everyone loves a wedding

[blacknstormy]

Hi all
This is a shot of a beautiful friend of mine that got married on the weekend. Was kind of pleased with this shot :) I know that it is on the small side for this screen - but was nice and quick to download. Looks much better blown up, but thought I'd share anyway :)
Rel

[img]http://www.fototime.com/4A454DF07D0AC2F/standard.jpg[img]

[Don Ellis]

Hi Rel,

I like this shot -- give me green and water and reflections anytime -- and will offer just a few thoughts for you to consider. All personal opinions, naturally.

First of all, it's fine to leave it as it is. If I'm being really picky, however, I would remove the little house bit on the right and clone out the white thing in the water.

I'm including a revised photo below and did the following things ...

1. I cropped using a 3:2 aspect ratio. It removes the building and some of the space on the left while retaining the overall height to include the trees and the reflections. This keeps the vertical grandeur, if you will, and makes you look like you're shooting 35mm, for what it's worth.

2. I cloned out the whiffle ball in the water.

3. I bumped the saturation up 10% to heighten the green.

After doing all that, I resized to match your 480-pixel height and put in grids to divide the picture into thirds.

http://www.kleptography.com/dl/wedding.jpg

You don't always have to follow the rule of thirds, of course, but it never hurts to overlay the grid and see where things are falling. In this case, you've got...

1. The bride standing (and centered) right on the bottom-right intersection with her above and her reflection below.

2. The lower horizontal cuts right across the line of the dock.

3. The upper horizontal line cuts right across the line between the grass and the trees.

4. In the upper third of the photo, you've got light/dark/light trees, each in its own box.

5. The couple in the background -- which I think adds a nice bit of relief to the bridal couple -- are in their own box (although I don't think that's any kind of a rule). :)

One last thing, I like the fact that there's a small separation between the background couple and the bush. It gives every element of the photo its own space. I also like the fact that the pole is off-center.

So there you go... now you've got a critique. I think it's a very good photo; you should be pleased.

Cheers,

Don

Now that I look at it after all that, I realize that the post and its reflection are 0.7 degrees out of vertical. That's probably the first thing you should adjust before you do anything.

Reading others' comments, I can only say that for me there are not too many things going on. And the pole adds to the verticality of the photo, while acting as an anchor for the bridal pair and a separator of the two couples. Rather than being a distraction, it is a necessary element; otherwise, everything is horizontal.

My conclusion, therefore, is that we are all snowflakes with very individual tastes. :) You'll have to decide for yourself.

[slejhamer]

blacknstormy,

I tend to agree with Don's comments and reworking here.

I assume that the background couple are the parents of either the bride or groom, and thus they give the image some perspective (literally and figuratively.) In that context, the pole gives an interesting division. However, cloning it out works well too.

On the other hand, if the background couple are unrelated and simply the next in line waiting to be photographed at the dock, then they should probably not be there. I'd bet this is not the case, though... :)

One suggestion is to tone down the brightness of the dock, very slightly, to get a little more separation between the dock and dress. That may not be necessary in the larger image, so you will have to judge based on the original.

I would also consider vignetting or softening the corners a bit, but that is not to everyone's taste.