Dawn shoot in Cyprus (Patreon)

My day job has me working in Cyprus for a couple of months. I put the word out on the modelling community here, and Liubov contacted me for a shoot.

I brought my camera and a couple of lenses, as well as my computer for post processing, but my baggage allowance meant I could not bring my lights, so all planned shoots had to rely on natural (or other available) light.

We discussed a few ideas, and came up with the concept of a fashion shoot using the Larnaca Medieval Castle as a backdrop. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larnaca_Castle)

Liubov suggested we shoot in late afternoon, but I had a notion that the light would be behind the castle then, making the light I was shooting by somewhat flat and dull. I checked that with the Sun Surveyor app:

So it looked like a shoot at dawn was going to be the answer - the Sun provides harsh light, but at least at dawn it was going to be coming in from the side instead of directly overhead, and at an angle that would suit using the front wall of the castle as a backdrop.

Sunrise was supposed to be at 6:30, so we agreed to meet then. Liubov turned up a little early, and even as the Sun started to rise it was a bit cold and dark to start shooting, so we waited for a bit.

Once the Sun was up it quickly got a fair bit warmer (it is Winter here, but a Cyprus Winter is not too harsh, no matter what the locals tell you).

One final problem we encountered was that shortly after we started shooting the Sun went behind a cloud. I was prepared for the golden light associated with dawn and dusk, but this was positively orange. The following shot has been developed with Daylight white balance:

Fortunately I shoot raw, so adjusting the white balance to Tungsten made the colours look a lot more natural:

The other option is to process in black and white, which I also did for a few images.

As the Sun rose some more it went back to a colour that my camera more readily recognised as 'Daylight', and we were able to shoot a lot more.

We ended up shooting at the castle wall, then I suggested we do some on the water's edge - but Liubov took it a step further and jumped in to the water (it was only a couple of cm deep), and I, of course, had to follow to get the best angle with the light - the trouble of shooting with natural light is you can't move the light stand! I am still processing all those, and will upload a set here later. I have done another shoot with Liubov, and I am planning one more before I return to Australia.