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Spring Flowers in New Zealand come and go very quickly ... so to get this shot i kept a very close eye on this bush to make sure we disnt miss it in flower, as i wanted to shoot a moody fantasy shot with it.



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3 Comments | Report
ARUNASPINIGIS
 
ARUNASPINIGIS October 28, 2020
Fabuluos
View2shot
 
View2shot October 28, 2020
Nice
tyramyzu
 
tyramyzu December 17, 2020
Amazing picture ????
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Behind The Lens

Location

I took this off the side of a major Roundabout in my city , Tauranga New Zealand. I had driven past it everyday for work and knew that it was all I needed for this style of image. So on the day it was the most in bloom, I got my wife to get ready, and we rushed back after work before the early sunset.

Time

Lighting is so important to an image. I knew I wanted to shoot just into blue hour for the look I was going for. Also being a mostly backlit shooter, we timed it out so that we got to the location with a few minutes of light left to get some backlit shots before the sunset. So right after sunset was when I shot this image.

Lighting

This image needed that cool feel and also totally soft light. So blue hour was absolutely perfect. Despite the light being relatively even, I still positioned my wife/model facing east, away from where the sun had just set. That way I avoided the bring yellows and reds of the sunset casting warm light on her face and the flowers which I wanted to be a cool white. So even when shooting in blue hour you need to be conscious of the different colours in the sky and which you want cast over your model.

Equipment

I shoot very simply. So for this image I was using my Canon 6D camera with my favourite lens, the 85mm f1.8. Hand held as always, and no other equipment was used.

Inspiration

I recently came across the work of photographer Bella Kotak. Both her images and the way she colours them are incredible. She does a lot of images using flowers and foliage as the backdrop, often small bushes on the side of the road. That opened my eyes to look out for possible locations such as where this image was shot, where all you need is the right flowers in the background. This entire shoot was just a demo shoot to have images like this to edit and learn how to become better at a more fantasy style, based off the amazing images I had seen from Bella.

Editing

I normally use lightroom only when editing, but with this photo I wanted it to go down a colour direction best suited to photoshop. The editing was a bit all over the place since I was learning how to use photoshop while I was editing. But I used lots of layers and just kept the adjustments too a minimum. Sometimes more small adjustments can work better than a few drastic changes. One specific technique I used was changing the highlights to cool tones. And I did this on my “selective colour” and “colour balance” layers.

In my camera bag

I like to keep a simple set up and don’t ever take much on my shoots. It’s normally just my Canon 6D and 85mm 1.8. But will always take my 50mm just in case I need it. But it doesn’t really ever come out of the bag. I just love the 85mm so much. I love it because when shooting portraits, the 85mm I find is the most flattering, and I want my models to look the best they can, not only for them seeing themselves, but also because I want my images to be the best they can be.

Feedback

For an image like this there are three major components that greatly affect the final result. The first is styling. You Hav to have the right look from the start, that can be anything from the clothing, to the model herself or even the landscape. The second would be emotion. It is so important to have the right emotion and expression to really convey the image that you’re going for. And third would be editing. For images like these it’s easy to get creative and go to overboard, so it is really important to make Sure that even if you were editing quite an intense look, that you keep things like skin tones as close to natural colour as you can. That way the image will catch the eye for many good reasons

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