Wedding shots for a co-worker, 1st one ever!

[Svetlana]

I was asked to take some shots at a wedding of one of my co-workers, I did't promise her much as I've never shot weddings before though i was really hoping to find out how I would do. :) I loved EVERY MINUTE of the whole wedding!!! I'll see if I can attach more photos, somehow I'm only allowed to upload two. :( C&C more than welcome!

294786

294787

[Svetlana]

Two more! :) # 3 and 4

[FamilyJules]

Love the first one... the light is perfect :)

[Svetlana]

Thank you so much! What can I work on in the future?

[FamilyJules]

Thank you so much! What can I work on in the future?

I'm not a pro (still learning things all of the time), but when I take a picture of the dress, I take a pretty hanger with me (most of the time the bride has some plastic one that's not very pretty)... just a small tip.
Again, I'm not the one to give advice... I'll leave that to the seasoned ones on here

[A_Gurl]

I really like the first one!

[auroraskye]

I will be glad to give some C&C.. As long as no one jumps on me about it ;)

I like your dress shot quite a lot. Hanger doesn't bother me. Dresses come on hangers. Generally plastic ones, unless they're very expensive dresses. If I was going to change it, I may have framed it vertically versus horizontally, but still, nice feel to the shot.

Second shot.. it's okay. I think the angle is better for this type of shot from the back, and not from the side. If it was from the side, I would have liked to be zoomed out some. Also, a wider aperture with more focus on the hands right at the dress gives it a dreamier feel.

Third one.. Not a fan. The sunglasses don't go with the feel of the photo, the photo looks kind of underexposed and the conversion is very flat. Their faces look pretty soft as well, honestly.

Fourth one.. Not bad composition wise, but very underexposed, her eyes are dark pits. :( Maybe with some editing this would be improved. I like the bubbles.

[Svetlana]

Thank you A_Gurl!

That's an awesome tip, FamilyJules! It had never occured to me that I could bring another hanger...If I ever do another wedding (and I sooo hope I will) I'll take the hanger! :)

[Svetlana]

I will be glad to give some C&C.. As long as no one jumps on me about it ;)

I like your dress shot quite a lot. Hanger doesn't bother me. Dresses come on hangers. Generally plastic ones, unless they're very expensive dresses. If I was going to change it, I may have framed it vertically versus horizontally, but still, nice feel to the shot.

Second shot.. it's okay. I think the angle is better for this type of shot from the back, and not from the side. If it was from the side, I would have liked to be zoomed out some. Also, a wider aperture with more focus on the hands right at the dress gives it a dreamier feel.

Third one.. Not a fan. The sunglasses don't go with the feel of the photo, the photo looks kind of underexposed and the conversion is very flat. Their faces look pretty soft as well, honestly.

Fourth one.. Not bad composition wise, but very underexposed, her eyes are dark pits. :( Maybe with some editing this would be improved. I like the bubbles.

Thank you so much for CCs! I really appreciate them, I am hoping to get more critique, too so i don't do the same mistakes in the future! I seriously had 2 minutes to do the getting-ready shots, we were 45 minutes late for the ceremony.:( Yeah and I should have asked the groom to take of the sunglasses off for that shot, he still had them on after bridal party shots...I can also see now how the photos you mentined are underexposed, is it fixable at all at this point of time? And how can I make them look right when I shoot, increase ISO or something else as well ? :o

[auroraskye]

Svetlana,

Yes, I think they're fixable. :) What format did you shoot in and what are you using to process? If you post your EXIF for your underexposed images, I can tell you better what would have been the best thing to do to increase the light!

[Svetlana]

Thank you, auroraskye! I shot Jpeg (don't kill me!:( ) but I so far was not able to bring RAW images into CS3 and decided not to risk at the wedding taking 100s of shots and then not being able to do anything with them. Not sure what I'm doing wrong with my camera, but I can't seem to work with RAW.:(:(

"If you post your EXIF for your underexposed images, I can tell you better what would have been the best thing to do to increase the light!" ...you lost me here...how can I post my EXIF?

