8 Tips for Capturing Magical Moments BY CANON CREATOR ALEXANDRIA RAMON MESSAGE FROM ALEXANDRIA Welcome to the “8 Tips for Capturing Magical Moments” guide! My name is Alexandria Ramon and I am a Colorado-based fantasy photographer who creates out-of-this-world art with my husband and three children. I’ve become well-known for combining gorgeous photography with incredible post-processing in pursuit of bringing magic to life. My family and I go to great lengths to use as many practical in-camera effects as possible and our photoshoots often resemble mini film productions. Since I began sharing our art, I’ve amassed over two million followers across my @alexandriaslens TikTok and Instagram social media platforms. My audience is invited along on the adventure as my family travels to stunning locations to create magical photos. It all started when my first child was born. I couldn’t afford to have professional photos taken of her, so I saved up for a refurbished Canon camera, and since then my passion for photography has only grown. I began my career as a lifestyle photographer, but my love for all things magical eventually led to teaching myself digital art. Since childhood I’ve been drawn to books and movies that transport me to different places filled with fantasy and lore. As my oldest child grew, I read her those stories from my own childhood, and from there my love for imaginative photos was born. Nowadays, my husband and I create magical photos together with our three children, and each photoshoot is a new adventure! Many people have asked why I go to such great lengths for my photoshoots if I’m going to edit the “final result” anyway. The answer is simple: I try to use as many practical incamera effects as I possibly can, and then add in digital touches as needed. To get magical images to look as realistic as possible, beginning with a beautiful image is key. Instagram: Alexandriaslens / TikTok: Alexandriaslens / YouTube: Alexandriaslens 8 T I P S F O R CAP T URING MAG ICAL MOMENTS 1 INTRODUCTION Maybe intense photo editing isn’t your thing. Maybe you just want to quickly color grade your photos and move on. Even if that’s the case, you may be looking for ways to make your photos stand out from the rest, or you may want to create a more exciting photoshoot experience. Adding in touches of magic can elevate your photography by forcing you to think outside the box. It can also be tons of fun to have a themed photoshoot! Kids often have a short (if any) attention span when it comes to posing for photos, so making a shoot as engaging as possible can make a huge difference. Whether you’re working with kids, families, couples, or anyone else, adding some extra magical touches to your photography may be just the thing you need. Now let’s get started with my “8 Tips for Capturing Magical Moments”. Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, EF 85mm f/1.4L IS USM, F/1.4, 1/400, ISO 250 8 T I P S F O R CAP T URING MAG ICAL MOMENTS 2 1. Brainstorm Your Vision Every photoshoot starts with visualizing the end result. Is your subject a wizard, a pirate, a princess, or an ordinary person experiencing something extraordinary? I try to think through every detail: What do the costumes look like? How will the subjects be posing? What is behind or in front of them? Do I need to add a fun prop? Will I be able to bring it all together on location? My husband and I recently had an idea that required a floating bed on a body of water. Once I found a vintage bed locally, my husband secured empty plastic bins underneath the slats to make it buoyant. Then we sourced a mattress and bedding, costumes and props, and found the right location on a nearby lake. After that, we had to figure out how to transport and assemble everything on-site before successfully executing the actual photoshoot. Planning and prepping took about one week, while shooting it only took a couple of hours. Proper planning can make all the difference! Canon EOS R, EF 85mm F/1.6, 1/500, ISO 320 2. Find Interesting Props Mirrors, suitcases, costumes, crafts! There are so many great props that can make your photos stand a cut above the rest — and they also make photoshoots more fun! Some of my biggest inspirations have come from browsing antique, second-hand, and craft stores. Maybe you already have an idea of what to shop for, or maybe you simply need to peruse some old collectibles to find that spark of inspiration. If you have an amazing prop in your photoshoot, try lowering your aperture and snapping a few pictures with the prop in focus and your subject blurry behind it, creating a bokeh effect. Canon EOS R5, EF 50mm f/2L IS USM, F/1.4, 1/500, ISO 500 8 T I P S F O R CAP T URING MAG ICAL MOMENTS 3 3. Integrate Pops of Color Beautiful, vivid colors go hand-in-hand with magical scenes. Pops of color can accentuate your subjects, direct the viewers’ attention, and bring a fun palette into an otherwise drab scene. Try using vibrant flowers, clothing, or lighting! This can make a huge difference if you use natural landscapes as your main backdrops, but it can really be applied to any type of photography. When picking out clothing for your concepts, try to think about something colorful, yet simple, which will pull the viewer in, while still allowing the backdrop to shine as well. For the photo below (left), we used fog spray and a small rectangular LED light to give the illusion of a green potion. 