Author: Ervin V.

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The perfect setting for couple photo shooting

The perfect setting for couple photo shooting

Time stands still for a couple in love – ideal when this moment is captured photographically. For couple photographers, it is a nice challenge to capture the affection of two people for one another through a professional shoot.

The recordings are not as intimate as with a selfie, but a photographer can perceive even more and has completely different technical possibilities.
And the couple can concentrate on the most important thing: their love.

Every couple who wants a photographer to capture their love for one another is unique. The challenge for a couple photographer is to depict this uniqueness and to tease it out with the design of the shoot. In one moment, as in storytelling, a whole story can be told – the same goes for the relationship between two people.

Giving away couple photo shoots


in the time of the greatest bond between two partners, both feel like they are in abundance. So it makes sense to give away photos of the couple in love together. With such a couple shoot, there are many different ways to perfectly reflect the happiness of the two.

Giving away a photo shoot is a highly analogous affair. And so the region in which the couple lives is sometimes the most important selection criterion. Next, a couple has to decide which style they prefer: romantic, elegant or rather crazy and unusual? In order to implement this, the shooting location, the couple’s outfit and the posing are adjusted accordingly. There are no limits to your imagination. Is there a special occasion for the gift, such as an anniversary or wedding anniversary? A very special quality or a hobby that the couple share? The ideas for designing the shoot are diverse and make the decisive difference.

What are the ingredients for successful couple photos?


The inner image of a couple of themselves is captured in the best case in the most beautiful facets and colors in the photos. In order for a couple shoot to deliver exactly the images that a couple wants of each other, it is important that the ingredients are precisely coordinated. Before the shoot begins, a photographer should discuss the details with the couple so that the right preparations can be made.

The right location:


The photo location is selected depending on what a couple wants. Probably the best lighting conditions can be created in the studio, but maybe it should be an outdoor location that best characterizes the couple or where they feel particularly comfortable?
Is it supposed to rain confetti or have a crazy lifting figure built in? Then the location must offer the opportunity to implement these ideas.

The right outfit and appearance


the picture is about a natural expression, but it can look flawless. In order for both to make the best possible impression, it is an advantage to be able to offer make-up or hair styling during the shoot. It probably makes the couple feel more confident about getting professionally styled beforehand. The outfit should also be designed in such a way that it can withstand years of observation. In the case of a wedding or engagement, a couple may want to have their valuable outfits or accessories properly staged.

Posing


Of course, a photo shoot is a posed situation. However, it must not look like this in the subsequent photos. For photographers as well as for couples, it is a challenge to create poses that are as natural as possible in a photo shoot and positions that appear authentic and unsteady. All tips that help the couple to come across as relaxed and relaxed are helpful: For example, the wish whispered in the ear for dinner or the instruction from the photographer to think about the most beautiful moment in their life. Keeping an eye on the couple outside of the official photo shoot can also make a great picture.

Proper Technique


Photographic equipment and shooting techniques should be professional and appropriate. The photographer should know what his strengths are or what technique he thinks works best to portray the couple and the situation. However, technology should never be more important than capturing the special moment between the couple or makcalendar, the former competitive swimmer is not only causing a sensation with his customers with his wedding photos. In just five years as a wedding photographer,  Steven Herrschaft has already received over 100 awards for his pictures: Masters of Wedding Photography,  Fearless Award , Editor’s Choice Award – the list of honors doesn’t seem to end.

How does this young photographer do it? Soft focus is not his method of choice. Striking shadows and unusual perspectives, in which the groom’s bare feet come into focus, are more of a technical description of his style. But what sets him apart is his experimental and intuitive approach. In the style of a street photographer, he throws himself into the action and follows his instinct. He also regularly celebrates at the weddings until the end – every weekend anew. His finding: the chemistry with the couple has to be right, then emotions can best be captured.

To capture the right snapshots of a couple, you need to be imaginative and spontaneous. This is especially true for the photographer, because then he can still get a lot out of an initially self-conscious couple. In the best case scenario, the photo shoot turns into a romantic experience or a happening that the subsequent photos are only too happy to remind of.

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Wide angle lens – lens advice

Wide angle lens - lens advice

What is a wide angle lens?

All lenses with a very short focal length are called wide-angle . The focal length here is roughly between 10mm & 40mm. But what does that mean? Such a short focal length has a significantly larger angle of view than the human eye. We would have to turn our heads to capture the entire scene (or use both eyes 😉) The camera can capture all of this in one picture. So we can easily get a very large subject or a normal subject with little space in one picture.

What can I use a wide angle lens for?

Wide-angle lenses are very popular in landscape photography, but can be used in all areas. Whenever you have a large subject or there is not much space available, a wide angle is used. It can now be a gigantic landscape, a large building, or a small apartment that is to be rented out. Yes, it is also great to use a wide-angle lens in a small apartment, because it not only makes the apartment look bigger, but is also the only way to get the entire space in the picture.

In which areas is a wide angle still used?

Actually, whenever I want to show a lot of the surroundings. This can of course also be the case with a portrait. As you can see in this example, you can see the details in the picture as well as an incredible amount of the background. If I go more into the partial area and use a 35mm lens instead of a 17mm, we still have a lot of background in the picture, but significantly less than before.

Wide angle shot at 35mm

Wide angle shot at 17mm

The wide angle effect

Taking pictures with one has a certain effect on your pictures. First of all, everything seems bigger. The distance between the individual elements in your photo looks like there are several meters between them. The smaller the focal length, the stronger this effect is.

