Studio Couple Shoot and Lessons learned

After two years of doing studio shoots on a regular basis, I still haven’t gathered a lot of experience with couple or group shoots in a studio setting. To get some practice and improve my skills I asked friends of mine, Yuki and Philipp, if they would like to model for me. They said yes, and were even ready to buy new outfits for the occasion. They also kindly agreed that I could use some of their pictures here on my website.

The first challenge I faced was working with their difference in height. But they had the amazing idea to sit in seiza, the formal Japanese way of sitting in a kneeling position.

This way we took some beautiful shots at around 40mm and f.4 .

For a few more pictures I lent Yuki my Dirndl, a traditional Austria dress. We liked the idea of Philipp, a fellow Austrian, wearing traditional Japanese clothing, and Yuki, who is Japanese, wearing the Austrian dress.

But for these shots I positioned them differently and I zoomed in. And that’s where I made a crucial mistake. While I zoomed in, I did not change my f-stop. This meant I was working with a more shallow depth of field, and as I focused on Philipp, Yuki came out of focus.

This becomes even more apparent in the following photo, where Yuki’s face is even further away from the camera and the focus point on Philipp.

This is an important lesson learned! I hadn’t even thought about it before and was more concerned about lighting and positioning the couple well. But now I know to be more mindful about my aperture when working with multiple people, and hopefully won’t make the same mistake again.

At the end, here is my favorite picture of the shoot: