PreBridal-Emily

A couple from a recent prebridal session...

Hi,

These are very nice. I especially like the light on her face on the first one...

Being hyper-critical I'd say that the hands need a bit of a tweak on no. 1. The one on her face needs to move back a touch as it threatens to overpower the face and the other one needs turning sideways a bit more to make it less dominant.

On the second I'd prefer it if the veil and the dress were the same colour, even though I realise they probably weren't in reality. I want them both to be white or both to be off-white...

On 2, I keep getting drawn to her left (camera right) earring, which is just peeking out from her cheek, making it look like some funky skin imperfection or something. You may want to get that out of there.

But I do like them.

I like the second one much better than the first. What's wrong with the first, you ask? To start with, the bride's facial expression; she looks bored or skeptical or something. In some subtle way, her eyes don't quite match, possibly an effect of the lighting or compression of her face by the hand she's leaning on. Her hair doesn't stand out enough from the background. The railing should be level. The second photo has none of these problems. The bride looks very pleasant there.

GlynT wrote in post #16167287
On the second I'd prefer it if the veil and the dress were the same colour, even though I realise they probably weren't in reality. I want them both to be white or both to be off-white...

Just guessing, but that might not be possible in the shot as set up. The veil may have picked up some green from the background.

I agree with the poster above. In the first photo, if the model was looking away, it would create a totally different image of feminine subject. The 2nd photo is great!

Thanks! appreciate the feedback!!

For the first photo I like the concept but the hand should be sideways and not pointing out towards the camera. You should also avoid 90 degree bends of the elbow so having the arm come out more to the side and the hand resting on the banister might be an ideal fix. Lighting might be better with a main light camera left and fill light on the right for the veil. You might want to feather the lighting to place key exposure on her face instead of arm and dress.

You have a lot of shadows showing up on her body and you might need to ditch the pearls for this type of shot where they are hanging off the neck instead of resting on the skin. You also have some blown out highlights on the dress and banister. The background has a bright vertical light line above her head that should be closed out

I really like the second photo, she looks great and the background has a nice colors and great bokeh. The background vertical line is not true so you might consider realigning the verticals. The lighting is flat and although it works okay here I would try turning her head more to her right and use short lighting with the main light camera left. This would also help with the loss of detail in her hair on her right side.

Next time I would have her put more weight on the back foot, the shoulders seem a touch too straight. You might also have her right arm angled slightly away from the body. Please note that these comments are all tweaks to photo that already works and with which I am sure she is happy.