4. Create a Sense of Movement Hair flips, poses, dress twirls, light painting! Movement can bring life to a photo, and it can elevate a good picture to a great picture. I usually try to show some type of movement in my photos, whether it’s the subject or the atmosphere around them. Remember to increase your shutter speed if your subject is moving or decrease your shutter speed for long exposure and light painting. If you’re struggling to capture moving subjects (like kids or pets), try using AI Servo AF and burst mode to ensure that you photograph them clearly and precisely. Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, EF 85mm F/1.4, 1/250, ISO 1000 8 T I P S F O R CAP T URING MAG ICAL Canon EOS R5, EF 85mm f/1.4L IS USM, F/8, 3.2, ISO 500 MOMENTS 4 5. Embrace Glow One of my favorite ways to showcase magic is to use glowing elements during photoshoots. Handheld LED lights are a great way to illuminate parts of your scene. Sometimes it pays off to get creative and add touches of light onto books, umbrellas, walls, or anything else you can think of. I will often use a wireless light to illuminate my subject’s face or hands in connection to the glowing object in the scene. Experiment with your camera to see how far you can take your ISO before your pictures start to look grainy. Ideally, your ISO should be kept lower to decrease image grain, but I increase mine quite often as we take most of our photos in very low light. I have found that all of my Canon cameras can handle those higher ISO settings very well! Canon EOS R5, RF50mm F/1.2, 1/500, ISO 400 6. Create the Atmosphere You know your subject, you found your location, now it’s time to think about enhancing the atmosphere into your scene. The atmosphere adds depth by building layers in your image, and it helps blend the subject and background together for a more cohesive picture. Some of my favorite methods are using spray fog, snow machines, fog machines, or simply throwing leaves or flower petals into the air. If you’re creating a magical scene where children are involved, then you’ll probably capture the best moments by letting them interact with the atmosphere around them. Higher shutter speeds helps because they can capture moving props and special effects clearly, such as fog or falling leaves. Canon EOS R, RF50mm, F/1.2, 1/250, ISO 1250 8 T I P S F O R CAP T URING MAG ICAL MOMENTS 5 7. Choose the Right Light Lighting is everything. When you imagine your perfect end result, how does the lighting look? If someone told me to imagine a cinematic moment, I would immediately think of moody lighting with magical, glowing, or colorful elements dancing around the scene. Unless I’m shooting on a cloudy day, I usually gravitate towards the end of “golden hour” leading into “blue hour” — the small window of time that happens right after sunset. It’s the last light of the day, where it’s still bright enough to capture the scene, but dim enough to use creative lighting and set a moody tone. During blue hour the light changes quickly, so you can avoid under-exposed images by increasing your ISO as the sunlight disappears. Light painting allows you to keep your ISO very low, even in dark conditions. You’ll also want to use a slow shutter speed to gather more light, which means you’ll want to use a tripod to maintain as much image clarity as possible, depending on how still your subject is. Canon EOS R, RF50mm F1.2 L USM, F/3.5, 3.2, ISO 100 8 T I P S F O R CAP T URING MAG ICAL MOMENTS 6 Canon EOS R, EF 85mm F/1.4, 1/320, ISO 400 8. Find the Best Location & Weather Easily one of the most time-consuming parts of my entire creative process is finding the right location. Of course, I have a handful of trusted places near my home, but when our family is traveling somewhere new, we will often research several different possibilities before driving to scout each one out. It can be an incredibly disheartening experience to arrive somewhere for a planned photoshoot only to discover that it doesn’t look right, the light is coming from a bad direction, or the angle that you envisioned isn’t achievable. While visiting the United Kingdom, we planned a photoshoot that required a stone doorway. The first ruins we found had a doorway that looked great, but when we arrived it was on a steep hill and I couldn’t get a great angle. The second one we found had a massive doorway (about 10 feet taller than the pictures online implied), but the third doorway we went to was perfect! It can be a bit tricky to find the right locations, so take the time to research online through maps and location photos, then visit them before your shoot if possible. Once you’ve found your ideal location, pay close attention to the weather forecast for that area. Wind, snow, rain, bright sunlight, clouds, and fog can all make or break a photo, depending on your desired goal. I personally use several different weather apps to make sure we don’t waste our time loading everything up and driving to a shoot location. If you’re planning to create an atmosphere in your photo (fog machines, leaves, petals, etc.), then strong wind is the number one condition to avoid. 8 T I P S F O R CAP T URING MAG ICAL MOMENTS 7 Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, EF 85mm f/1.4L IS USM, F/1.4, 1/640, ISO 400 8 T I P S F O R CAP T URING MAG ICAL MOMENTS 8 MY FAVORITE GEAR Canon EOS R5, RF 50mm 1.2 L USM F/2, 1/400, ISO 1250 8 T I P S F O R CAP T URING MAG ICAL MOMENTS 9 Stay Connected With Us!
