Extraordinary Photos Out of Ordinary Locations

By: Holly + Christine of Lady and the Lens

Have you ever had sessions at repeat locations, and find yourself stuck in a creative rut? Striving to find something different, wanting to create unique pieces and not shoot cookie-cutter sessions? Here are some tips that we hope help your creative juices flowing. This fun, outgoing couple chose to have their engagement session at Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, IL. Our next stop after the zoo was a rooftop restaurant, which had special meaning to them. We try to use most all of these techniques for our sessions, to add diversity to our clients’ photos.

Shoot Through

 glass, bushes, plants, frame the picture with an object

Try something new- take a step back and try to get more in the picture by using the surroundings. Shooting through an empty glass adds distortion/lens flare, shooting through a plant or flowers add a pop of color. In this instance, shooting through this structure frames them in a unique way.

On the Ground

set camera down, or lay subjects down

Sure it sounds crazy, but more often than not subjects are willing to do what you ask of them- even brides on their wedding day. They trust you enough to hire you, lead them with confidence. Laying your camera down on the ground creates a lot of blur in the foreground of your picture adding interest, and placing the focus directly on your subject. Laying your subjects down creates a whole new perspective for you- and throw in a few jokes here an there, and we tend to get our best genuine laughs out of our couples.

Freelensing

shooting with the lens detached from the camera body

Freelensing is often referred to as the ‘poor-mans tilt shift.’ By shooting with the lens detached from the camera body you can move your lens around to move and shift your focus plane, and sometimes add unique light leaks to your photos. It’s a technique that can give you similar results to a tilt-shift lens, without the cost. If you shoot Nikon, you will have to look up how to freelens as it is not as simple as detaching the lens.

(Quite a few of the other photos used as examples are freelensed as well)

Prism

Creates an array of effects- mirror subjects, mirror objects out of the photos, add rainbows/flare to photos

This is a pretty basic and simple technique- You shoot with a prism in front of your lens. This allows for reflections, distortions, rainbows, flares…. You name it. Its a pretty neat and simple tool, but it does take practice and patience to master. Try placing the prism flush to your lens and then try rotating it… Move it around and see if you can create an effect you love.

(Find the Prism we use here)

We hope you have enjoyed these few simple tips, and that you go out and try them for yourself… Have fun!!

Here are a few more photos using the same techniques as mentioned above in other sessions…. See if you can point out what technique we used to achieve the look:

Holly Russell (owner) + Christine Singleton (associate photographer) are the ladies behind the lens at LADY AND THE LENS PHOTOGRAPHY located in Michigan City, IN. This outgoing and energetic duo loves to shoot wedding + lifestyle photography. Both ladies are mothers, and realize the value in capturing fleeting moments that make up your life story. Facebook | Website | Blog | Instagram | Twitter | Pinterest