A grainy, holga, look is what guitarist Nathan (artist name Redd Sun) told me he wanted for the edited versions of the photographs I made for him during our commercial photography shoot on Pass-A-Grille Beach. I kept that information in mind the whole time I was shooting, despite the setting sun providing a plethora of color in the wide Florida sky that evening. The grainy look is one of the things that interested me most about this shoot because 99% of the time when shooting on the beach vivid color shots are desired. I saw this as an opportunity to produce something different, something . . . simpler.
After seeing the results of this shoot, I may do an entire series of black & white beach shots. The holga effect was applied to the above photograph using the awesome Silver Efex Pro, which if you do not have it and you like black & white, then you need to get Silver Efex Pro immediately!
I centered the subject (Nathan) much more than I normally would during this shoot because I knew that type of composition best lent itself to the holga effect with its harsh vertical edge burning. This is why it is always very important to previsualize a shot, or a whole shoot even, before pressing the shutter.