How You Shot It is a series where you show us how you shot an image. Many who use our presets love to share their special processing recipes. You can join the SLR Lounge Textures and Presets group on Facebook and share your favorite images and recipes as well! For our wedding and portrait photographers, please join the SLR Lounge Wedding and Portrait Photographers group.
Today’s post is from Anish Tewari, a photographer based out of New York. He shares with us how he took this composite shot of one of his clients.
Inspiration
I was honored to capture this awesome couple. What makes them so awesome is the fact that they could have hired any photographer from their local area, but they flew from Michigan & Canada just so I could photograph them. I knew I had to show my best work.
Of course, the day of the shoot the temperature in NY dropped to 20 degrees, with on and off snow. Each time it snowed, we ran for cover. Somehow we ended up in the Bethesda Terrace, Central Park. You’re lucky if you catch this popular attraction empty. I had this image in my head of 3 poses blended into 1 and it was the perfect opportunity to capture it.
How I Shot It
Bethesda Terrace is very dark if the sun is not hitting it at the right angle, so I had to use a combination of fast shutter speed to freeze motion, and take a quick shot before tourists entered the scene along with high ISO to bring enough light into my lens.
I place my tripod in the middle of the (floor) dead center of the middle arch. I took a series of about 20 shots, where I had my couple do a pose between each arch and then culled them down to the best 3.
Gear List
Camera: Canon 5D Mark III
Lens: Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II USM Zoom Lens
Light Source: Natural Light
Aperture: f/2.8
Shutter Speed: 1/200th
ISO: 1000
Focal Length: 45mm
Post Processing
In Lightroom, I pulled back the highlights, used a bit of clarity and contrast to boost the details of the arch on the 1 photo, then synced the settings onto the other 2 photos.
I stacked the 3 images into Photoshop and using a layer mask, removed any subjects in the background using the photo at the bottom layers where the subjects were not present.I also brought the couples out from the other photos of them posing in the different arches using the layer mask and then the eraser tool. I used Topaz Adjust plug-in to bring out a big of HDR effect. Finally I cropped the image.
Final Image:
About the “How to Shoot It” Series
This educational series highlights amazing images from our writers as well as our community. The goal is to not only feature inspirational work but to provide valuable education for our photography community. If you would like to submit your work, please click here for more info on writing for SLR Lounge.
