Are these too dark?

[Headspin]

Hi

Do these look too dark and soft? I would be grateful for any thoughts.

Cheers
Rob

[Headspin]

Two more

[Kathy H]

I think they are pretty, I like them!

Kathy

[ldibo]

I like them. I love the b&w ring exchange. Good job.

Lynn

[MrsOpie]

maybe a little too dark. too soft, YES! tone down the softness.

[g-money]

I think they look nice. But I tend to like the soft glow look on a few wedding shots.

Greg

[picturecrazy]

They look neat on screen... but it will likely come out way too dark in print.

[LisaLayne]

With regard to #1... bride & Mom (?) should be on the same step and please never leave the train of the dress in a bunch! Brides spend lots of $$$ on their dresses... always make them look nice and spread out the train... especially when you have a great staircase to work with!
As for #1 & #2... DYS (Drag Your Shutter)... let in some ambient light. All in all, these images are delightful... the B&G should be very pleased!
Oh..... posing for #2 could be a bit better if you have the B&G put their arms around each other in back and have the knife in groom's left hand and bride's right hand... does that make sence?
Lisa

[laimis.s]

1st and 2nd are deffinetly too soft in my eyes. third and fourth are lovely.

[howzitboy]

i like the darkness in the shots because it keeps attention to the bride/mom. but, if u print it and arent careful, going to be way to dark.

nice shots all of them, but some are too soft. a little softening goes a long way.

[stevefossimages]

These images are not too dark. The subjects are very nicely lit. The softness is no issue with me. As a viewer, I think the soft look works nicely here.

But remember: It's your clients you have to make happy, not other photographers. If your clients are pleased with your work, you've done a good job. If you are pleased with your work, as well, that's a nice bonus, but many is the time I've made my clients happy with poses I'd never have chosen myself.

[tim]

I don't like the "black hole" look, I often use fill light in ACR to boost the dark areas. Looks like you've used ISO 100 and direct flash, or done it in post. Balance with ambient so you can see the location.

[BEWITCHED]

Hello i like alot what action did you use for the softness

[Headspin]

Thanks everyone for the feedback and advice it all helps.

I burned in the edges in Photoshop and added a layer of gaussain blur with an opacity of about 30 and used the eraser on the eyes etc. I can’t decide if I would do them that dark and soft again but the clients liked them. It’s good to get so some objective views on here.

The room/ staircase was tricky to light (dark at the bottom with no windows and lots of backlight at the top) see attached group shot :cry:

Cheers
Rob

[stevefossimages]

Ooooh, ouch, Rob. That's a really tough setting that would require supplemental lighting/flash to overcome that incredible blaze of backlight. The folks in the back are obscured because of that. Given that your flash options seemed limited (I'm assuming that from this example), a different spot would have been in order.