- Back
- los angeles
- white
- Wall
- two men
- Street
- Soft Light
- simple smile
- simple
- Shade
- Relaxed
- Posed
- Outdoor
- Natural Light
- Men
- leaning on the wall
- black
- Leaning
- Interracial
- grafitti
- graffiti
- gay
- full body
- cool pose
- Cool
- Colorful
- chilled
- Center Framed
- center composition
- calm
- bricks
- Wide
The story behind the image
Plus, that particular street art is actually our favorite in Los Angeles, so we had to incorporate it in some way, especially given how it was just down the street from their wedding venue. One thing that particularly struck us that evening was how quiet the area was (very strange for the Arts District in Downtown Los Angeles!). The whole session was entirely calm and stress-free, and that was amazing.
Directions
Describe how you spoke to your subject(s)
The direction for this shot was very minor. We knew the couple wasn’t big on PDA’s so we just wanted to play it very relaxed with their session. We just made a point of aiming for a cool contemporary shot with minimal posing to keep them feeling comfortable.
What did you say?
Let’s chill here for a few minutes! Just lean against the wall and look towards us for a couple of shots
Tone of Directions
Calm
Composition
The framing for this shot was super duper straightforward. One of the main aspects was to centralize the couple so they were at the forefront of it all. At the same time, we wanted to get an interesting backdrop, especially with the vibrant colors involved, and we tried to get all the different colors involved without making them look too small. Also, we wanted to incorporate some of the random textures and materials in there too.
framing
Center Framed
Focusing
Describe how you spoke to your subject(s)
The focus was pretty standard for this shot and we aimed it right in the middle of the frame with single-point continuous autofocus. No difficulty at all.
Focus Mode
Continuous Autofocus
Focus POints
Single Point
Focused on
On the couple
Equipment &
Exif
Camera
Lens
Flash
Filter
1/160 @ f/2.5 ISO1000 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
We took the couple out for a session earlier in the day to the same location but found the direct light to be super harsh and unflattering for this scene, so we waited until later to achieve a more balanced shot without any weird lighting that would ruin the street art colors. The sun had set just a few minutes before shooting this, and the ambient light was just behind us to our right/the couple’s left. The perfect lighting made this shot incredibly easy to achieve.
Light Type
Natural Light
Editing Workflow
How did you edit this image?
We applied our own custom preset and adjusted the white balance and exposure to suit. We wanted to highlight the rich colors within the frame, so we increased the overall saturation and vibrance to make the colors pop out more. We then adjusted the separate red, blue, and cyan sliders in the ‘color mixer’ to make those colors even more intense. We also used the patch tool in Photoshop to remove a tiny part of a car on the left, plus some letters on the window, and random bits and pieces next to the door that we felt distracted from the scene.
Editing Software
Adobe Camera Raw
Preset Used
Custom preset
Challenges
Having good lighting is always going to be a factor in any wedding, whether it’s indoors or outdoors. Living in a sunny location can have its downsides when shooting in the late morning or afternoon – and this particular day gave us all the harsh lighting which was difficult to work within that spot.
Solutions
Make sure you designate some time to shoot some portraits in the evening when the light is ambient and softer, thus getting the tones and colors more even. It will make shooting and editing way easier, and you will get a far better result…well unless you’re aiming for a light/shadow type scene, of course. Give the couple an early heads up that you might need them to take a few minutes out later on to get some extra portraits.
Location
Location Name
Arts District, Los Angeles
Location aDDRESS
800 E 4th Pl, Los Angeles, CA 90013
Loation Type
Street Art
Country
United States
We’re constantly using context to our advantage, and finding a way to make it compliment the couple and vice versa. If we had done anything differently, we would have potentially mixed it up with a tilt-shift lens, or a prism/light bending tool just to give the shot an extra dynamic, but overall, we love the coolness and simplicity of this. We feel this image also matches our own preferences and how we like to shoot by creating vibrant and colorful images. Our aim is to keep shooting in this manner to attract creative couples with a similar mindset.
