before and after

I am going out of order posting here but what they hey! It's Wednesday! It's raining out!

On Monday the illustrious Mike Romano and I had a BLAST photographing our clients Paul and Jen on their engagement shoot, you may have seen my instant blog post of Mike...)

So this is just a teaser for them, sorry guys, I will do your full post tomorrow!

I wanted to show kind of how I see things from the general view that you all see to the finished image that I saw in my head while shooting. Sometimes the final image changes a little once I try some new things in post, which is always kind of a fun little surprise for me. I love when that happens!

Beach? Check! Sunset? Check! Lifeguard chair? Check! Awesome comfortable couple who totally trusts you? CHECK!
It's funny because while I was shooting this Mike said - 'um, you should try shooting the other way' Which was really pretty and he was right! But. I had something in my head that I had to try and see if I could make it work... so I resisted and tried something new.

So see here the chair, kind of general overview here...


This shot is direct out of camera, untouched etc.


I wasn't loving the place where poor Paul's face got cut in to; and the chair boards were actually working against things- I had originally saw the boards as a framing element... but once taken out of context I really didn't think that it worked- next time there are some things that I am going to try where you can get the idea that it is a life guard chair being shot through, but for now I just cropped it out totally and went with the panoramic crop that shooting thru it gave me.



For post I ran a few actions on the final image- in Light Room I cropped it, adjusted the exposure, deepened the blacks a bit. In Photoshop I ran Kubota's Star burst vignette and digital fill flash on Jen's face. I then added a texture I shot in New York City of a concrete wall- it gives a nice sandy feel. I dropped the opacity way down and erased it off of them.

I really like how the beach fence thing and dune grass are part of the shot and really give them a sense of place and a tiny bit of color.