What’s the point in pressing the shutter if it is so dark that you cannot see the subjects?
This was the last shot of the day in north Norfolk, we had already been photographing at Burnham Market and Cromer Pier, as well as other locations, the client was certainly squeezing in as many shots as possible and this was the last one.
The location was Wells next to the Sea in north Norfolk which is one of my favourite places, and we were lucky that the weather as exceptionally good for February. The production company (@LS Productions) were great organising the locations, lighting & equipment hire, assistants, wardrobe, make-up and transport, plus we had a massive Winnebago (a type of big US style recreational vehicle) for the fashion stylist and make-up.
When it got to the last shot the light was fading rapidly and by the time the camera was set up I could barely see the models, so some good direction was needed to get them to do what I wanted and also for them to remain as still as possible during the long two second exposure. Needless to say we had picked some great models and they understood exactly what was required and kept their pose whilst I took the photos. The camera was tethered to a laptop so the client and myself could see what I was photographing, no point in looking at the models because it was pretty dark by then…
In the end we got the shot even though we could not see what I was photographing at the time. The final shot looks much lighter that it was apparent at the time, it’s amazing how much information a modern digital camera can extract from what looks likely to be an overly dark shot.
The camera used was a 100mp Phase One with a 55mm lens.