Chris & Jessica Engagement - Falling

You can now purchase an 11''x14'' print of this beautiful photo

This was the first engagement shoot that I have done and I was excited that I got to do it with two of my long-time friends: Chris and Jessica. They're really cool people. Chris popped the question earlier in the summer and they called me right away to ask if I would go up to Oregon City to do some engagement shoots for them. They also wanted me to do their wedding, but I told them I wanted to enjoy the wedding, not have to photograph it. I think Jessica believes she can still find a way to convince me to do it.

Half the shoot was done at Hillendale Park, which is where he proposed (and right near the house where I spent 18 years of my life). The other half was in the backyard of Chris' parent's house. They were great to shoot with and the weather was awesome. I must confess, I did browse flickr for a while on poses I could use, so not all of these poses are my own making.

How to recreate this photo:
I'm a huge fan of sharing and creative commons. I also wanted to share how this photo was created.

1) Find a place with a still background. Wind moving bushes can make this hard.
2) Put your camera on a tripod.
3) Place your subjects at the edge of your frame.
4) Have one subject take decently sizes steps. Have them pause as they complete each step. Take a photo as they pause. Have them take another until they get to the middle.
5) Now repeat for the other subject until they are in the middle.
6) Have them kiss or do something fun in the middle and take a photo of that. You can try a few different poses her and decide which one you want to use later.
7) Bring all these photos into one photoshop document. Keep one photo as background. Keep each different "copy" of the person on a different layer
8) On each layer that is not serving as the background to the image, erase everything except the person. Make sure you don't erase shadows. They are important as well.
9) Change the opacity of the layers that aren't the ends or the middle 50%. They will blend into the background.

Comments and faves

  1. OregonVelo, LENS Photography, CraptasticPhotog, metakephoto, and 1404 other people added this photo to their favorites.

  2. OregonVelo (57 months ago | reply)

    Great shot...

  3. YouLookNiceTodayPhotography (57 months ago | reply)

    Awesome! Great creativity!

  4. LENS Photography (57 months ago | reply)

    OMG ... this is such an incredible idea!!
    Perfect Auzi!
    Lorri

  5. Nil mutant (57 months ago | reply)

    nice mood n gr8 clone

  6. craig.proulx (57 months ago | reply)

    Very creative man. I'd say your first engagement photoshoot is a success!

  7. Frank-o Fotos (57 months ago | reply)

    great idea & execution, yo!

  8. metakephoto (57 months ago | reply)

    very original concept...

  9. CraptasticPhotog (57 months ago | reply)

    This is awesome!

  10. benrashton (57 months ago | reply)

    interesting shot. Unique idea.

  11. f 1.8 (57 months ago | reply)

    Outstanding!

  12. LukeOlsen (57 months ago | reply)

    Man this is creative. I would totally expect this to be copied and copied.

  13. Adrian Adel (57 months ago | reply)

    wonderfully done Auz!

  14. Auzigog (57 months ago | reply)

    @PhotoInference: Well that's because I copied it from many different copies I found on flickr. ;)

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    Seen on your photo stream. (?)

  15. ps70 ...,,.,., (57 months ago | reply)

    a sweet image and a clever composition!

  16. clyde_sostand (57 months ago | reply)

    There no words for this photo well done!!

  17. Q.T.R_B.o.y ▒ M.A.D.R.I.D.I ▒ (57 months ago | reply)

    Hi, I'm an admin for a group called www.flickr.com/groups/400939@N23/, and we'd love to have this added to the group!

  18. soupnrc (56 months ago | reply)

    That's awesome!

    I might have to steal that idea sometime :)

  19. Misserion (56 months ago | reply)

    Stumbled across this looking for engagement shoot ideas. This is a really cool concept - and fun to see someone else from Oregon City! :)

  20. Evil Machinery [deleted] (56 months ago | reply)

    This is awesome, and all of the ones of their engagement are the coolest ones I've ever seen.

  21. JTHammond [deleted] (56 months ago | reply)

    Brilliant concept and perfect execution.
    Unconventional shots like this will definitely make the occasion even more memorable.

  22. sternz™ (56 months ago | reply)

    fuckin nice..welldone!!

  23. shoooosh (54 months ago | reply)

    woooow,so nice

  24. Chanson T (53 months ago | reply)

    Love this shot!

  25. LJK Photos (53 months ago | reply)

    great concept

  26. michaelwalcher (53 months ago | reply)

    are they really cool people?

  27. Auzigog (53 months ago | reply)

    Hahaha. Don't make me re-read my caption and feel stupid about it! :-P

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    Seen on your photo stream. (?)

  28. Stephanie Moore (53 months ago | reply)

    This is very creative...
    Thinking outside the box. I like it!!

  29. Lyfe Photography (51 months ago | reply)

    That is super sweet!

  30. careen4him (51 months ago | reply)

    Saweeet - very nice!

  31. neffland (51 months ago | reply)

    Great picture, very creative!

  32. kyle.bernardez (50 months ago | reply)

    your ugly. nbjkefnhgjkwdbhfjkdnhbjkdhfjehkgidlsjfohjuifv bildjsklfih. you should date me instead of that jerk

  33. yezzzy (50 months ago | reply)

    how do u do this? great picture

  34. Faith Alexandra (50 months ago | reply)

    What an awesome shot!!

  35. roman_kruiz (50 months ago | reply)

    It is a very nice picture, may I use it at my SEO blog

  36. Auzigog (50 months ago | reply)

    It's creative commons. You may use it any place you like as long as you link back to my profile!

  37. daria? (50 months ago | reply)

    very good idea!

  38. g.chamekh (50 months ago | reply)

    oooooh so romantic

  39. Diciacofish° (50 months ago | reply)

    i think this is one of the bestest i've ever seen

  40. taylorjackson.ca (49 months ago | reply)

    Hah I love the idea here!

  41. Flavio Spezia [deleted] (49 months ago | reply)

    muy buena, original y buena composicion

  42. ~Mina~ (49 months ago | reply)

    This is a great shot!! can you tell me how you did it? I'm doing my first wedding shoot for one of my friends, and i'd love to do something like this!

    --
    Found in a search. (?)

  43. Juantonee (49 months ago | reply)

    Great shot. Great idea and composition. how did you do this anyway? hope to hear from you

  44. metalizada [deleted] (49 months ago | reply)

    Hi, I'm an admin for a group called Rainbow Luv, and we'd love to have this added to the group!

  45. thepoor (49 months ago | reply)

    great work ...congrat

  46. ValentinaKeslowe (49 months ago | reply)

    how did you do this? like what program did you use?

  47. Mitesh Kothari (49 months ago | reply)

    great work. how did you creat that?

  48. kirsten_831 (49 months ago | reply)

    this is amazing! what site do you use to do this??

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