#3 - Balloons in the Mist

Don’t you just love it when you capture an image and you look at the back of the camera and you know instantly, yes!, that’s going on someone’s wall. I don’t think that feeling ever gets old, especially if you’ve set out with specific intentions to make an image and the idea you had in your head gets transferred to the photo you make. I mean it doesn’t always work like that, but when it does it feels good, and today I’m gonna break down this image including the approach, the camera settings and post production in Lightroom, let me know what you think in the comments.

So this image I made nearly two years ago but it remains a favourite of mine mainly I think due to its simplicity in terms of its composition and colour and as I talk through the process of how it was made including the edit it shows the simplicity of this unique image.

So I made this late one night and it was actually one of the last images of the day, and all I used was one off camera flash and a spray can of atmosphere aerosol. And if can set the scene, this wedding was a DIY wedding and the theme was kind of a boho festival of music and games and the hall that held the reception was decorated with masses of coloured ribbons and balloons. Before I left in the evening I wanted to get at least one arty portrait of the couple with a hint of this theme. I was originally going to do something inside with the masses of ribbons but it was so busy in there with people and there wasn’t actually another room I could take them into so I decided in the end that we should just go outside instead.

So this was made on the lawn out the front, and I’m sorry I don’t have any BTS video from this wedding but it was very dark and if I crank the exposure of this first image to show you the kind of environment we were in, you can see that we’re just on the lawn, there’s a couple of houses in the background and that’s it, it’s quite a big lawn and it had a few large trees around but this was very much in an open space which goes to show that this kind of photo can be done anywhere in any outdoor location when it’s dark.

So I take the couple outside and on the way I steal these balloons from one of the kids at the wedding. Yes I returned them. And I didn’t do any test shots until I got out there, which is unusual for me, normally I set this kind of shot up before getting the couple but I had an idea of what I wanted to capture and I was pretty confident it could be done quickily.

So to summarise the details - this shot was made on a canon 5D3 using a Yongnuo 560IV flash without any modifiers, this flash was sat on top of a light stand which was about chest height pointing back towards me. Camera settings were manual obviously, ISO 1000 f2.8 and shutter 160th/sec. The lens I was using was a 16-35mm 2.8.

As with all off camera flash shots you firstly set your manual ambient exposure on the camera before turning on the flashes and if you want a step by step guide on how to use off camera flash please check out the video I made on that.

But you can see in my two test shots below the ambient exposure is very dark and the only light is coming from the flash. So I ask the groom to spray the atmosphere aerosol can all around them then I say stop, he puts his hand down and I take the first test shot to check exposure. Everything looks fine here I just need more haze, loads more haze, I think the wind was blowing it slightly taking the haze over to the left. Also I notice in this shot that the balloons aren’t right, they all need to be a different heights for this to work. So what I did was asked them to stay put, and I adjusted the individual balloon heights for them and we tried again.

Still not enough haze! So we waited for thirty seconds for the wind to die out a little then I asked the groom to spray the can again, absolutely cover them and after about 20 seconds of continuous spraying I said stop, he lowered his hand and I fired again. Looking back at this photo a couple of years on, the only thing I would do differently now is have another go to see what it looks like without a kiss, having some head separation I think would also work really well, not that I dislike this, I’m really happy with it, but sillhouettes generally look a little more appealing with distinct outlines rather than two merged heads. But I’m being picky and they’re obviously kissing and they loved this image so I’m happy.

The Edit

You’ll have to watch the video for that…

Links

Yongnuo 560IV Speedlite for Canon

Yongnuo TX 560 Trigger for Canon

If you’ve got any questions about this image please ask away, please subscribe too and remember to check out the off camera flash video if you’re looking for more help using that. Let me know in the comments what you think about this image and as always thank you for your time and your support, See you again,

Dan