Wedding Photos - Is this art or just a good shot?

[Jason Cole]

Comments please

[RobKirkwood]

My eye is drawn to the great expanse of cloned grass, rather than the couple. I would crop it with the bare minimum of grass showing below them - but ideally I'd also have had more sky in it, and move them over to the left so their heads are somewhere near the junction of left third and lower third.

You don't have "image editing OK" turned on in your profile, otherwise I'd show you what I mean.

Rob

[ryleung]

Lovely shot, but I just have to wonder, would it have worked better as a landscape shot, cuz while part of me likes the composition a lot, another part of me is also thinking that the bottom half has too much grass, and that the bride and groom have too little room next to their feet / dress.

Also, how on earth did you ever convince the bride to sit down on the green grass?! Surly you must have had something for her to sit on? And even then, I'm still amazed the bride was willing to go alone.

[edit] Doh~! So this is PS-work. Should have known that from the title... :S

[Grace]

definitly don't like all the grass. Their expressions are too cute to be lost to the grass.
perfect pic for a square crop.

[Scott_Quier]

As with most photographs of people, the focus in this shot, I believe, should be on the couple, not the grass. Here, I think you have your priorities reversed.

[JMHPhotography]

I actually LOVE the shot. The focus IS on the couple I think... it just needs a little help to place more emphasis on them. The grass is out of focus as it should be and I think that this photo is very good on it's own, but I also see something that it COULD be.

If you would allow me to edit and post, I can share my vision. There's a couple things I could and definately WOULD do with it and it would make it AWESOME!!! I think so anyway. This is the type of shot I would take intentionally to do exactly what I'm talking about.

[motogeno]

Too much grass. Just crop. You have the right idea by trying to get interesting angles instead of dead on, but you should compose more sky in an image where you are so low, otherwise we end up imagining what it would be like to be an ant in a sea of grass

[eslaydog]

Originally Posted by Jason Cole

Comments please

Love the grass. Without it, it's a pretty standard shot.

[JMHPhotography]

Originally Posted by eslaydog

Love the grass. Without it, it's a pretty standard shot.

Totally agree... plus there is just so many things you can do with that area as well if you can think a little outside the box.

[Jason Cole]

See the idea of the grass here is some negative space in the shot, it makes you draw more attention to it. It doesnt matter that the couple isn't the first thing you see. Its the fact that the composition makes you look a lot more at the shot. Its more interesting than a standard shot. I have this blown up. Everyone seems to love it. I get a lot of requests for this same shot (I have had a fair few Wedding consultations since this shot was taken on the 6th of January this year). I have booked 11 new weddings in that time. People seem to like my work as its outside the norm. Thanks for the feedback though. Very interesting views indeed. Cool

[RobKirkwood]

I do love the shot of the couple, and particularly love the low angle - but, as I said in my first reply, it's specifically that the grass has obviously (to me) been cloned that distracts me bigtime ...grass doesn't grow in repeated patterns like that, and I spot the patterns immediately. Maybe I'm just over-sensitive to patterns?

A bit of work in patching the clones so the pattern is not obvious would remove the problem for me with the picture as it stands - it would also then make a great stock shot in a library, or poster background.

Rob

[motogeno]

Originally Posted by RobKirkwood

I do love the shot of the couple, and particularly love the low angle - but, as I said in my first reply, it's specifically that the grass has obviously (to me) been cloned that distracts me bigtime ...grass doesn't grow in repeated patterns like that, and I spot the patterns immediately. Maybe I'm just over-sensitive to patterns?

A bit of work in patching the clones so the pattern is not obvious would remove the problem for me with the picture as it stands - it would also then make a great stock shot in a library, or poster background.

Rob

Also in the same context, as the grass continues toward the camera it should naturally get more out of focus

[JMHPhotography]

Originally Posted by motogeno

Also in the same context, as the grass continues toward the camera it should naturally get more out of focus

I dunno... the background is in relatively sharp focus so that lends me to believe a smaller aperature was used here so the DOF looks about right for the aperature used.

[jessiper]

I'm on a laptop, and I can't see the entire image all at once, so I don't see exactly what everyone else is seeing. Other than the grass being cloned, I think it's a neat shot. Their faces are super cute. I do love clouds more than sky, though, however, I do have a shot a lot like that but with the couple standing (and no cloned grass). Thanks for sharing!

[jessiper]

Originally Posted by Jason Cole

See the idea of the grass here is some negative space in the shot, it makes you draw more attention to it. It doesnt matter that the couple isn't the first thing you see. Its the fact that the composition makes you look a lot more at the shot. Its more interesting than a standard shot. I have this blown up. Everyone seems to love it. I get a lot of requests for this same shot (I have had a fair few Wedding consultations since this shot was taken on the 6th of January this year). I have booked 11 new weddings in that time. People seem to like my work as its outside the norm. Thanks for the feedback though. Very interesting views indeed. Cool

It's harder to pass off fake PP to people who also do a lot of PP themselves, than it is to get it passed by the typical bride. I like the composition, though.