Welcome to part 2 of my photo critique series. I have dug up a photo from the archives from my first ever wedding that is one of the client’s favourites of the day.
Sarah & Geoff out the side of the Royal Carlton Exhibition Buildings, Melbourne
This kind of image had to be created, unlike what most people call ‘photojournalistic’ or ‘reportage’ style when you shoot ‘as it happens.’ My vision for this photograph was to have the side of the building as a feature and to frame the couple somewhat with the door frame. To flatten the perspective I needed to use a long lens (in this case it was taken with a 75-300mm lens) and take the picture from a fair distance back to get my framing right.
The camera was mounted on a tripod to stabilise the wobble from the long lens as this was taken on the shade side of the building. The sun was particularly harsh at that time still so I put the couple in the shade which flattens the tones quite a bit rather than having deep shadows.
The couple’s directions were simple, I said just to take a seat and talk amongst themselves while I set up the camera. This is so they felt relaxed and weren’t really camera aware, so I waited for the opportunity when they went for a kiss. On the day I tried different crops, orientation and even used shorter lenses up close, but this one worked the best.
If I was to take it again, I would move the couple to my right a bit and up a step or two to centralise them more with in the door frame and the reflection from the fountain would have lit them up a bit better too.
My post processing was quite in-depth as well, back in the days I had more time to fiddle with a photo in Photoshop. I first used a ‘Screen’ Blend Layer using Curves and painted away the mask around the couple. This brightened them up a bit to ensure they were the focal point. I then used on a duplicate layer a Shadows & Highlights adjustment to reclaim the details in the dress and to boost the darkest shadows. The rest was done with Nik Color EFX plugin to further enhance the image to give it more oomph. Here a details enhancer layer was introduced to boost the building’s details and the warming filter was used to give the image a golden glow.
Once flatten it was printed on Kodak Endura Metallic paper and mounted on Archival Grade Acrylic for an ultra modern picture mount of which I have a sample of. Feel free to comment and give feedback, I’d be interested to know what you think.