Few Photos from our last wedding of this year

[Banbert]

For a November day in the UK it was a pretty good day, no rain, some sun and not really as cold as it could have been but both me and Jon felt like we struggled to get going a bit today .... not sure whether it was because we hadn't shot a wedding in over a month or because the couple weren't that really into photos but either way we will definitely do a warm up shoot just before our next wedding which is in January.

Heres a few pics from today (well actually yesterday now its late here)

Polite C&C Welcome

1.
http://www.boundlessphotos.co.uk/clients/BP031-002.jpg

2.
http://www.boundlessphotos.co.uk/clients/BP031-014.jpg

3.
http://www.boundlessphotos.co.uk/clients/BP031-013.jpg

4.
http://www.boundlessphotos.co.uk/clients/BP031-009.jpg

5.
http://www.boundlessphotos.co.uk/clients/BP031-031.jpg

6.
http://www.boundlessphotos.co.uk/clients/BP031-033.jpg

7.
http://www.boundlessphotos.co.uk/clients/BP031-036.jpg

8.
http://www.boundlessphotos.co.uk/clients/BP031-028.jpg

[dsc_1972]

I like these a lot. they are all great shots.
However - well, you did ask!......
Some of them, especially #5, look seriously oversharpened - or maybe it's the compression? or I suspect too much USM?
Also, it would be nice if there was more detail in the groom's jacket in #6 - his shoulder is totally lost in the shadows of the church doorway. It looks like a hunchback! Did you shoot RAW? Maybe rescue it a bit?
Nice set of shots though. Good composition and lighting IMO.

[Banbert]

Cheers matey, yep these are just bordered small JPG's we use for the mini album on the day and the blog etc, we tend to give em a whack of USM ready for printing out on the little canon printer as it makes em pop a bit more and also for the blog, I think the compression also highlights it but we go back to the RAWs for the clients proofs. Thanks for the C&C

[tim]

Definitely over sharpened, they look like high iso then over sharpened too. Nice images though :)

[dsc_1972]

I thought as much - glad to hear it. I'm sure I've seen much better - as in less over-ly sharpened looking - from you on here!

I was about to add a comment about #4 - to suggest you clone out the woman... as a sort of figure-ground/gestalt tidy-up.

Then it occurred to me that the man is probably wearing her hat - and she is his wife, and they are in fact the MOB/FOB! Am I right?!

[Banbert]

Hmmm ... the sharpening shouldnt be any more than whats been done in our last half dozen sets posted here though, which is the last time I fiddled with the batch framing script, unless somethings gone screwy in it, I will have to check that.

Yup, FOB wearing MOB's hat :)

[Banbert]

Just gone back through the images and it looks like I have run a USM on some of them twice, certainly thats what has happened with image 5 for sure anyway, way past bed time anyway (4:20am here) so I will look at em again after some sleep... thanks again guys

[dsc_1972]

Happy to help mate.
What you using? Have you got other sharpening options? USM can be harsh. I use CS2 and am very keen on high pass filter sharpening at the moment. Works better than USM for me.
... but I'm no expert!

[EOS_JD]

Great work as usual mate. I agree that they look over sharpened but they still look fantastic :)

[Banbert]

Happy to help mate.
What you using? Have you got other sharpening options? USM can be harsh. I use CS2 and am very keen on high pass filter sharpening at the moment. Works better than USM for me.
... but I'm no expert!

I know exactly what I have done wrong this time now that I have a bit of sleep, and sharpening has never been an issue before for me so I think this is what the issue is.

We sharpen the pictures with a whack of USM before we print them for the honeymoon album we give them on the day after we have run them through showit effects and I dont normally save these after they have been sharpened but for some reason (probably because I was in a corridor whilst doing it but thats another story) yesterday I saved them after sharpening, then when I have run them through my batch framing script they have gotten another hit of USM... so no wonder they look over sharpened.

I will have a look at the low pass filter as an option though anyway as I dnt really know much about sharpening full stop, thanks for the suggestion.

Thanks for the comment JD

[mezorn26]

I agree 100% on the over sharpening, that's the first thing I saw. Also I would crop in a little bit on #1. For the most part the shots are good, just try to tone back the harshness of them, they are very strong, soften them up a bit.

[Wazza]

The images themselves are really good - I had to save a couple and check the ISO - I honestly thought you had shot at ISO 1600/3200
But they do like about 5 times oversharpened! What are your sharpening settings?

