The Beginning
We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures that we can have if only we seek them with our eyes ...
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We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures that we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.
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Oct, 2015Views
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Awards
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Peer Award
Superb Composition
Top Choice
Absolute Masterpiece
Outstanding Creativity
All Star
Magnificent Capture
Genius
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Behind The Lens
Location
This photo is taken on the country side of Uppsala, Sweden. We didn’t really have a set plan of where to shoot. We went out about 30 minutes before the sun was going to set. Not ideal conditions—next time I’ll plan the location longer ahead. We went searching for a wheat field that wasn’t too flat, and one that also included a nice background as well as trying to keep the sun in the right place. Fortunately, we found one after about 15 minutes of driving. The sun was already about to go down so we had to hurry to get to the field and capture the shots. You’d be surprised of how many great shots (including initial test shots) we managed to capture in only 10 minutes or so—which was about how much time we had left of the sunset.Time
We went out about 30 minutes before the sun was going to set - around 19:45 and stayed until 20:30. This particular shot is shot at 20:15:19Lighting
All the shots taken in the field were shot against the sun. For this, I had to consider a few things: like where the flare would end up so it wouldn’t cover my model, and how I should best expose my shots so my model wouldn’t become too dark or too bright, while simultaneously maintaining a good exposure for the background. I choose to expose for the highlights on her hair and allowed the face to be a bit darker than I’m usually comfortable with. The reason for this is that it’s always easier to recover shadow details in post-processing than it is to recover over-exposed highlights. Having to do too much shadow recovery also introduces more noise, so I had to be careful not to under-expose too much. I actually did bring a reflector that I never used. The reflector would have helped me here, but I couldn’t manage to hold both the reflector and the camera. Next time I will consider bringing an assistant ????Equipment
My setup included the Sony A7 II with the Zeiss Batis 85/1.8. For clothing I wanted colors as close to nature as possible, making sure they weren’t too bright. I usually try to keep my photos to one or two main colors and the rest in the same tone. Kind of like black-and-white photos except with a lot more colors to choose from.Inspiration
I planned this shoot quite long before it happened, about when the summer began here in Sweden. I had some ideas about how I wanted to capture it, and I began looking around for someone to model for me. Luckily I had met a few models through some friends, so finding someone wasn’t too hard. I contacted Beatrice and told her about my idea. I hadn’t really shot any non-children portraits before. The majority of my past work consists of candid portraits of my daughter, a few other children, and some candid portraits of my partner in life. Since I couldn’t share with her any example senior portraits, I showed her my current portfolio of child portraits. Lucky for me she loved them and agreed to model for me! My idea was quite simple: I wanted to capture the feelings of summer, including the warmth and tranquility of it all. For me, summer is all about taking one day at a time, enjoying each day as if it were the last. This is what I had in mind while I composed and shot these portraits.Editing
To sum up my post-processing, it included recovering the highlights in the sky, recovering shadow-detail on my models face and body, some skin retouching, sharpening, background blur, noise reduction, clone-stamping away the flare, and, lastly, a few tweaks to the colors and white balance. I try to keep my post-processing simple, taking care not to overdo things because I prefer keeping my photos looking natural.In my camera bag
I usually only carry a camera and two lenses. Usually I carry my Sigma Art 35mm f/1.4 and Canon 135mm f/2.0 L or Zeiss Batis 85mm f/1.8. That's about the only gear I need and have ever needed.Feedback
Experiment with natural light, do not over-complicate things with flashes and studio lights. It'll only make it look artificial and unnatural.. Beatrice is a very skilled model, so working with her was a breeze. I can’t really say that I’m used to giving directions, since most of my shots are of children, and they won’t listen anyway, ha ha! So I let her pose however she wanted and only gave a few requests, like directions on where to look or where to turn, etc. Its also best to first picture yourself what kind of scene and mood you want to capture, then simply execute it.
