to adjust your position is key to helping yourself out later in post production. Also remembering to scan the group while you’re looking through the view finder and voicing adjustments out loud will help too. Honestly the best piece of advice I can give when working with groups is learn their names! Find out before hand from the couple everyone’s names. Introduce yourself at the beginning of the day and take the effort to memorize their names. It comes in handy when doing quick on the fly adjustments to just shout out “hey! James, can you turn your body slightly towards me please!” instead of, “Ummm… guy on the left, no not you, the other left, yes you! can you turn to the left please.” You loose credibility and valuable rapport with the group. Plus to create moments you can always call someone out in a fun way (make sure you read the room and choose the right person!). “Everyone’s doing a great job, except for James, you could use a little work!” Said the right way and with the right group, you’ll make everyone laugh and that’s a great moment to catch!
Location
Location Name
Audain Art Museum
Location aDDRESS
4350 Blackcomb Way, Whistler, BC V8E 1N3
Loation Type
Museum
Country
Canada
We often say we’re searching for light. And this is the perfect shot to demonstrate that idea. What once was just a dark overhang area of the museum turned into an awesome opportunity with the sun coming in at just the right angle. Do your due diligence and check out the venue beforehand to have some ideas, but be open to spontaneity and bursts of creativity. I would definitely go for this shot again if given the opportunity but would have our couple or wedding party do something different.
