Behind The Frame 07

My fiancée and I had just boarded the ferry to Dover when, as the boat backed out of the port, a massive container ship glided past. I honestly wasn’t planning to shoot anything but the moment I spotted a man leaning over the railing, quietly watching the ship pass, I had to snap it with my iPhone. Proof once again that the best camera is the one you have with you..

Now, let’s dive into the technicals that define this frame.

The overcast sky acted like one giant softbox from above, washing out most of the natural contrast. My go-to move in these conditions? Creating contrast through composition and positioning instead of relying on the light itself.

For this shot, I placed myself under the ferry’s roof and close to the walls, using the added shadows to push the subject into a stronger silhouette. The walls also absorbed and blocked much of the light that would have otherwise hit the man’s back and brightened it too much, helping me maintain that clean, intentional shape.

It’s a simple trick I use all the time in these conditions: find anything that absorbs light, walls, trees, and so on, and place your subject close to it.

It’s one of the easiest ways to bring contrast back into a flat, diffused scene.

Again, I used one of my favorite composition styles: framed compositions. I positioned myself so that both the ship and the man were enclosed within the scene itself, a natural frame inside the frame, adding depth and a touch of visual storytelling.

It’s a technique that works in almost any setting, and it’s incredibly useful when you can’t stage or direct the scene, especially when you’re shooting in the moment and making the most of what’s already there.

As always I recorded in Apple Log for best dynamic range and editing possibilities.

You’ll find my exact camera settings at the end of this post!

I started by applying my LUT, then fine-tuned the white balance, contrast, and saturation to taste. After that, I subtly warmed up the highlights and cooled down the shadows. a simple but powerful way to add a touch of color contrast without it feeling forced. It’s one of those small adjustments that makes an image feel richer, while still keeping things natural and refined.

The image still wasn’t quite where I wanted it. There were too many distractions pulling attention away from the main subject. To fix that, I added a subtle vignette and a mask over the window on the right, lowering its brightness so the brightest part of the frame became the sea and sky behind the man, instantly guiding your eye to where the story is happening.

For the final polish, I created a shallow-depth look by adding a light Gaussian blur to a mask around the edges, helping fake the subject separation that’s harder to achieve on an iPhone.

Small edits, big difference, all in service of shaping attention and creating a frame that feels intentional, clean, and cinematic. If you want to read more about masking check out this article I recently uploaded.

Voilà, done. A simple moment, a quick edit, yet somehow it became one of my favorite shots ever.

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Exact camera settings from the Blackmagic Camera app

Thanks so much for being here, I genuinely appreciate every single reader.
If you ever have questions or ideas for future issues, feel free to shoot me a DM on Instagram!

Until next time,

Stefan

Minimal tools. Maximum creativity.