Candid wedding photo advice

[vfilby]

I attended a friend's wedding this past weekend. They had a pro photog (friend of the family) doing staged shots only, so I stayed out of the way and tried to take some candids. This photo was taken while she was setting up a shot of the wedding party up on a wooden bridge.

The first problem is the bit of bride's maid in the photo. I ps'ed her out and I would like some opinions on the work. I was also hoping to give them a couple framed B&W shots. Any suggestions for the conversion given their differing skin colour? I tried to darken up the leaves in the background but I didn't want to over-do them.

The end goal for these is framed 5x7 B&W photos.

Thanks in advance.

The ps'ed one
http://gradhp-83.cis.uoguelph.ca/pictures/nic1.jpg

The rouge bride's maid
http://gradhp-83.cis.uoguelph.ca/pictures/ni1-un.jpg

B&W treatment
http://gradhp-83.cis.uoguelph.ca/pictures/nic1-bw.jpg

[Leighow]

VINCE

My oldest boy was standing at my backside about 3 minutes ago.
He said; "... nice photo, who is that ... did one of your friends get married ?..".
To which I replied, " ...which photo (and toggled between your image and my variation which folows)...".
Then he responded, " ...that one (my version) .. because it is brighter and clearer".

http://members.rogers.com/hleigh/WEDDING.jpg

Here is what I have done quickly to your image:
1: Used a big version of cloning too #36 to lose the railing
2: Cropped a tad
3: Cloned some of the brightness out of the bride's leafy background using the same tool
4: Auto levels really improved the skin tones (I sometimes try MODE = Adobe RGB (1998) just to see what happens
5:Upped the saturation a bit more -- that brought out a missing beauty and warmth in both their faces.
6: I sharpened a tad

At first I was concerned that the bride was "cut-off" relative to the groom, and that is true! But the more intense color saturation has emphasized the underlying diagonal (bottom left to top right), and reduced the impact of this "cut-off".

Take 2 Aspirins and Press PRINT in the morning!

[Leighow]

Here is another thing that I like to do with portraits. I did this a bit faster than normal,

http://members.rogers.com/hleigh/NIC3.jpg

This approach involves:
1: At least one layer (in this case only one)
2: The watercolor filter
3: Abusing the filtered layer via excess saturation, sharpness .. and then some "restoration via desaturation
4: Normal play with opacity between the two layers
5: Enlarging a "white"canvas a bit to avoid losing the bride in final Step 6 !
6: Applying edges.

For this image, whether layers of not, the edges draw attention away from the cut framing of the bride and the tight overall crop.

[vfilby]

I was hoping for black and white, but I think much is lost in this conversion. Does anyone have any suggestions for keeping the mood and quality while converting to B&W?

Leighow: Thanks but I tend to be more conservative in my presentation. I do agree that the saturation needs boosting I just think not quite so much. I also like the bridge because it 1) matches the other photos and 2) was there for the shoot. I did, however, redo it more carefully. I matched the railing colour better and cleaned up the edges where they faded a bit with his suit. Personally, without knowing there was something there, I think that someone would be hard pressed to notice the edit.

Here is the more carefully redone picture. I am really happy with how this turned out.

http://gradhp-83.cis.uoguelph.ca/pictures/nic1-1.jpg

Regards,

[ndh]

I agree that you lose a lot in the conversion to B&W -- the green background, their skin tones, and the flower on the groom's lapel all look great in colour! I like little bit of extra saturation in the most recent copy.

As for making the B&W work... I'd think the leafy background would need to be lightened a lot. My guess is you'd need to work on the bride and groom's faces separately to get the best image of both.