Alexis + Nate

02.18.17

Alexis and Nate are the adorable couple above, I met them at this small coffee shop called PRESS COFFEE at 3:30pm to start our session. We ordered our coffee and sat in the corner to not disturb the customers already in there and for about 20 minutes we took some really fun shots. 

Photo Settings Breakdown 

Camera: Canon 6d

Lens: 24-70mm f/2.8

Settings when I took this photo: f/3.5 IOS:400 1/80s

I always have my f/, 1 degree higher than the amount of people in the frame for example shooting 2 people I had a f/3.5 if I am shooting 5 people I would of had f/6 or f/6.5.

The area had good natural light but not great so I had my ISO at 400 which is higher than I normally shoot. 

As far as posing goes I just want couples to be as comfortable and confident as can be. I try and get the most natural shots as I can so I don't heavily pose I just give slight direction on a few movements to do.

For example, "touch noses, and keep a hand on the coffee and one on him, laugh, smile, kiss, and play around maybe even tickle his face" After saying that I continually shoot getting all the laughing kissing and playing and then when I get what I need I would lead with more direction. 

BEFORE

AFTER    Camera: Canon 6d Lens: 85mm f1.8       SETTINGS: f/3.5 IOS:100 1/200s

How I edit has just recently been really defined. I struggled so often with figuring out the perfect tones for my photos and I am at a spot in my career where I am really figuring it out. I would call my tones warm and colorful. I would say it is in-between light and airy and dark and moody. A lot of people constantly ask me "what presets do you use" here is my answer to this. When I was figuring out what type of editing I really liked I came across India Earl and fell in love with her work. I ended up saving my money to purchase her presets and they are the only presets I have ever gotten. I would never buy presets again, not because I didn't like her preset just because they were a starting point to figuring out how I wanted to edit. I have tweaked her presets for almost every shoot to the point where you can no longer say they are even close to the same thing. I ended up just making my own set that I now use all the time and I will never sell them just because they were inspired by what I learned from using India Earls presets. 

A few ways to get those great couple photos 

For this photo I told my clients to do "Ring Around the Rosie " instead of holding hands, hold her behind her waist and grab his arm, start to spin around and focus on my lens when you are facing me.

This one was more of a serious more posed shot. I positioned them and took this shot because the sun in-between them was to good to pass up. It was a cloudy day so whenever the sun popped out I wanted to take advantage of it. It is also okay to do some posed shots as long as you do some natural shots as well.

For this photo I told him to hug her from behind and blow raspberries on her cheek. I always try to get some natural laughter because I am not a fan of fake laughter. 

This one is more simple, just pick her up and spin her around. As the photographer you just choose the angle you most want for the  artistic look you are going for. 

These type of photos are also pretty simple but more posed so I had him lean her back and for her to flick her dress up and let go and I am constantly shooting to get the perfect shot.

TIP

Make them feel small.

Get the close up shots OF COURSE but also get the really far away shots to include the landscape. I usually ALWAYS use two lenses to achieve this. 

Up to date this is one of my favorite sessions and I will tell you why. I was in a creative pit fall where I didn't feel good enough and was struggling with what I was going to post on my social media because nothing seemed good enough. Then I did this shoot and it gave me my creative "high" back where I got confidence again and felt excited to share it to the world. We all need to do shoots for ourselves sometimes because so much of our job is doing photos for others.