1st Wedding - Critique Please

[Russ72]

Delurking to post some shots from my first wedding for C&C. Any advice is appreciated. I'm shooting with a 40D, 18-200mm 3.5-5.6 IS, 50mm 1.8, 17-55mm 2.8 IS, and 10-22mm.

Thanks!

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

[FamilyJules]

Hey Russ! Welcome to the forums and congrats on your first wedding. You've got some nice shots here
4 through 7 are great! #1 would be great, it just lacks a little "pop"... nothing that can't be fixed in PS
Thanks for sharing!

[TheHoff]

Welcome to the forum! I'm the resident crabby arse who critiques everything harshly.

1. I hate to be the guy that says you should shoot wide-open because I love well done wide angle shots that provide context, but a number of these would've been better if you had a larger aperture to blur out the background more. This looks like you might have used your 10-22 or the superzoom where the 50/1.8 would've been the right choice so you can isolate her from the background. In this image the background detail doesn't add anything; the golfers detract and I'd clone them out.

2. I'm not a huge fan of the backs and again the background is distracting. #1 and #2 are also a bit washed out compared to the rest of the colour in the set but not enough so that I'd say it was a purposeful effect.

3. Nice. Families will always the shots like this.

4. Good shot but too bad about the branch. If you wanted these expressions there wasn't much of another angle to use, I'd guess. The ones with the annoying backgrounds might benefit from something like Alien Skin's Bokeh: http://www.alienskin.com/bokeh/ and the demo is free to try

5. Awesome; very well done. I'm wondering about the crops on all of these though; I wouldn't mind seeing the crop looser on this one if the data is available.

6. Nice moment; I'd crop tighter or get rid of the pole on the left. Too saturated and the WB is off from the previous one.

7. Good one. I see the ambient was bright enough to blur the guy's head so you might kick up your shutter a bit unless you're going for purposefully trailed motion.

[t5Nitro]

I really like those. Were you using much flash and what are your main lenses you use for the wedding?

I'm trying to gear myself up for it.

[auroraskye]

I agree with The Hoff for the most part and I find your colors a bit off. Though as a whole, it's not a bad first wedding, I've seen many that are awful and this isn't 'awful' by any stretch.

[Russ72]

Thanks so much for the feedback - exactly what I was looking for...the kind of stuff that sticks out like a sore thumb to experienced eyes. I'll be mindful of those things from now on.

t5Nitro - Thanks! All of these shots, except #1 are available light only. #1 was shot with an off camera 550ex on a radio trigger. I used the 18-200 for all of these except for #7, which was the 17-55.

[pickupman92]

I'm liking 3, 4 and 6, because they are vibrant, they stand out and have a true black to them. the first one, maybe increase the black highlights or maybe change the temp or add more saturation to make it "pop" more.. possibly vignetting on the first one too.

[gholman12]

That kid shot is moneyyyyy. very well done for your 1st.