We all realise the 'perfect' moment is the moment itself, however - as much as I love natural & real photography - sometimes that real & natural moment could do with, just a little help to be presented in a more ideal way.
So it was with one of my all time favourite & most admired, by couples, wedding photos the kiss, in the streets of Robin Hoods Bay in North Yorkshire.
Sara & Conrad had their wedding ceremony at The Swell, a few hundred meters behind them in the photo. They'd requested a photo of them & the bay & had even picked out a spot that they wanted it taking from - not a problem, all good. We had a plan; we took their photo where they requested, fine. Though I felt lacking a little something special.
We came back out onto the street & I looked towards the bay: stone walled houses, people going about their relaxing in the sun, sea, cliffs, rolling hills & fluffy white clouds, red tiled roofs & a generally more atmospheric scene I thought.
So, "you walk on I've just got to change a lens" I said. I lied, I just waited for them to do something; I hoped they'd maybe hold hands & look towards each other; I waited & then they kissed, all natural, no prompting from me - just them, for real & in the moment.
Perfect.
In the short time I waited, chap in his cargo pants had wandered out of a doorway & ambled down the street, not camouflage enough as I can see him. Obviously the For Sale sign is not the most neutral & the little bucket & spade, meh, a little distracting to my eye, so..
Perfecting the Kiss, with a little sympathetic editing in photoshop. Cargo chappie was a little difficult as he was partly covering the person at the end of the street & some of the building - removing him meant creating & cloning from what I already had in the scene.
The For Sale sign, I could have just removed that, not too much of an issue as it only really covered the sea which is a fairly easy clone. However in a little spark of inspiration I though why not change it to Just Married, names & date... genius? please... modesty prevents me :-D
I present couples with approximately 500 images from their wedding day & while the majority need nothing more than straightening, exposure & brightness adjusting plus a little sharpening & colour; a few require a little more editing - especially for images that are going to be used in a couples wedding album or large print.
The item I remove most from wedding images are Fire Exit signs, tbh most people don't even realise they are there - in photos - however I feel, where I can, that removing them from printed wedding album photos especially, makes all the difference to the mood of the image.
You can visit my wedding photography page by clicking this link