Wedding Photos to Critique

[JCWM]

Hi All!

I am not new to wedding photography, but am fairly new to digital wedding photography. Any suggestions or comments on what is good and what could be improved upon would be greatly appreciated. This wedding was shot with the 20D and 580ex flash. Thank you!

http://www.theprosphotos.com/guest?jobnumber=674092 (http://www.theprosphotos.com/guest?jobnumber=674092)

[tim]

Dude, no-one's likely to go throuhg 900+ photos, the best thing to do is post or link to a half dozen of your best, and we can critique them :)

[cmM]

ok since it's the C&C section I'll critique. I went through the first few pages, and most the shots look way too posed for my taste. They all look like snapshots UNcle Joe could take with a small P&S. Also, I didn't find the compositions to be very attractive either. Try some different angles/perspectives.
My .002

[Titus213]

Well, I have to agree with Tim - can't review that many pictures. It looks like you're bracketing your shots and posting them all. Pick a few and let us look at them.

That said I can't agree with cmM. While some are stock shots the lighting looks good and composition is OK.

Welcome to the forums. I look forward to your future posts.

[paul33]

I think there are some decent images in there but they're kind of lost amongst what appears to be an indiscriminate camera dump.

My advice (as a pro-wedding shooter) is never to present what you have presented there but to work through your images and create a selected portfolio based on the best of the set. It will help to set you apart as a decent wedding photographer rather than just a guy with a good camera.

I reckon you could put together a nice portfolio from that huge selection !

[Hellashot]

So many pictures. I'm not sure your client would want you giving the link to their private moments to a forum like this foreveryone to see/download.

Basically every shot I viewed was our of vertical. Your camera is rotate a little to the right every time you take a shot. You really should have rotated them before giving them to your customer.

[sharpshootr987]

I really dont like the orange casts in the images, sorta throws off all the other colors.

[MALI]

Hi All!

I am not new to wedding photography, ......Any suggestions or comments on what is good and what could be improved upon would be greatly appreciated.

No offence and do not take this as a personal attack but your "wedding" pictures need a LOT of improvement IMHO. They are like snapshots anybody could have taken with a point and shoot camera.

That's why I am kinda surprised to hear that you have been doing this for nearly thirty years. My suggestion to someone who takes pictures like these would be go buy a introductory book to wedding photography because the composition simply reflects complete uneducated and untrained eye to taking photographs.

Almost all the pictures I saw had the subject at the dead center. Besides, the flash was directly used on the subject producing unwanted sharp shadows and all of these are the most basic points in photograhy.

One more thing, your web site says that you did 100,000 weddings since 1978. Wow, that is a whopping 3703 weddings a year and 10 weddings a day. You must be filthy rich by now or there is something wrong with the numbers??

MALI

[SuzyView]

What lens did you use for the photos? All the people's middle look large. If you used a telephoto lens, it would have better proportion. Also, the color background is distracting. Being too far from the wall can make the colors of the room influence the photo. Move around more, as well.

SuzyView - I just shot a wedding and I made the main wedding party move around in all the shots, that way if you get 1/10 of the pictures as great, it's okay. Digital forgives.

[Nidz]

LOL Yeah I opened the page and when whoa I'm not going to look at all them.

Yeah I agree pick your top say 25 and that will be a little easier.

You have some nice photos there.

[NBEast]

I'm no pro but a few things hit me that may help:
- The white balance is different, and appears off (too orange) in most shots. White Balance control is a whole new dimension on digital. You're probably not shooting in RAW given the number of pictures, but if you do it makes fixing it a lot easier. Just take a reference shot of a white paper and grey card. In a raw processor, a few clicks can correct the one photo and apply the correction to all photos (that you know were shot in the same light). Mixed lighting can be a problem.
- This PROPHOTO site sucks! If there's a slideshow option I couldn't find it. Also; it allows right-click so, if you direct your customer here, they can just download and print their own. You have a watermark, that's good.
- As an earlier poster pointed out, a wide angle lens was obviously used for many of the portriats, or all the guests are giants with small heads, short legs, and tiny feet.
- I didn't see wedding shots or posed shots other than the snaps in the lobby. You know, where all the relatives and wedding party line up, the happy couple stands under the arch, mom and dad with tears in their eyes sitting in the front row, all that stuff.
- The ceilings looked plenty low for bounced shots yet there's a lot of shinny forheads. Also; the flash doesn't seem to have fired properly quite often. Perhaps a remote battery pack (or better flash) could help that.
- The background seems very dark on all shots. What ISO and f-stop?
- The crowd seems pretty stale. Surely there was more jublee than that.
On the plus side, you captured a lot of nice moments. Like trimming a tree, I think the whole thing together looks overgrown but eliminating the so-so's would leave it a lot better off (and get a site that has slideshow - Smugmug is raising their rates Jan 1 but for now they're only $100 - hey, use my code if you sign up with them - I get 5 bucks http://www.smugmug.com/?referrer=t1mHDFHyjwiqY

Welcome to digital - a whole new set of problems, a whole new world of possibiliities.:)

[sharksbite]

what bothers me the most are :
- everyone seems to be right in the center
- you are too far from people, which equals in A LOT of extra space in every photo / too much background
- it doesn't seem you like to experiment at all, which is why some shots are almost just like the previous ones. the only things changed are the expression on people's faces. no offence, but it really does look like someone found you on a street and handed you a camera. i think what makes photographers good is them trying out new things, getting very close or very far from subjects - which all contributes to different photos. which this series lacks.

[KO_300D]

I'm afraid I have to agree with the other posts - this doesn't present itself to be the work of someone who has been in the wedding business for 30 years at all.

To give a specific example, Photo 0026, the first and only shot I viewed,

- is badly cropped - I would have framed so that the whole of the right side of the lady is in shot,

- has hotspots due to the forementioned lighting

- is angled slightly to the right as mentioned before also

- colour balance is off, and the light in the top left is far too distracting. I would have chosen a different side to shoot or would have kindly asked the couple to move to the right a little

Just my 0.02 worth as I'm not a wedding photographer - but like I say it's not the portfolio you would expect a 'pro' shooter to present