My First Bridal Shoot. C&C Much Appreciated

Well, I've reluctantly ventured into the area of wedding photography. I didn't want to, but this young lady, my wife's friend, was in a jam. She's getting married at the beach, about 350 miles away. Because so many of her friends and family can't make it, she's having the reception two weeks later in town. Only one photographer she contacted would agree to do the job, but at $4,000 he's about 4x the going rate around here. She couldn't afford that, so she asked me. I'm doing it for free, and making her wedding album and prints as her wedding present.

We did the bridal shoot on Sunday. Because of a heavy, steady rain, we had to stay indoors. Unfortunately, despite the fact that we were in an enormous house, room was limited and I didn't get a good full-length shot of her entire dress. I'll have another chance at the beach.

This was my first time shooting a bride. Any tips or comments from you experienced wedding photographers would be so much appreciated.

I started out simple. It's really hard to take a bad picture of this girl, but I'm sure that, if it's possible, I'll find a way.

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#1 seems awfully red, but I like the others.

1-I like her pose, expression. It's perhaps a little saturated in the face area--but this may be due to (over)tanning ? I would have liked a cleaner background.

2-Two things bother me about this (aside from the sepia tone):
i) I'd like the lighting more if you swivelled her just slightly to her right (camera left) so as to pull this from nearly 1/2 split light/shadow. Ie., I'd like a little more light on the right side (camera right) of her face.
ii) it seems to me that her positioning has left her shoulders looking boxier than I think they could have. I'd definitely no posing expert, but I feel like having that shoulder line cut across the face where it does kind of works against the very feminine form she has. I'd love to hear posing experts with some suggestions as to what you could have done to address this.

3-the light is in just the right place here, from my perspective. I wish the flowers were a little lower (and not for self-serving purposes).

4-when you're setting up a silhouette, your main objective is to show shape, and the line that defines it. By shooting with her looking away, you've completely lost the shape of her face and just have this ambiguous blob of black. I think this might be alright if you had defined her body better. Note her right arm and how it almost attaches to her right hip thus giving the appearance that her body is larger than it is. Because her left arm is lifted, the shape defined by her left side (up to the bosom area) is just kind of odd. Also, the photo is leaning to the left.

Thanks for the input, you guys. Christopher, I totally see your point on the lighting with #2. I should have turned her more toward the light. Damn, I'm usually better than that. I know what a loop lighting pattern should look like. Got to get my head out of the old pooper.

As for the 3rd one, I do have a few shots where she's holding the bouquet lower, and without it. I just picked this one.

With #4, I again see your point. I have some with her outline more clearly defined. I'll post them if Flickr comes out of the funk it seems to be in at the moment. I can't get the page to load.

She is very tanned, and a little sunburned, on her cheeks. I can desaturate that one a little to fix that, though. Thanks for pointing that out, both of you.

Flickr got over its cold, so here's another silhouette.

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Nice set really like the 2nd pic.

gibbit1 wrote in post #15883812
Flickr got over its cold, so here's another silhouette.

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …gsphotography/8​697059672/
_MG_7635Meredith Bridal by Snarling Dogs Photography, on Flickr

This was the best one IMO.

Love the last picture (black and white) on the door way. Stunning!

bholtz, RMTac, Christopher Stevenb and ktan7:

Thank you all so much for your comments. I've checked out your websites, and I think your stuff is superb. Praise and suggestions from you mean a lot.

I'm really bad at improvising. I had planned an outdoor shoot, but the weather made that impossible. The house we used was one I'd never been in before, and I didn't want to take a lot of time to scope it out since it was occupied by the generous couple and their children. I didn't want to wear out our welcome. Still, if I'm going to shoot a wedding, I have to deal with situations like this better.

Thanks again.

after reading your last post there i could see where the difficulties would come from. I think you did good based on what you had to deal with. I like the last shot you posted the most from the set. Nicely done there.

It is hard sometimes to improv something like this, but as photographers, we just have to swing with the punches and make it happen sometimes!