My first wedding (photos)

[hart]

Here are the first 5 shots from the reception that I have post processed:

http://ord02.umicache.com/p/virb.com/noResize/Image-26268-195165-IMG_0024a.jpg

http://ord02.umicache.com/p/virb.com/noResize/Image-26268-195178-IMG_0394a.jpg

http://ord02.umicache.com/p/virb.com/noResize/Image-26268-195170-IMG_0295b.jpg

http://ord02.umicache.com/p/virb.com/noResize/Image-26268-195173-IMG_0366b.jpg

http://ord02.umicache.com/p/virb.com/noResize/Image-26268-195171-IMG_0345b.jpg

The ceremony was in Costa Rico, so I was only in charge of shooting the formals and reception. Let me know what you think.

[1kerry]

#2 looks nice! keep it up!

[subtle_spectre]

How cool! I am shooting a wedding there in just a few weeks...Fort Wayne at the station, not Costa Rico. Do you have other images of the interior? I'd love to see them...pm me maybe. Thanks.

[HutchPhoto]

Hart

I thought you did a fine job!

Keep up the good work!


*****

[hart]

subtle_spectre, that is awesome. It's a really nice place if you haven't been there already. I just started getting everything post processed. I do have some wide angle shots of the interior, and when i get the rest of the images processed, i'll post them so you can take a look.

And I absolutely love Bakerstreet. It's one of the nicest places in Fort Wayne for receptions. I had to do my formals at the Station though which was alittle difficult, but I did most of them infront of a train backdrop and an old wood bench and just bounced my 580ex off of a wall and a reflector card to reduce hard shadowing and it worked very nice.

[hart]

and thanks for the comments.

[Nan08]

favorite is no 2, looks like you used your wide. nice blur effect. how did you light up no 4? thanks for sharing.

[strmrdr]

#1 the angle and arm placement makes her look like a linebacker with huge shoulders.
#4 she is too centered and too square to the camera

[dlphotography]

pretty damn good for your first wedding. I remember my first wedding =X Keep up the fantastic work!

[hart]

favorite is no 2, looks like you used your wide. nice blur effect. how did you light up no 4? thanks for sharing.

number 2 was indeed shot with my 17-40L with a tight focus right on the newlyweds. I added a very slight radial blur in post processing as well to add to the blur caused by the tight focus.

And for the lighting goes in 4, I used my 580ex throughout the whole reception. In this photo, I shot it with my 17-40L at right around 24mm and bounced the speedlite off of the wall to the right at an angle from which direction I was shooting, catching the bride in the majority of the light. I adjusted the zoom of the speedlite to right around 70mm to also selectively light up the crowd from the bounce and give me nice dark values on everything else besides the bride fully lite and the crowd. I also did some very light dodging of the crowd in the back and burned alittle of the floor, both at 14%.

[hart]

#1 the angle and arm placement makes her look like a linebacker with huge shoulders.

hrm, I really liked going after a more contemporary angle for some of the formal shots like this one. I now see what you mean. Does any one else think that this is a problem? Thanks for pointing that out, I'm going to have to be alittle more careful with my poses from now one I think.

here's one more. I have about 50 more to go. :O
http://ord01.umicache.com/p/virb.com/noResize/Image-26268-203749-IMG_0186a.jpg
I'm not too sure if I really like this one; I wish I would have bounced my speedlite to the right wall instead of left as it would have lite up the darker dressed men instead of the guys on the left who are all wearing lighter colors. It goes quick, so lesson learned I guess.

And if anyone is curious, you can see more of my work here on VIRB. (http://www.virb.com/davidhart)

[hart]

I just realized how many lurkers this forum has! 500+ views in this thread and only 10 posts. wowzers.

[RGolfJ]

I am the king of lurking....I guess it is time that I start contributing.

[hart]

acouple more:

http://ord02.umicache.com/p/virb.com/noResize/Image-26268-261315-IMG_0059b.jpg

http://ord02.umicache.com/p/virb.com/noResize/Image-26268-261320-2IMG_0084b.jpg

[strmrdr]

of the last 2 not sure about the first... different edit maybe in color.
2nd one is kicken good job. If I changed anything it would be to add a bit of brightness but would have to play with it to see how much.

[hart]

Thanks for the comments so far. Here's a few more:

1.
http://ord02.umicache.com/p/virb.com/noResize/Image-26268-263246-2IMG_0213b.jpg

2.
http://ord02.umicache.com/p/virb.com/noResize/Image-26268-263244-2IMG_0029b.jpg

3.
http://ord02.umicache.com/p/virb.com/noResize/Image-26268-263245-2IMG_0061a.jpg

4.
http://ord02.umicache.com/p/virb.com/noResize/Image-26268-263248-IMG_0380b.jpg

5.
http://ord02.umicache.com/p/virb.com/noResize/Image-26268-263247-2IMG_0705b.jpg

6.
http://ord02.umicache.com/p/virb.com/noResize/Image-26268-263250-IMG_0314b.jpg

[jjmucker]

i love the second image.i love how the B&G stand out from everyone.what lighting did you use also? you say you used a radial blur. can you point out the steps you used to achieve this
thanks

[hart]

^
http://ord02.umicache.com/p/virb.com/noResize/Image-26268-263244-2IMG_0029b.jpg

jjmucker, sure.

I shot the image with a 17-40L, using a single 580ex mounted on my camera. I used a white card to deflect the light more onto the ground.

In post processing, I converted the image to b&w, and I burned the man in white dancing with a 15% brush and dodged the groom's suit and face with a 12% brush along with alittle of the floor. I then, slightly adjusted the levels to darken those dark areas alittle more, and raised the contrast to +10. Then I simply burned around the edges with a large sized 0% hardness brush at 15%. I then do a simple unsharpen mask.

The biggest thing that makes the groom and dancing partner stick out is the lighting on the shot, and the use of the burn and dodge tool. Cheers.

And I didn't use the radial blur on this image, but I do use it a lot, and how I use the radial blur is: I duplicate the layer, use a radial blur with an amount of around 4 or 5 on zoom/good and put the focal point on the subjects that I want crisp. I then erase said subjects using a brush set at 100% opacity/0% hardness. This lets the crisp image from the original layer show through, and everything radiates from the subject of the shot. Then simply flatten the image and do an unsharpen mask on the image. Try it out.

[hart]

ok, unless you mean this image when you asked about the radial blur:

http://ord02.umicache.com/p/virb.com/noResize/Image-26268-261320-2IMG_0084b.jpg

Then yes, I did use a radial blur. The same way I explained it above. The bride and daughter were erased from the blurred layer, except for part of their dresses at the bottom right.

[strmrdr]

in the last group

#6 is oof in important places because of a too shallow dof.

#5 kewl shot, shallow dof is ok but my preference would be a little deeper.

#4 the saturation brightness and contrast look off on my monitor.
Is that a relative with the camera?

#2 needs to be cropped or cloned you have 1/2 a butt in it.

#1 a bit of his hat was cut off but it dont really make any difference.

2 and 4 need some work.

[jjmucker]

sorry mate i actually meant image 2 from page 1. though thanks for the tips on the other ones :D