First wedding ever - CC please

I was asked by a friend to shoot her wedding and I declined initially since I have never shot a wedding before, but she was on a tight budget and asked me so I reluctantly agreed. I learned a lot from this experience. Due to the fast pace and my inexperience I missed focus on a few shots that I didn't notice until I got home, but overall I had a lot of fun and it was a good learning experience. Please give me some CC as I would like to improve. Thanks in advance!

I'm not finished editing all the pictures, but the majority are up on flickr.

https://www.flickr.com …3/sets/72157646​104031883/

Most of these were taken with the 24-70 2.8 (ceremony) and the 70-200 2.8 (portraits) and a few from the 85 1.8.

1.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/oyNK​xz

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/oyNN​v8

8.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/ox3Q​Ar

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/ofyi​oT

I will throw out some observations: in general your backgrounds are cluttered and distracting or not separating from the subject very well. You really have to anticipate how the background will meld with the subject, especially when you have a choice at selecting the background. You have some nice photos but they seem to lack that elegance and pop that come from good lighting, background, and post processing.
1) ring shot has distracting background.
2) Take out eyelid blemish(es)
5) You should crop out the overhead lights
7) Cake looks like it is bent, I assume it is the 24mm barrel effect. Maybe you didn't have a choice of distance from the cake.
13) I like this one the best but you need to improve her skin tone/blemishes. In the future You should probably use a reflector or flash to give the eyes sparkle and fill in the shadows for these outdoor photos.

Subjective.

Cake is bent. Too bad you didn't get the topper in frame.


The other feedback is helpful. This is nice work.

geparry wrote in post #17070605
I will throw out some observations: in general your backgrounds are cluttered and distracting or not separating from the subject very well. You really have to anticipate how the background will meld with the subject, especially when you have a choice at selecting the background. You have some nice photos but they seem to lack that elegance and pop that come from good lighting, background, and post processing.
1) ring shot has distracting background.
2) Take out eyelid blemish(es)
5) You should crop out the overhead lights
7) Cake looks like it is bent, I assume it is the 24mm barrel effect. Maybe you didn't have a choice of distance from the cake.
13) I like this one the best but you need to improve her skin tone/blemishes. In the future You should probably use a reflector or flash to give the eyes sparkle and fill in the shadows for these outdoor photos.

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll need to pay attention to the background and try to make it less cluttered as you mentioned. I'm still learning OCF and PP so that's something I'll need to work on. Thanks.

I cropped out the lights as you mentioned and also the cake was bent but the distortion from the 24mm probably didn't help it.

texkam wrote in post #17070800
Subjective.

Cake is bent. Too bad you didn't get the topper in frame.


The other feedback is helpful. This is nice work.

Thanks Texkam. The thing is I did get the topper but when I cropped the picture I cut it out. It's back in now. =)

These are really great! exceptional for your first time. I'm shooting a quinceañera this coming October, (which I'm forced to do because it's family)

I was gonna rent a 5DM3 and a 24-70/70-200 kit, but now I'm reconsidering. Might go with a D800 based kit!

Very impressive for your first wedding.

maverick75 wrote in post #17070909
These are really great! exceptional for your first time. I'm shooting a quinceañera this coming October, (which I'm forced to do because it's family)

I was gonna rent a 5DM3 and a 24-70/70-200 kit, but now I'm reconsidering. Might go with a D800 based kit!

jchetty wrote in post #17071216
Very impressive for your first wedding.

Thank you for the kind words! I really appreciate it!

texkam wrote in post #17070800
Subjective.

Cake is bent. Too bad you didn't get the topper in frame.


The other feedback is helpful. This is nice work.

looks like he did get the topper in and the cake might actually be bent

great job for 1st time wedding ...

Exactly. I meant to write it like this: Cake is bent.

Great work ! Better than some "professional" jobs I've seen Great advice here from people. agree with distracting backgrounds

Pixil Studio wrote in post #17071992
looks like he did get the topper in and the cake might actually be bent

texkam wrote in post #17072482
Exactly. I meant to write it like this: Cake is bent.

Yeah, the room was fairly warm so the cake was starting to get soft/melt and for whatever reason it was bent and leaning. The topper actually fell over as they were cutting the cake and the leg broke off the groom.

dynamitetony wrote in post #17072183
great job for 1st time wedding ...

chocolatekara wrote in post #17074409
Great work ! Better than some "professional" jobs I've seen Great advice here from people. agree with distracting backgrounds

Thanks for the compliments. I'll need to work on the backgrounds and see if I can use dof to my advantage or just pick a different background altogether.

sangyup wrote in post #17074416
Yeah, the room was fairly warm so the cake was starting to get soft/melt and for whatever reason it was bent and leaning. The topper actually fell over as they were cutting the cake and the leg broke off the groom.

well where is that pic that the one i want to see