- broken rules
- calm
- Dark
- DJI Mavic Pro
- Drone
- full body
- holding each other
- kissing
- lower thirds
- Moody
- Natural Light
- Soft Light
- Stormy
- Wide
The story behind the image
Directions
Describe how you spoke to your subject(s)
It’s an actual hiking path, that can bring you to this spot, so there were actually not too many options to direct the couple to make this picture. I just wanted them to follow this trail and just have some time on their own. I asked them to simply hold their hands while walking along the path until they got to the edge and just enjoy the moment together.
What did you say?
Please, take each other’s hand, and slowly and carefully walk along the path until you reach the edge. Then just face each other, feel the connection between you two, and just enjoy 5 minutes of time on your own.
Tone of Directions
Calm
Composition
The idea of the composition was to show the scale and beauty of the mountains & scenery. So we placed the couple right in the center, and to give the impression that it was actually the very edge of the world, we put them closer to the lower side of the frame, purposely hiding the pathway and not showing the whole place. This gives a ton of emphasis to the towering mountains in the background which makes the couple feel vulnerable in way but strong at the same time.
framing
Lower Thirds
Focusing
Describe how you spoke to your subject(s)
When shooting with a drone, I focused using the screen of the iPhone. Sometimes, the screen is not contrasty enough to see if the autofocus worked well. That’s why I always look for different perspectives and angles, and while taking pictures, I also tend to overshoot to help make sure I have the shots I want in focus.
Focus Mode
Single Shot Autofocus
Focus POints
Single Point
Focused on
the couple
Equipment &
Exif
Camera
Lens
Flash
Filter
1/160 @ f/2.2 ISO100 WB-6200K
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 a pretty dull day with the overcast and almost no sun, that’s why we had a pretty soft and diffused lighting and it was easy to shoot. However, this picture was made at almost the end of the shoot at the blue hour, that’s why we had a very little amount of light here which made the post-process pretty tricky afterwards.
Light Type
Natural Light
Weather
Stormy
Editing Workflow
How did you edit this image?
I started to work on the photo lifting up the exposure (as it was pretty dark outside) and modifying the tint, as the auto white balance of the drone made it a bit too magenta. Afterward, I applied our color preset #4 and I lifted up the shadows quite a lot to bring back the details and reduced the contrast. The main struggle was to remove the color noise, so I did that very carefully as to not lose too much detail. I adjusted the saturation a bit to make the picture a bit more vivid and used a gradient and brush adjustment for the mountains and the couple to look even more bold and cool.
Editing Software
Adobe Lightroom Classic
Preset Used
Challenges
You need to have a lot of control over the couple when shooting from the drone, as you are always looking for the right angle and spot. But in the mountains like here, you need to be pretty far away not to be in the frame.
Solutions
The best solution was to tell our couple what we wanted them to do before we started to take the pictures. That way, we could move out the way and let the couple do their thing.
Location
Location Name
Tre Cime di Lavaredo
Location aDDRESS
Localita' Forcella Longeres, Auronzo di Cadore BL, Italy
Loation Type
Mountains
Country
Italy
Don’t be afraid to overshoot when shooting with a drone. Just because it’ll be super sad to have a stunning picture that looks okay on the iPhone screen and may actually be out of focus when you’ll see it on your computer. Memory cards are so easy and affordable to get these days so there really is no excuse. Just keep shooting.
