The Kiss
Apr, 2016Views
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Legendary Award
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Contest Finalist in Fall 2016 Photo Contest
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Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens
Location
This image was taken at a park located a couple blocks from my home. I had driven past it almost every day on my way home and one Fall day, I noticed how gorgeous the color of the trees had become. So... I took one of my friends and her beautiful boy and decided to do a photo shoot there!Time
This portrait was taken during late afternoon around 5:00 PM. The sun was just starting to get golden and filtered through the trees perfectly, making them look as if they were glowing!Lighting
This image was shot using all natural light. I did not use any reflectors, flash or so on. It was taken at a perfect time of day where all I had to do was open up my aperture and shoot at a high shutter speed in order to capture this image as I saw it. Also, it was very important that I photographed this image during golden hour or the time of day where the sun is closer to the horizon (usually early morning or evening). This is the time where shadows are soft and the light photographed has a beautiful golden tint to it. If it was taken mid-day, there would have been lots of harsh light which would have not have allowed me achieve the warm and soft tones in this image.Equipment
I captured this image using a Canon Mark III Body and the Canon 135 mm 2.0 with its lens hood. I used all natural light - no flash or reflectors.Inspiration
The drive on my way home near this park inspired me to photograph at this location. Fall is so beautiful and in South Dakota, its nothing short of glorious. The trees are all sorts of colors and in the afternoon with the beautiful golden light leaking through them is photo worthy all in itself. However, I am a family photographer and I wanted more to take my favorite subject and place it in my favorite location. The bond between a mother and child is very special and I felt that a natural interaction such as a kiss was a perfect pose for a the artistic image I wanted to achieve with this shot.Editing
Yes! I used ACR and Photoshop to edit this image. I used post-processing to bring out the colors that were already on the trees and grass and created a gradual vignette around the image in order to draw your eyes to the subjects. Along with selective sharpening on the clothing, I also dodged and burned the image heavily including the trees in the background. Lastly, I wanted this image to be very artistic and almost surreal so I added an overlay of Fall leaves (purchased from Jessica Drossin's Photography Store) blurring the ones in the background and foreground and leaving the ones in the focal plane sharp.In my camera bag
I am simple. I am also a Canon girl. For my camera body, I photograph with the Canon Mark III and have one lens I use outdoors and one lens I use in studio. For outdoor shots, I love bokeh and the Canon 135 mm 2.0 certainly delivers on that! It also has gorgeous compression and opens up to 2.0 aperture which allows me to photograph up until the evening and even twilight. For my work in the studio, I use the 50 mm 1.8 (the nifty fifty!). I bought the 50 mm 1.8 when I started dabbling in photography a long time ago and just haven't found the need to switch to the 1.4 or 1.2. If you are working in studio, there is no need to to be at 1.8 aperture as bokeh is not necessary. Therefore, I bump the aperture super high to 5.6 or higher and along with my Alien Bee 400 lighting unit, create the type of studio shots that I am happy with!Feedback
My biggest advice is to keep an eye out for interesting locations and if you are looking to capture an image in Fall such as this watch even closer. Fall colors come and go in a blink of an eye so make sure you are photographing at the perfect time. I would also shoot in golden hour and at a low aperture, 2.8 or lower. Lastly, in order to achieve even more bokeh in your background, make sure to place your subjects far away from your background and shoot on their level. In my opinion, you can create a more powerful image simply by getting eye level with your subjects. For this image, they are obviously sitting on the ground. Therefore, I had to lay on the ground in order to get the camera eye level with them. I photographed this image in the beginning of my photography career and to this day, it is one of my favorite images! Thanks for letting me talk to you about it!