[cdifoto]

1.
Camera Make: Canon
Camera Model: Canon EOS 40D
Image Date: 2008:07:26 12:58:47
Flash Used: No
Focal Length: 17.0mm
CCD Width: 5.86mm
Exposure Time: 0.010 s (1/100)
Aperture: f/7.1
ISO equiv: 400
White Balance: Auto
Metering Mode: Matrix
Exposure: program (Auto)
--------------------------------
2.
Camera Make: Canon
Camera Model: Canon EOS 40D
Image Date: 2008:07:26 15:43:46
Flash Used: Yes (Manual)
Focal Length: 70.0mm
CCD Width: 5.86mm
Exposure Time: 0.017 s (1/60)
Aperture: f/5.6
ISO equiv: 400
White Balance: Auto
Metering Mode: Matrix
Exposure: program (Auto)
--------------------------------
3.
Camera Make: Canon
Camera Model: Canon EOS 40D
Image Date: 2008:07:26 17:14:20
Flash Used: No
Focal Length: 59.0mm
CCD Width: 3.91mm
Exposure Time: 0.013 s (1/80)
Aperture: f/6.3
ISO equiv: 400
White Balance: Auto
Metering Mode: Matrix
Exposure: program (Auto)
--------------------------------
4.
Camera Make: Canon
Camera Model: Canon EOS 40D
Image Date: 2008:07:26 19:43:10
Flash Used: Yes (Manual)
Focal Length: 64.0mm
CCD Width: 3.91mm
Exposure Time: 0.017 s (1/60)
Aperture: f/5.6
ISO equiv: 400
White Balance: Auto
Metering Mode: Matrix
Exposure: program (Auto)

[FamilyJules]

How do you extract the EXIF data from a posted photo?

[cdifoto]

FxIF (http://ted.mielczarek.org/code/mozilla/fxif/)

[mckc]

Overall, not bad for your first wedding. Was there another photographer shooting from a different angle on #3? It looks like you are the second shooter here. If you are the main shooter and you are going for the looking off in the distance look, than try to make it where they are not looking at the same place...It will keep it from looking like they are looking at a diff. photographer.

Keep at it. ;)

[FamilyJules]

FxIF (http://ted.mielczarek.org/code/mozilla/fxif/)

Not all photos show EXIF data, right? Sorry to bug ya ;)

[cdifoto]

Nah not all. If the owner strips it, there's nothing to display.

[FamilyJules]

Good to know... I was testing it out on some photos on here and wasn't able to see the display on most. Thanks for the info, CDI ;)

[Svetlana]

I was the main photographer (though I obviously do not have enough skills to call myself that :) lol, but at that moment I was thinking about doing that wedding 1) as a favour to a co-worker who seems to like my other photos and 2) to challenge myself (i did the wedding for free)), and yes now I do notice that the way they're looking it seems like they're looking into somebody else's camera...Thanks so much for the comment, mckc!

[auroraskye]

On the two bottom shots, I would have had a smaller aperture and a higher shutter speed. But the biggest thing is.. You shot in Auto. For shame. :P You need to be shooting in manual, or at least, aperture priority! But ideally, manual. The slow shutter speed explains the soft look to the photos.

If you don't have it, I suggest the book "Understanding Exposure" to learn how to shoot manual. It's cheap on Amazon. :)

[FamilyJules]

On the two bottom shots, I would have had a smaller aperture and a higher shutter speed. But the biggest thing is.. You shot in Auto. For shame. :P You need to be shooting in manual, or at least, aperture priority! But ideally, manual. The slow shutter speed explains the soft look to the photos.

If you don't have it, I suggest the book "Understanding Exposure" to learn how to shoot manual. It's cheap on Amazon. :)

She's right Svetlana.... I bought the book (as referenced on this site) and read through it. It's a great read and it easily teaches you to shoot in manual. Buy the book, and when you are reading it, have your camera next to you....
The author is Bryan Peterson.

[stathunter]

Looks like you were on 400 iso all day ? ? ?

[Svetlana]

auroraskye and FamilyJules, thanks for the tip on the book, i will order it today!

Stathunter, I didn't claim to be a professional photoghrapher, I've started to be really into photography only several months ago and i want to learn! I know the wedding is not the best occasion to do it, but my co-worker insisted (though I actually said no to her 3-4 times because I didn't feel qualified) that i shoot her wedding and she's happy with the photos (though I'm not). And I'm really thankful for all the advice on how I can improve.

[Svetlana]

So I ordered the suggested book yesterday and can't wait for it to arrive!

Meanwhile I am trying to shoot in manual mode only and promise not to post anything here until I am a 150% sure the image is worth showing other people. :) Thank you so much for your help!