- afternoon
- Motion Blur
- urban
- Street
- Soft Light
- Playful
- moving
- Movement
- lower thirds
- buildings
- Leading lines
- kissing
- full body
- Energetic
- Creative
- Cloudy
- Center Framed
- Wide
The story behind the image
The main challenge for this image was the few seconds we have to do this image. The traffic light was changing too fast and we would only have around 10 seconds to shoot this. And also, we would want a lot of people crossing the road at that moment. Most attempts didn’t go well because we would never have enough people on the frame.
Directions
Describe how you spoke to your subject(s)
I took some time to explain to the couple what I needed from them… basically, I just needed for them to be frozen as I was going to use a slow shutter speed. So I told them exactly where they were going to stand, and told them to hold each other and give a little kiss. And most importantly I told them that they couldn’t move an inch and that they would have to be completely still… that would be the hard part for them :)
What did you say?
Okay guys, I need you to hold still while I take this shot as any movement will make you blurry. Stand close together, hold each other and go in for a nice, gentle kiss and only move when I tell you to
Composition
This composition was simple… I wanted the buildings on both sides of the road to lead us to the couple but it didn’t quite come out as perfect as I had hoped. We had to be very fast because the traffic lights would change very quickly so we had around 10 seconds to get in place and make the shot. They should have been standing just a step or two to the right or maybe I could move just a little to the left making their heads be right in the middle of the buildings. But because we had to make it so fast it wasn’t perfect. But it was close enough.
framing
Lower Thirds
Focusing
Describe how you spoke to your subject(s)
I used the central single point to focus and focused on their bodies using the viewfinder. I usually focus on the face but because I was shooting f/16 it could be anywhere on them that it would always be focused.
Focus Mode
Single Shot Autofocus
Focus POints
Single Point
Focused on
Brides arm
Equipment &
Exif
Camera
Lens
Flash
Filter
1/13 @ f/16 ISO100 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
Don’t remember well but I think the sun was behind me. Only used natural light and it was well diffused because it was a cloudy day… just a normal day in England :) Since the light was so well diffused and soft, it didn’t really matter where or how we positioned our couple as it was incredibly soft and easy to work with.
Light Type
Natural Light
Time of day
Afternoon
Weather
Cloudy
Editing Workflow
How did you edit this image?
I edited this shot in Lightroom and the preset applied was based on the LXC preset but has had many changes over the past years. There were some local adjustments… brought the highlights down on the sky and on white buildings and pushed the exposure down a bit on the people crossing the road so that the couple would pop out from the rest a little more. Then I took the image to Photoshop and applied the tilt-shift effect.
Editing Software
Adobe Lightroom Classic
Preset Used
Challenges
Because I was shooting at a very slow shutter speed they had to be still, but they couldn’t stand completely still so we had to try 4 or 5 times.
Solutions
I had to raise my shutter speed slightly to help reduce the amount of time my couple had to be still. I did this by closing the aperture all the way down to f/16.
Location
Location Name
Regent Street - London
Location aDDRESS
Regent Street , Oxford Street, United Kingdom
Loation Type
City
Country
United Kingdom
Be patient ;) If I could go back I would probably ask them to do a couple more shots because they weren’t 100% in the right position. I always say to myself that if I think it will be a good photo I have to insist till I get it on the spot no matter what. It’s also very important to have the composition right in-camera… in this one, I tried to get close to what I wanted but still had to crop it a bit. I didn’t have a tilt-shift lens so I had to improvise with photoshop. But these tools are there to help us so I have no problem using it :)
