- afternoon
- midday
- Unposed
- sunny
- strong light
- sand
- Rule of thirds
- Outdoor
- Natural Light
- Natural
- Laughing
- Back light
- Horizon Line
- Harsh Light
- full body
- Energetic
- Desert
- clear sky
- Ceremony
- Candid
- Back lit
- Wide
The story behind the image
Directions
Describe how you spoke to your subject(s)
This image was taken at a workshop I host with Olivia Markle, called Yellow! Normally during a real ceremony, I obviously wouldn’t be directing the couple at all but since this is a styled shoot we direct the couple with prompts, for this photo I jokingly told them to look out to all their guests who they are so excited came – when in reality the guests we’re just our students so it got them to laugh! I love being sarcastic with my couples and making jokes to get them to loosen up and get those real smiles out of them!!
What did you say?
okay now lookout to your guests and see all your very best friends and closest family in the audience who you adore sooooo much
Composition
I wanted to capture the landscape, specifically the full length of the amazing cactus behind them! I also wanted to add some magic to the image by putting something in the foreground so I grabbed a piece of a plant laying around and held it in front of my camera on the left side, which is how I got that pretty light spot there!
Focusing
Describe how you spoke to your subject(s)
I always use autofocus and for this image, I focused on the bride’s face! I use back button focus and I use continuous focus mode with my camera’s max amount of focus points available (for me that’s 52!) This allows me to move my focus point to wherever I want, so I moved it to be on the bride’s face then I pressed down on my back button to focus and then click the shutter!
Focus Mode
Continuous Autofocus
Focus POints
Multi Point
Focused on
Brides face - with far away images like this one I just center it in the middle of her face!
Equipment &
Exif
Camera
Lens
Flash
Filter
1/4000 @ f/2.2 ISO100 WB-6000K
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 was around 2.5-3hrs before sunset so the light was still pretty harsh but pretty low in the sky which is great! The key for me when shooting in this type of light is to shoot dark, aka underexpose. It’s going to seem like the couple is super dark but I want to keep the highlights of the sky from being blown out and when editing all it takes is to bring up the blacks and the shadows and your couple will be correctly exposed again!!
We backlit the couple – aka the sun was behind them! The sun was also off to the left which I usually prefer to be directly centered behind them which creates super hazy images from so much sun right behind them. With the sun to the side of them, we got crisper images which I prefer for the majority of photos!
Light Type
Natural Light
Time of day
Afternoon
Weather
Sunny
Editing Workflow
How did you edit this image?
I used my Tessa Tadlock Preset #1 and then bumped up the warmth until I got that glowy goodness that I love! Then I added a little bit of contrast. Next, I went to the HSL sliders and bumped up the oranges to give their skin more life and blues to make the pretty blue sky pop! Lastly, I upped the luminance at 20 because their faces were a little grainy, so that smooth it out!
Editing Software
Adobe Lightroom Classic
Preset Used
Challenges
The blaring sun can always be a bit challenging!
Solutions
Under exposing!! Trusting that you will always be able to bring those shadows up while editing!
Location
Location Name
Phoenix
Location aDDRESS
Phoenix Arizona USA
Loation Type
Desert
Country
United States
I’ll never get over how much I love the look of something blurry in the foreground! I really think it just adds so much extra spice and sparkle and interest to an image!!
