As most of you might know, the last weeks of September and the first of October are special ones for beer drinkers all over the planet. It’s Oktoberfest – the biggest beer drinking feast the world knows. Every year thousands of Germans dress up in their traditional clothes which are Lederhosen and Dirndl and come together at the „Wiesn“ (meadow) to drink millions of liters of beer… and as every year thousands of foreigners like myself join them. But this year it was a little different – less drinking, more working (at least on my part). I met up with two beautiful, young german girls to do a fun lifestyle shoot in their traditional dresses. As it is really – and I mean REALLY REALLY (!!) – crowded at the Wiesn and as a precaution against drunk guys interrupting the shoot I chose the English Garden as location. It is a beautiful park in midst Munich with a small river and plenty of space.

We were sooo lucky that day!! It was overcast the whole time and looked like it would rain as the days before but fortunately just as we began shooting the clouds cleared up and left a small space for the setting sun to shine through. Yes, just as I wanted it to be!!! We mainly used natural light. For a couple of shots my assistant Thomas helped out holding a silver reflector to bounce some light back into the faces. We also used a speedlight with an orange gel as a hairlight to separate the models from the background when shooting with the sun.

For editing I mainly used Adobe Lightroom and did a few tweaks in Photoshop. Here is a before and after comparison of one of the shots.

Thanks to my amazing team!!

Models, Assistant and Photographer
FLTR: Theresa, Thomas, Helmut, Karina, Anna

Models: Karina K., Theresa S.
Assistant: Thomas H.
Moral Support: Anna R.
Photographer: Helmut Steiner

Portrait of a blond young girl in a traditional German/Austrian dress (called Dirndl)
After editing
Girls in traditional German/Austrian dresses (called Dirndl) running down a hill with the sun setting behind them.
Two young women in traditional German/Austrian dresses (called Dirndl) kissing.
Portrait of a dark haired young girl in a traditional German/Austrian dress (called Dirndl)
Portrait of two girls in traditional German/Austrian dresses (called Dirndl) with the sun setting behind them.
Girls in traditional German/Austrian dresses (called Dirndl) sitting under a tree enjoying the last sunlight/golden hour.
A blond young girl in a traditional German/Austrian dress (called Dirndl) lying in the grass.
Girls in traditional German/Austrian dresses (called Dirndl) lying in the grass.
A dark haired young girl in a traditional German/Austrian dress (called Dirndl) lying in the grass.
A blond German girl in a traditional dress (dirndl) playing with dogs.
Our shoot got disrupted by a couple of dogs that came looking for some play time.
Girls in traditional German/Austrian dresses (called Dirndl) doing piggyback.