The bride wore red...and the groom wore a kilt!

[Tish]

A gigantic THANK YOU to Jamie Wexler on this one! His fabulous posts on how to handle a larger bride were invaluable, and I think we got some truly gorgeous shots of this beautiful woman. And Jamie, your former 20D is still chugging along & producing fantastic images--the mojo is still strong!

This wedding was a lot of fun; but yet another reminder that backup gear is absolutely critical--newbies, you simply cannot skimp on this! One 20D failed in the middle of the ceremony, no power at all. Husband/assistant slammed new batteries into it while I was shooting with the other body; the bride & groom never knew & we didn't miss any shots. Weird thing was that the batteries still had a charge when I got them home & plugged them in......:confused: So we've got some troubleshooting to do.

Here's a couple of favs, more on the blog. Constructive critque is welcome--I'm here to learn. :) [edit: newly revised versions incorporating suggestions are a few posts down; left these for reference]

[song4themoon]

What a beautiful bride and that dress is simply amazing.

The second shot is too soft for my taste

[Tish]

Thanks Jenni!

On #2--Some of that's the compression. :( I need to go back over my settings, Save for Web at 70% (600x400) just doesn't seem to cut it! In the original, the statue is sharp & the B&G are out of focus.

[howzitboy]

wow , a lady in red...... did they play that song? great shots and she came out too pretty!! awesome job!!

[picturecrazy]

Cool dress. I love it when brides go against the grain!

1 can use a little more exposure. And on such a facial closeup, I would remove some blemishes.

2 has too much contrast and too much saturation boost that it's starting to look fake and some areas even suffer from posterization. Tone it back and bit and I'm sure it'll still be very nice! Be aware of her skin tones. It is totally washed out on her shoulder and chest.

[Tish]

Cool dress. I love it when brides go against the grain!

1 can use a little more exposure. And on such a facial closeup, I would remove some blemishes.

2 has too much contrast and too much saturation boost that it's starting to look fake and some areas even suffer from posterization. Tone it back and bit and I'm sure it'll still be very nice! Be aware of her skin tones. It is totally washed out on her shoulder and chest.

Thanks all!

Lloyd--closer to this? I don't like the version LR gives me when I check Auto (for exposure), it washes her out too much. This is a compromise--half a stop up from where it was.


And here's a much milder redo of #2 which will satisfy most folks. I still want to tweak it, I have to admit. :) But that's exactly why I put this up here, to remind myself not to overdo it in PP!

[picturecrazy]

I think these are a big improvement.

If you want to bring out a shot like 2, then you need to drop your exposure down so the background isn't quite as blown, maybe even underexposed a touch which can really bring out colours. Then hit the couple with flash to bring them up to a perfect exposure too. Then you have BOTH exposed right how you want it and it will respond much more cooperatively to adding contrast and saturation.

[Tish]

I think these are a big improvement.

If you want to bring out a shot like 2, then you need to drop your exposure down so the background isn't quite as blown, maybe even underexposed a touch which can really bring out colours. Then hit the couple with flash to bring them up to a perfect exposure too. Then you have BOTH exposed right how you want it and it will respond much more cooperatively to adding contrast and saturation.

This was actually my first wedding with non-ETTL off camera flash. And what I learned from that experiment was that I have a long way to go! :lol: I cannot for the life of me get the settings to match what's in my head, especially on the fly. Some worked, some didn't....and a lot of the time, I feel like either the entire scene is underexposed, or the flashed area is too starkly bright. Working out the balance between the two is NOT intuitive for me. And the recycle times drove me batty, so a pair of CP-E3s is next on the list.

The good news is that I'm attending the Strobist seminar next weekend, so I'm hoping to see a vast improvement in that area soon.

[song4themoon]

That second set looks a whole lot better!

[MrsOpie]

Thanks all!

Lloyd--closer to this? I don't like the version LR gives me when I check Auto (for exposure), it washes her out too much. This is a compromise--half a stop up from where it was.


And here's a much milder redo of #2 which will satisfy most folks. I still want to tweak it, I have to admit. :) But that's exactly why I put this up here, to remind myself not to overdo it in PP!

much better

[LeesaB]

WOW..when I read the title and saw.."bride wore red" I thought eww..

but she was beautiful...stunning pictures also..

I love the second one the best....Great job. Glad that thread helped you, anymore, I do a search here before I search google to find answers for my photography questions.

[Kai]

I like the second set. I would love to see more. Very nice.

[ToddziLLa]

Your second set of pictures show great improvement! Good job!

A gigantic THANK YOU to Jamie Wexler on this one! His fabulous posts on how to handle a larger bride were invaluable, and I think we got some truly gorgeous shots of this beautiful woman.
Would you happen to have this bookmarked somewhere? I am interested in this write-up.

[picturecrazy]

This was actually my first wedding with non-ETTL off camera flash. And what I learned from that experiment was that I have a long way to go! :lol:

I totally congratulate you on this! Most are afraid to even attempt it. Keep doing it, you will get better and better. Soon you'll find that your flash power guesses give you better exposures than ettl2.

[Tish]

Your second set of pictures show great improvement! Good job!


Would you happen to have this (Jamie's thread) bookmarked somewhere? I am interested in this write-up.

I don't (I'm at work, west coast time) but a quick search will turn it up. Hang tight & I'll find it for you.

[Tish]

Got it!

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=286827

And thanks to all of you who've responded so far! I will actually post the link to the entire wedding, with a few more favorites for critique (and a few of the flash shots for Lloyd), once I finish processing. It's about 95% done (three hours, thank you Adobe for Lightroom!), but there's still some tweaking left to to in PS.

[ToddziLLa]

Thanks for the link Tish!

[Denise40]

Those are gorgeous photos. Is red a hard color to photograph? I do photography for fun, but I am always wanting to learn more. My SIL is getting married this weekend and I want to take some pics for myself during the wedding/reception. This is her 2nd wedding and she has a professional photographer but she wants me to still take pics on my own. She is going to be wearing red and groom is going to wear black. Any suggestions or tips? I have a Rebel XT, 70-200 Sigma, 50 1/4, Sigma WA lens and the kit lens.

[Tish]

Hi Denise--

Red is only difficult in that it can look like different shades in different lights. Trying to get it to look the same across all the pictures is a post processing challenge. :) I found that when I metered for skin tones, my exposures weren't too far off.

A couple of tips on being a guest shooter:

Do be sure to let the professional photographer know that you will stay out of their way. Be aware of where they are at all times so you're not interfering with their pictures.

Don't copy their shots--the B&G are going to get those anyway!--so when you see the professional shooting something, aim for a different viewpoint of the same scene, or shoot something completely different. For example, while I was shooting formals Friday, my husband was on the sidelines with our second camera. He came back with some fabulous candids of the guests watching the poses, the interactions between the family members while they waited for the next shot, etc. Some of them were a lot of fun!

Above all, take the time to enjoy the wedding! You'll miss a lot of it if you're behind the camera the whole day.

Good luck!

[Denise40]

Thanks so much Tish for the info. I will definitely take time to enjoy the wedding. I will probably take a lot of pics of my great nieces and nephews that I havn't seen in 5 years.

[ironbelle]

I love the red dress. My guess is that you put her next to something bigger than she is(I'm guessing that's a large fountain statue or some bitchin DOF you got going on) so that attention is taken away from the bride's size. She is gorgeous anyway and the fact that she wore that flaming red dress shows how great of a personality she has and how secure she is with herself. I like the 2nd version of that image where the back looks alot better. The first offering looked to PS'd.