Most of the time when I scroll through Instagram, I think that’s nice, I like that and that’s pretty. But just every now and then I come across something that totally stops me in my tracks and makes me think that is magical.
This is one of those images and it’s from the master that is Sean Bell. We are very lucky to have had Sean teach for us at Farm and he is a rare combination of being both a highly technical and a highly passionate photographer.
His mind will be racing away with the finer points of how to make a composition perfect whilst he is dancing around and enthusiastically showing his couple how to get into the moment.
This plays into a lot of why this is an utterly exceptional image and why couples from all over the world book him for their Scottish elopements. He is an expert in finding locations with impact and even though they might be well known and much used, like this spot over Edinburgh, Sean knows them so well that he can bring fresh perspectives to familiar vistas.
The combination of the ruins in the foreground and the beautiful cityscape of Edinburgh in the background adds depth and visual interest to the image. However, the scene does not overwhelm the subjects as he has been so careful with their placement and managed to bathe them with the light, resulting in a luminosity that is reminiscent of old masters.
The final flourish is the twirling which allows the blue dress to add a dynamic element to the centre of the frame. This is a masterclass on how to capture the essence of a couple plus the beauty of the location.
Nikon Z6ii | 28-75mm 2.8 @ 50mm setting
ISO 100 | f2.8 | 1/2000
Own Preset
What Sean said…
“Gemma and Stephanie eloped to Edinburgh from Australia and were married next to the old ruined chapel of St. Anthony’s on the hillside overlooking the city. The weather on the day was classic Scottish, very changeable with showers coming and going and from bright sunshine to flat overcast within seconds. The rain was pretty much full tilt throughout their ceremony and they had to huddle beneath umbrellas for most of it, but as the formalities came to a close the clouds dissipated a little and a keyhole opened up in the sky.
I love these brief moments as they always seem to bring along some interesting conditions. There was another heavy band of showers to the West heading swiftly towards us and this, coupled with the position of the sun provided us with some fizzy backlight to play with, a real hazy, muted and magical vibe. The two Brides love Edinburgh and having lived here for a while feel really connected, so my main aim for this shot was to create a scene setter, a standard landscape including the elements of the city and of the old chapel where they married. I loved the way the Sun was catching the side of the ruin and I noticed the dress was really picking up the cross light so I asked them to dance and play and flick the dress whilst directing them to face towards the Sun to keep their faces illuminated.
The Tech Talk
“When working with directional lighting like this we often have to be way more prescriptive with our direction if we want to keep certain areas illuminated or to draw attention to specific areas (faces/hands/details). (depending on the goal of course, ultimately there are no rules!) I always look at the shadows on faces and this is my guide to directing. The light will tell you what to do, so when working on portraits in these conditions, the composition is secondary to the light. For what I was after, the couple facing me here wouldn’t have worked quite as well, whereas, in flat light, it might hold up as an image. I was lucky here that with the composition already determined, the sun was positioned in such a way I could use it as a cross light, if it had been behind me this would have created a much flatter image with less depth.”