Sometimes everything comes together to help you capture the perfect photo. Proper preparation, good technique, the ability to improvise, and just a little bit of luck from the universe to give the picture that extra “kick”. That was definitely the case with this picture, which I lovingly refer to as the “Friends” wedding party photo…
When it came time to take this picture, the group literally told me they wanted a “Friends” photo – like the television show. At first I wasn’t sure exactly what they meant because that could mean a lot of different things.
Here’s the story…
There were a lot of variables at play in capturing this image. The setting was dark, a New York City side street at night with minimal street lights. The subjects would be moving, and it was a fairly large group – it’s harder to keep eight people in focus than it is two.
The decision to shoot fairly wide open at f/2 was pretty simple for me because of several factors:
- The group would be in a straight line eliminating the need for extensive depth-of-field
- My on camera flash would have enough power to ‘freeze’ the action even though I was shooting at slower than 1/100th of a second
There was no posing involved in this photo. I merely instructed them to link arms and walk down the street while talking to each other.
Where the luck came in was when the car drove down the street behind them. The sequence of images I have includes about a dozen pictures and about 50% of them have the rim light provided by the car’s headlights. That extra touch really sets this image apart!
Do you like this “Friends” wedding party photo?
I can’t believe this video has over 400,000 plays on TikTok as of the time I am posting this. People really seem to enjoy the behind the scenes stories of making photos.
Do you? Is that something you would like to see more of? Or is there something else you want to hear about? Maybe more photography tips? Camera gear videos? Whatever it is, tell me about it. Go over to my Instagram or my TikTok and leave me a comment telling me what kind of videos you would like to see.
