I shot this gorgeous couple last summer as a test. Things I learned…
1) It’s more than twice as difficult making two people look good at the same time. They can’t pose separately, & making it look like a natural pose generally means one of them isn’t in the best position.
2) Using low arty lighting is particularly hard, you spend a lot of time arranging them so one’s not blocking the other’s light.
3) Looking at/interacting with each other works much better than looking at the camera.
4) Airbrushing testicles out of a shot isn’t much fun!
These photos are gorgeous, and if this was a “test” I wonder how lovely the things that came later are. The issues you point out in the post, though, make it clear how difficult it must be to get even a dozen nice photos out of a session.
Thanks Liza, we do have some more shoots planned, it was largely a test to see how well we worked together.
On average I take around 200 shots to get 8 usable photos. A lot of models worry about how often they get it wrong, but I only need them to get it right once every 25 shots!
Ha, that actually seems like a pretty good ratio! I’ve thought about a couples shoot. I would love to do it with my husband, but no idea if he’d be into it. Guess we have a fun conversation in our future!
Well just show him these photos & see what he says! 🙂
Lovely work, Matt! Couple of questions:
How long was the session?
Did you shoot entirely available light, or use artificial light also?
If so, what are your favourite lighting modifiers?
Love these pictures! The lighting is just perfect in these pictures *envious* and I know how tricky lighting can be so very well done!
Hey Angus, that’s three questions! #ihaveamathsdegree. First shot to last was about three hours, but I think we had quite long breaks between sets. The first set (by the window) is natural light, the second (white bg) is two softboxes bounced off the bg, & the third (black bg) is two gridded softboxes, one on either side, & a couple of shots have a spotlight on the faces.
The blog is cool