Second Wedding - 10/15/2011

Honest C&C requested... Hoping to hear that I improved over my first: https://photography-on-the.net …/showthread.php​?t=1091745


Dressing room shots:

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mmk here are my thoughts take form them as you like

1- in the upper left corner there is an object that blown out kinda distracting, Also it seems a bit over processed her skin looks to smooth... Also is this direct flash? the lighting is very flat
2- it really does nothing for me very generic snap shot that seems way over sharpened and again very flat lighting
3- The Cut off Brides maid is a no no
4- Same as before cut off brides maid, also this shot is lacking emotion
5- Again with the brides maid, the pastor behind the the bride is unfortunate but what can you do.
6- One of the grooms men eyes are closed, the gap between the bride and brides maid bugs me there is also a Firing line kinda feel.
7- direct flash not pleasing, and not all the eyes are on the camera.
8- does nothing for me

Im sorry to be so harsh im just giving you my honest opinion... Yes you have improved a bit since your last post but you still have plenty to learn... you need to find something that can set you aside from Aunt Gina with her camera. To me your pictures don't pop keep at it and dont give up
-Danny

Thanks for your honesty... Yes, it was direct flash. I nixxed the tupperware diffuser from last time. For whatever reason, I couldn't get the older groomsman (also the grooms dad) to look at the camera to save my life. Every shot I got of him from the whole wedding he was either looking elsewhere or had his eyes closed.

Lack of emotion.... the entire wedding had a very awkward/forced feel to it. It felt as if the bride/groom neither really wanted to be there...

Cut-off bridesmaid.... I am unsure what to do, as the rehearsal was a disaster, groom showed up and hour & half late and nothing really go done (did I mention the wedding had an awkard feel to it?). They rehearsed walking down the isle, but nothing on places during the wedding. This caused my issue with the cut-off bridesmaid, because she was much closer to the bride than the best man was to the groom. If I kept her in the shot, the groom's side was empty and again, created a really awkward feel.

I know I probably sound like I am just running off excuses and I probably am doing just that, weddings are amazingly hard work and my hat goes off to anyone who does this for a living.... I'm certainly not cut out for it. Haha

Truth is, I realize this is not top-notch work... barely amateur and I didn't expect people to come in and say my photos were amazing. Thus the request for "honest C&C"... Like last time, I was helping out a family member who had little budget and was working for free. I certainly do not feel like my work is worthy of a paycheck... I'm doing it just as much as a learning experience as to provide a free service for the bride/groom/family.

Attempt at a quick fix for the blown out shelf in picture one...

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That's better. And yeah I can see improvement over the first event, for sure. Do you have someone to help you pose the people? That would help. Also learning to mix your flash and ambient light will help a ton. I'm no master but I can see it's too much direct flash... Need to un-harsh the flash more. For those formals, take LOTS until you know you can get it right. With Joe blow looking one way, somebody blinking in another, those are the throwaways and the shot right before or right after is the keeper.

#7 is actually the best, pose structure-wise. But omg, is that the bride's parents? Could they look any unhappier? If my groom was 90 minutes late, I'd have probably served his gonads up for dinner... Yikes!

I hate kiss shots when they don't otherwise touch of hold hands... Not that you can do anything about that.I guess daddy/mommy might as well have the shotgun loaded and perched on an arm in the formals, huh? (or is that her dad's memorial photo in her bouquet)?

Another word of advice is really watch the background. The bulletin board behind the groom is really ugly.. You could avoid it with just a slightly different angle. Same goes for the bride with the distracted person behind her. Clear up the background of extra people and clutter, and that's a step up. Look how much better the bride shot is when you edited the weird shelf thing! If you could only take out the blonde...

#1 watch your background. The person behind the bride is distracting and so is the light switch
#2 again the background kills it with the cork board
#3 Nicely expose. captures the moment
#4 Nicely expose. captures the moment
#5 Nicely expose. captures the moment Not much else you can do here
#6 Has a lot of problem. The two girls on the left should have been moved in much closer to the bride.
One guy has his eyes close..the other has bad hand placement. The guys on the right should be in tighter. If that is a movie screen in the background, I would have asked them to raise it.
#7 Much better except for the guy on the right is not looking at you.
#8 I am sure this is a special request for someone who might have passed . Tighter on the hand so you do not see her arm and her fingers could have been closer together.

Good luck

Ed

Just a couple of points (which might have been made already):
1) when you take groups >3-4 people, take at least 3 photos to guarantee you'll get one in which all are facing you, have eyes open (even if it means a quick head\eyes replacement in post). If there are only a few group shots, take the time to review.
2) on the wedding day the photographer has at least a little power--remember this ! In a couple of the photos, a slight nudge from you could have moved the subjects of the photos such that the backgrounds were a little cleaner.

Christopher Steven b wrote in post #13262132
Just a couple of points (which might have been made already):
1) when you take groups >3-4 people, take at least 3 photos to guarantee you'll get one in which all are facing you, have eyes open (even if it means a quick head\eyes replacement in post). If there are only a few group shots, take the time to review.
2) on the wedding day the photographer has at least a little power--remember this ! In a couple of the photos, a slight nudge from you could have moved the subjects of the photos such that the backgrounds were a little cleaner.

I know, it's just another excuse, but I took two sets of 3 shots in succession (3 shots, wait a second, 3 more) of each formal photo; I don't have a single shot of the older groomsman looking at me. He is either looking away or has his eyes closed. I couldn't believe it when going through the photos... I just knew I had atleast one I could've stolen his face from, but nope.

If you looked at the full set, you'll see that even when he was coming down the isle during the exit, he looked away... DOH!

nrowensby wrote in post #13262154
I know, it's just another excuse, but I took two sets of 3 shots in succession (3 shots, wait a second, 3 more) of each formal photo; I don't have a single shot of the older groomsman looking at me. He is either looking away or has his eyes closed. I couldn't believe it when going through the photos... I just knew I had atleast one I could've stolen his face from, but nope.

If you looked at the full set, you'll see that even when he was coming down the isle during the exit, he looked away... DOH!

Might be the flash.... Next time try a few with out it see if that helps.... I've had chronic blankets due to the flash simple fix turn it off

I'm sorry, I'm at work so I can't look at EXIF right now, but what lenses are you using? Lots of these would benefited from a shallower aperture to blur distracting background elements and isolate the subject. There's a lot you can do in crappy dressing rooms to create dreamy shots if you can shoot at say 2.8 or below.

Also, don't be afraid to be assertive and pull the bride or groom away into a better spot or better light to take the photo. I was very hesitant about this at first but you have to do it.

Make sure to have someone help you fluff the train for formals