Photos of the Week


Eye-Catching Portraits and Photos of the Week

May 30, 2022

By Jacqueline Tobin

Portrait photography can run the gamut in type and style—everything from the traditional “head and shoulders” shot to lifestyle and environmental, candid and street, glamourboudoirmaternity sessions and much more. This week, we present various portraits outdoors, as well as engagement shots that are taken in unique landscapes and interesting locations off the beaten path.

Cassandra Oldenburg of NarrowLeaf Photography loves how portraits outdoors like this one can really showcase a couple. Here, the bride and groom are shown taking some time after they got married to just “be” in this grand landscape soaking up the views. “I am so happy they chose to take this time to not only connect with each other, but to the landscape they got married in,” she says, “I love seeing them holding hands while watching the last bit of sun setting over the mountain before their big hike back down—taking this portrait outdoors was the perfect ending to their wedding day adventure.” 

couple on rock in portrait outdoors.
© NarrowLeaf Photography

Oldenburg adds: “A couple of elements I look for when placing couples in a massive landscape so they don’t get lost in it is to look for framing elements—in this case, the rocks on either side of the couple— that help remove any distractions and push the eyes of the viewer directly to the couple. This can be achieved with leading lines, like a walking trail leading to them or contrasting light where the background is maybe shaded, but the couple is in full sun.” 

Another thing the photographer considers when looking at a big scene like this is seeing where the couple could fit in a way that they may “pop” off the background versus blending into it. “This can change with each couple and landscape, but essentially if there is a couple wearing blue, I may not want to place them in front of a similarly blue body of water, but instead place them in front of a neutral colored rock, for example,” she explains.

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To simplify, Oldenburg looks for leading lines, contrasting light, foreground and background elements, and compares the colors of the landscape to the colors of the clothing the couple is wearing to help highlight them in the environment. “I also like to play with different focal lengths and lenses to help showcase the couple inside the landscape in different ways. For this image, I chose to use my 24-70mm because the area was tight between me and the couple, and this lens allowed me to shoot both wide at 24mm to achieve this image and close in at 70mm to get a good bokeh blur on the background, which can really highlight the couple in a different way as well.”

Eugene Tan of Bottled Groove Photography in Singapore photographed this image at Tiong Bahru, one of Singapore’s oldest housing estates. “Formerly populated by senior residents, it has recently seen a transformation in the area since the late 2000s, which is now widely regarded as a ‘go-to’ for the young and the hip, as well as a popular choice for many of Singapore’s expatriates who made it their home,” he says.

portrait outdoors with couple in doors' archways.
© Bottled Groove Photography

When he spotted the archways side by side in this portrait outdoors, he thought it would be nice for the couple to do a couple of poses within them, especially as the sunlight was shining in the couple’s direction. “What happened was a few passersby got curious as they walked past, not knowing that I was in the opposite direction, photographing the couple,” says Tan. “I ended up with this image—a juxtaposition of how the old meets the new. The aunty probably must have thought ‘these are some weird kids! When I photographed this, I definitely knew I would want to edit it in black and white.”

The next shot by Tan shows a couple at one of the more popular wedding photoshoot spots in Singapore, a tunnel the photographer says is reminiscent of the gun barrel sequence in all of the James Bond movies. He likes that the tunnel and the lighting also add a slightly futuristic vibe to the image.

bride and groom in tunnel.
© Bottled Groove Photography

“Usually, I like to get my couples to warm up by having them walk towards the camera, or away from the camera,” Tan explains. “Sometimes I might just surprise them by having them run towards me by suddenly shouting ‘Run!'” This photograph was taken early in the session, a very casual stroll with the couple looking at each other. Sometimes, I can tell if they needed more warming up or are ready to plunge head in into the session. For this couple, as one can tell by how they are looking at each other, I did not have to waste too much time getting them ready.

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Traci Edwards of Adventure and Vow loves this photo because the location had been on the couple’s bucket list for a very long time—years.

couple in grand landscape portrait outdoors.
© Adventure and Vow

“This is where they chose to do their engagement session,” she explains. “Walking around here, you feel tiny and in awe of all of the color within the white rock. Since you can legally fly a drone here, we decide to put ours up in the air to take this shot in an attempt to really capture the entire feel of this location and how small you can feel amid the rock. What also makes the shot is the golden light sunset!” 

Morgane Cazaubon of Petite Visuals in Melbourne, Australia, says natural light was really what she wanted when capturing this portrait outdoors. “I wanted to primarily feature the flares and haze of the sun,” she explains, “but without losing too much of the shadows as well as keeping it sharp enough to be able to see the couple’s radiant and laughing faces.”

couple outdoors in sun flare.
© Petite Visuals

She says this is why she kept a higher aperture of 3.2, to catch some more defined flares and to make sure she grabbed the features of their faces in focus (“because let’s be honest, I couldn’t see much at all as I was shooting, having the sun in my face”). But she also kept a lower 1/800 of a second shutter speed to make sure their faces were not too much in the shadows.

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“Once I used my b/w preset (it felt too busy with color), it didn’t feel exactly as bright and joyful as I wanted. So later, I took some photos on a black background with the sun rays hitting some prisms I had, and used Photoshop to apply the layer. The photo is in black and white but I kept the prism layer in color to keep that extra brightness and joyful flare. I just feel that it depicts the moment better and adds an extra layer to it.”

Dig into our Photo of the Day archives for even more compelling, eye-catching, images including portraits outdoors and other photos you won’t want to miss out on!  Send us your wedding and portrait photos, editorial, documentary and commercial image submissions: [email protected]