Last week, we had a deep dive into both flash and continuous lighting with the brilliant Lee Allen on one of our Barn Lives. It’s incredible what you can do when you are confident with flash and can go beyond the basics. Maybe because I’d been thinking so much about lighting, this image really stood out to me this week.
It’s by newcomers to Farm, Ed and Victoria at Lovely Creatures. This image makes me so excited for weddings again. The composition is so incredibly pleasing. How the couple are illuminated and filling the bottom left of the frame whilst the other characters in the scene are in a semi-circle around them. It’s like they are the stars of this movie and the others are the extras. The backlight creates a lovely halo around them and the sparklers give a magical element. It makes a great change from sparkler exit shots and this just looks like it was a helluva party.
Let’s see what the couple had to say about capturing this shot below…
Fuji X-Pro 2 | Fuji XF 23mm f2 | f4 | 1/60| ISO 6400
OWN PRESET
What Ed & victoria Said…
“Sammy-Jo and Jamie are real party people and before the band started their second set everyone piled outside for a mess about and shenanigans.
Sparklers appeared and it was a free for all, there were no posing or special lighting setups. I (Ed) noticed that there was a flare coming from my lens from one of the spotlights used inside and I just used the ambient from the sparklers to light the image and incorporate the flare in my composition.
There was a natural light fall off from the guests as there were several guests standing next to me which really helped the lighting and everyone else was standing a bit behind the couple (the angle is like an optical illusion as there are several yards between the couple and the guests behind) so they didn’t catch on fire lol!
The preset has a nice organic contrast so it was literally a straighten and crop white balance and tint shift to just control the contrast and vignetting.“