Image Focus

It was the early evening in Saint Sofia Golf Club & Spa, Bulgaria, and Betina and Victor had just got married. The wedding reception was already underway, and their first dance together as husband and wife had just finished. I glanced out the window and saw the bright orange glow of the sun setting and it sparked the idea for this beautiful shot. I knew we wouldn’t have long, so I rushed to Betina and Victor and asked them for a few quick photos.

While the celebration of their marriage had begun, one of the biggest challenges of capturing the image was convincing them to leave their friends and family, even for just five minutes.

I was shooting the wedding with my Sony Alpha 1, and I used my Sony FE 135mm f/1.8 G Master lens for this scene. Since I was shooting from a distance with a telephoto lens, there was no way they could hear what I was saying, so I told them to improvise, taking photos as they moved and posed. Even from this distance, there is still an impressive sharpness in the shot – the pairing of this camera and lens is unparalleled.

But one of the most important things that helped to get this shot is the 15-stop dynamic range of the Alpha 1’s 50.1 megapixel sensor. It allows me to capture as much detail as possible in the highlights and shadows, whilst having all the details I need to make large prints for the couple.

To make the most of the dynamic range available, I intentionally underexposed the image by 1.7EV to ensure that the sun turned into a sold orange disk. Then, when editing the raw image, I brightened the shadows to reveal detail. Without the high dynamic range of the sensor, achieving this level of detail would be impossible.

I shot in Aperture Priority Mode with an aperture value set to f/1.8 to create a shallow depth of field. However, with a depth of field that shallow, it would have been easy for the couple to get blurred if they drifted just slightly out of the zone of focus. To counter this, I set the focus of the Alpha 1 to AF-C so that it would continuously track even the slightest movement of the couple. I know I can trust the camera’s focus in situations like these so I can concentrate solely on composing the best shot possible.

The 135mm lens focused perfectly, with the optics producing a high level of sharpness with strong micro-contrast, emphasising even the smallest of details. I had enough resolution from the high resolution sensor to crop the image, so it is a similar frame to being shot with a 200mm lens. The result is that it increased the compression effect between the subjects, the background and the sun, which looks more prominent in the image.

As for the image, I love the warm light of the setting sun; it produces a lovely contrast and silhouette, in turn creating a romantic atmosphere that is fitting for such a beautiful moment.