Subjects that are very close to the camera appear very large and puffed up and the further you are away from the camera, the smaller everything looks. I have the following example for you.

The arm in the picture looks huge, but the head is almost normal

Wide angle distortion

The extreme angle of view that a wide-angle lens brings with it not only results in the wide-angle effect, but also other distortions that cannot be avoided.

Here one speaks of a perspective distortion. The shorter the focal length , the closer the subject and the greater the angle of inclination, the stronger this effect becomes.

A perfect example of this is supportive lines. If you photograph lines (for example of high-rise buildings) from below or from above, it looks as if the lines are falling over. This can also happen if the lines are on the edge of the image.

This effect can be avoided by photographing the building from the front on the same level as possible. However, this is not always necessary, because it sometimes looks great when you integrate the effect of the “falling lines” in your subject and intensify it even further with a deep perspective.

The lanterns on the side lean slightly towards the centre as the picture was photographed from a deep perspective

No crashing lines as the picture was just photographed from a higher perspective

Focus range with the wide-angle lens

If you want to work a lot with a low focus range, it is difficult with a wide angle. Because the shorter the focal length , the larger the focus area. A diaphragm 4 on a wide angle therefore has a significantly larger field of focus than on a telephoto lens. You should definitely keep this in mind when buying a wide-angle lens. If you like to take photos with blurring, you should either pay attention to a large revelation when buying or use the normal lens. Because an aperture 1.8 on a 50mm, for example, cannot be compared with a 1.8 on a wide-angle lens e.g. B. 18mm.

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The white balance

The white balance

Do you know what the white balance is? But you should, because after the three exposure values ​​( exposure time , aperture , ISO ), white balance is the most important in photography. The other values ​​deal with the brightness of the picture, this deals with the color.

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1 The white balance in digital cameras

2 Shoot RAW for better white balance

3 Adjust the white balance manually

4 When do I hire something?

5 The gray card

We need the white balance to compensate for the different light colors. You have probably already noticed yourself, the sunset or a lightbulb is very orange, we go into the cellar and turn on the neon tube, the light is very cold. Our brains can do that and that color difference doesn’t look that extreme.

The white balance is supposed to compensate for this and the aim of the white balance is to make white look white.

This color temperature is given in Kelvin and is very easy to remember with fire. The hotter the fire, the more bluish it becomes. Same with white balance. The hotter / higher I set the Kelvin number, the bluer the picture becomes.

The white balance in digital cameras

At the same time we had to change the camera film to change the white balance. Today a simple adjustment of the camera is sufficient. In many situations, the camera should give a good result with an automatic white balance. It automatically searches for the whitest (most color-neutral point). The camera finds this in most situations and can, if necessary, switch to the brightest point of the image if no suitable neutral point can be found. This point is then used as a reference to correct the color of the image.

Of course there are situations in which the automatic white balance just cannot work. If you photograph sophisticated subjects that do not offer neutral colors, for example, a color cast occurs. This is the case, for example, at night or with a picture that only consists of bright colors.

In all normal situations, the automatic white balance (also AWB) delivers great results. At least for normal demands. But I’ll get to that in a moment 🙂

Shoot RAW for better white balance

The RAW format offers something incredible. Because your camera does not apply color correction until after the photo has been created, we can change it in RAW format. The RAW format is a file that, uncompressed and unchanged, contains all of the information that the camera can capture. The white balance is set, but can be changed without loss in image processing with a RAW file. This does not work with a JPG (except for minimal changes).

Is RAW the solution

Isn’t the solution just to always shoot in RAW and do everything in image processing? Definitely NO. Although I have this option, I almost exclusively take photos using completely manual white balance. The pictures already look good in the camera and I can assess them directly and show them to the customer without editing them beforehand. Everyone gets a much better idea of ​​the result.

Adjust the white balance manually

Like the exposure, the white balance can of course also be set manually. I already said that the automatic does a great job, so why a manual white balance? This is especially important if you want to keep a constant visual style in a report. All images always have the same color scheme and do not change constantly because the camera is of the opinion that the color should now be 1000 K colder.

Furthermore, the coloring can be controlled much more finely. Each camera has its own color scheme. With 100 cameras, different models and manufacturers, you can set everything exactly the same (same exposure / AWB) and still get different results. This can be counteracted by manually setting the white balance. An example: If I take photos in a park at sunset and use the AWB, my pictures are significantly more yellow than with manual 5500 K. That’s why I take photos on 5500K to make the pictures look the way I would like them to. The closer I get to this result, while taking pictures, the less work I have in image processing.

When do I post something?

  1. If you are at the beginning of your photography and have not yet understood the concept, put the Karma on AWB and you will get 90% good results.
  2. As soon as you already know something better and want to experiment a little, you can apply the defaults or the completely manual value to different situations.
  3. If you want to film, you should definitely work with a manual white balance so as not to change the color in the middle of the film.
  4. If you want to get the most out of your pictures, deal with white balance in the long term and learn how to apply it to different situations.

The gray card

Now it is getting more professional, because with a gray card we offer the camera a neutral surface with which it can determine the white balance much better. We can say how the white balance should be measured and from where, and get a much more precise result.

Some write that you can have a sheet of white paper or just any white surface. I advise against that. Every surface has a specific color. The wall was painted in eggshell and not in white and it doesn’t work anymore. Who tells you that the sheet of paper is 100% white? Your own eye may even be wrong here. A gray card can help here, but the result will only be perfect with experience and you can get it by trying out 😉