Mussel Rock Couples Session – Holly and Alex

I finally got to take pictures of my girl Holly and her boyfriend Alex. I’ve only hung out with them a few times since Alex is finishing up school but seeing them together is SO fun! I asked Holly and Alex to do a shoot with me at Mussel Rock Park! When we first got there I felt like I was killing time and wishing the sun would go down faster so it would be lower. It was originally supposed to be cloudy but the sun came out. It disappeared really quickly though so toward the end it got really dark! I still struggle with light and where to place couples — I LOVE the look of backlighting because I don’t like editing faces that are in the sunlight (tends to be more orange, and I am still learning how to use the HSL panel to its fullest), and I love the soft light it creates… it gets me closer to the film look I want! I have been loving the couples session practice lately!

Disclaimer: Holly’s white dress is the one I wore for my engagement session! I bought it from BHLDN because it was super on sale and I thought it was GORGEOUS. Holly looks SO good in it, and one day when she’s actually getting married, she is going to look freaking amazing in her own wedding dress… but they are NOT married or engaged — she’s just wearing a white dress so that I can practice not blowing out highlights! <3

I practiced editing a lot and tweaked the photos dozens of times before delivering them. I got a lot more comfortable with using Manual — I’m getting faster at adjusting my shutter speed super quickly and nailing focus! So that’s an exciting accomplishment. Something I need to be more careful about is underexposing too much because when I bring up shadows it ends up being grainy. I’m still figuring out what the sweet spot is for timing and settings so that I don’t backlight SO much that this happens.

I also need to learn how to nail white balance and tint — I find myself exporting photos and then going back and thinking that something is too blue or pink or green. I’m going to learn how to use the histogram better so I can nail color and tones.

Thank you Holly and Alex for modeling for me! Sometimes I wish I took pictures of people who were less comfortable in front of the camera so that I could get better at giving prompts and instructions for posing… because Holly and Alex did everything so naturally! I need to get faster and better at giving prompts, especially because I eventually want to make my way into adventure sessions where couples do random things like spin each other super quickly so that I can capture those genuine reactions.

Dresses: Lulus & BHLDN

Here are images where I struggled with white balance/editing to look like film. The first one is partly because the sun was still high, and the last two I think are in part because the sun was setting but behind clouds. So I’m learning to handle that!

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