[Banbert]

I am wishing I took them down now as soon as the MISTAKE with the sharpening was spotted, its not the settings, I used the same settings as I have done for the last 10 weddings where no one has mentioned sharpening, its the fact that some of them have been sharpened twice. I will sort ones out later with normal settings.

[Nicole Faith]

What I noticed, as most people mentioned, is the oversharping. What do they look like with no sharpening? I've never had to add a sharpening filter to my photos.

[nikonthree]

Not to beat a dead horse on the other subject...

Your composition and lighting are beautiful, I have always enjoyed your shared images.

#6 The subjects in the image seem a big elongated though

[Niraj]

Hey Banbert, i'm glad you didn't take these pics down, because they are great pics.

I assume you're really happy with this years work?

Just a question though: do some of you not feel as though the noise induced from high ISO and USM application can sometimes add to a photographers style. I certainly know of one photographer who lets the noise remain in his final production images to the client. They seem to like it, and substantially shows the different from an image that is crystal clear and sharp, to one with a sense of character?

I'm not sure how I would like my images to be noisy, but i'm willing to try images produced like #1 if they sell?!

What do you think Banbert?

[kato1]

Criticisms apart. The composition of your photographs is still excellent IMO.
Don't know what I'm going to do for inspiration until 2008 and your next wedding.
I greatly admire your style and wish you every success for 2008.

[Banbert]

Hey Banbert, i'm glad you didn't take these pics down, because they are great pics.

I assume you're really happy with this years work?

Just a question though: do some of you not feel as though the noise induced from high ISO and USM application can sometimes add to a photographers style. I certainly know of one photographer who lets the noise remain in his final production images to the client. They seem to like it, and substantially shows the different from an image that is crystal clear and sharp, to one with a sense of character?

I'm not sure how I would like my images to be noisy, but i'm willing to try images produced like #1 if they sell?!

What do you think Banbert?

Cheers Matey, on the whole this years gone really well and were very pleased with what we have been able to achieve so far. Going from one wedding in 2006 to 20 weddings in 2007 is probably a little crazy (especially when still working full time) and it has had a few negatives but on the whole I think we've learned in a year what we could have messed around learning in 2 or 3 years if we hadn't booked as many weddings so soon.


Regards the noise issue, these pictures arent a good example of how much noise we usually get as I sharpened them twice by mistake and noise is one of the things that its really highlighted by doing that. I used to be very scared to go above 800 ISO but as this year has gone on I have learned that its much more important to get the exposure as close as possible even if it means going upto 1600 ISO because its when you start to push the exposure in PP that the noise starts to look pretty horrid, oherwise I think a bit of grain looks nice in the pics.

This thread has some more pics posted from our last wedding and they have had our usual PP rather than the mistake I made with these. The first shot of the bride getting ready was shot at 1600 because just prior to that the curtains were closed as the bride was getting into her dress and I didnt have chance to adjust the ISO and still capture he shot after they opened the curtains a bit, I think it still looks great for 1600 ISO though and I think using flash on the camera would have spoilt it a bit.

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=402528

[Banbert]

Criticisms apart. The composition of your photographs is still excellent IMO.
Don't know what I'm going to do for inspiration until 2008 and your next wedding.
I greatly admire your style and wish you every success for 2008.


Thanks very much Kato1 thats very nice of you to say so :oops: I try and share whatever I can (good and bad, and even my mistakes :)) as I have learnt so much from people doing the same here.

Really looking forward to 2008, kicks off early in January, then we have a nice gap until the second wedding but then we have 3 already March and then it gets crazy after that..... wouldnt have it any other way though :)

[Niraj]

I think we've learned in a year what we could have messed around learning in 2 or 3 years if we hadn't booked as many weddings so soon.

oherwise I think a bit of grain looks nice in the pics.

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=402528

Just checked out your other thread matey, excellent work.
I'm very new to the Wedding scene too, shot 1 wedding on my own, shadowed a pro in another 2, and assisted in a fourth. I love the entire photography scene, and now i'm finally getting my foot in the door :) I hope my business takes a similar flow to yours :) congratulations... (ps: also holding down a fulltime job, so familiar with the stresses, lol)

Thanks very much Kato1 thats very nice of you to say so :oops: I try and share whatever I can (good and bad, and even my mistakes :)) as I have learnt so much from people doing the same here.

Really looking forward to 2008, kicks off early in January, then we have a nice gap until the second wedding but then we have 3 already March and then it gets crazy after that..... wouldnt have it any other way though :)

I wish you the best of luck in 2008, your workflow is extremely good, and competitive to say the least...

Once you've reprocessed the above images, perhaps you'll post them for us to compare? :)

Adios amigo...