Making Ghosts - Straight out of the camera

The plot, which I am yet to lose:

Yesterday, I drove 200KM to photograph a client's wedding. They live on a rural property about 83km out of Adelaide, in a small township. There was a small-town hotel that the girls were getting ready in, a well appointed home where the boys were getting ready, and me running around with my cameras.

It was a evening / night time wedding, so the available light wasn't the best that you'll ever see, and the fast paced nature of a wedding means using a strobe isn't all that viable. I had a video light with me which I used for the ceremony, but I thought that I was not being as creative as I possibly could be.

Thus, I decided to combine a few strategies when we got back to the property, which was the venue for the reception / after party.

I took the couple out to the fenceline of their property, and told them that I'd turn them into ghosts.

The plan was to combine astrophotography and portraiture with the wedding genre, and I probably could've done better... but for a a total set up time for around 3-5 minutes, I think the following capture is pretty good, straight out of camera!

The set up: Nikon Z (something) - can't remember if it was my Z6 or Z5.

35mm f/1,8 @ 2.8; ISO 800, 15 second shutter, on a tripod
My Galaxy Note+ Torch
A paddock somewhere in country South Australia

Place camera on tripod. Pose couple. Open shutter. Flash torch at bride for half a second. Flash torch at groom for a little longer (they were wearing darker colours) - tell them to leave the shot to the right.

The outcome (after this enormous wall of text) -

This image is straight out of camera.

image.png

I'll be enhancing it, along with the other images from the eventing, before I deliver it to the clients. A Pretty good result for a single exposure (and a first attempt at this... ever!)


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Thanks as always for your time!



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18 comments

Cool one :) May be you should check our community and see if it inspires you :
https://peakd.com/c/hive-108913

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Cheers, I've seen the community around didn't think it was of the calibre of the work to justify posting there!

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(Edited)

We all are rookies one day ;)
You're wlecome to the tribe and feel free to ask if you need tips to step up your game, if I can help.

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Thank you. Time (and willing humans) are my biggest bottlenecks at the moment. I have so very much on! :D

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Wow! this is really creative, a bit scary 😂 but I love it it turned out!

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It is just how light behaves in the eye of a camera!

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NICE! I like the creative idea you used and you vision. Ghosts. :D Dropping you some hot !PIZZA and !LUV on this post!

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Thank you, there was very little time between conception and execution on this one! It was not pre-planned before the day.

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Ah yes, Some times being spontanous makes moment more ... ... real in a way. Right?

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Quite good result for first attempt. You’re welcome to join our community to find some more inspiration.

!discovery lightup

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That's actually pretty cool, sure someone will steal it and spin it about how they were just trying to take a photo of the night sky out in some paddock somewhere and there was no one else around and they were SHOCKED when they developed the film or looked at their camera (depending on whether they're pretending to be film or digital photographers) and this happened XD

Quite a hike for that job, did you have fun? :D (doing the whole thing not just the ghost shoot ;D)

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Yeah, it was a very laid back wedding. :) Good people, good banter, and lots of opportunities for candids, which is pretty much how I shot almost all of the wedding.

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