My First Paid Wedding

This is my first paid wedding and my second in total. I really enjoyed this one, because the location was beautiful.

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There is some good material in here. I see great potential. It is rough in some of these photos, but I see very good potential and talent.

Everything was looking good until the photos of the fence. Ok, not of the fence, but there it is just the same. And the sun flare obscuring one of the bridesmaids' face. I don't see anything particularly attractive about that location other than the backlighting. Maybe there wasn't anyplace else to shoot those shots but I'd have sacrificed the backlight to avoid the fence.

I'd have liked to see the bouquet more in focus in the portrait-oriented shot of the B&G in front of the tree.

I'd think I'd prefer to have the bride in focus instead of the groom against the wood wall.

I also see potential. A couple of things I noticed; in the first series, you leave a lot of space near the top of the photos that take away, IMO, from the photo itself. More effective cropping would improve most of these photos. I also agree with the other poster about having the bride in focus versus the groom. When you have a choice, always go with the bride. It's her day.

I had the same immediate reaction re: both the bride being in focus instead of the groom up against the wall, and the chain-link fence was really distracting.

There is some good stuff in there but revisiting the cropping would be a help.

Also, personal preference perhaps but those initial mirror shots look very flash-y. They can be really tricky to get in dark bedrooms but perhaps consider cranking the ISO and expose for the focus-point in those, you'll get something grainier but perhaps more interesting. Just something to maybe consider.

Thank you very much for the constructive criticism everyone! I will definitely keep an eye out for all of the pointers given. I'm still very new to this wedding photography stuff. Thank you very much

I think you a great job!

I agree with the others, the fence is a bit distracting, especially for the "formals". Perhaps put some more distance between them and the background next time to allow the shallow depth of field to blend it into the rest of the background more.

I'm going to be the oddball, but I like the groom in focus one. Personally, I'd catch one of each...one of him in focus, one of her in focus...but I don't think there's anything wrong with it.

The one with the couple under the tree with the bouquet in front needs the bouquet a little more recognizable as was previously suggested.

But, I think it's an excellent job for your first paid wedding...congrats!

I think that you did a very good job overall. Being new to weddings myself, I know how it is a completely different animal that any other type of shooting. You have to make judgement calls in the moment to keep up with the pace of the wedding. I don't think it is reasonable to expect any wedding to go absolutely perfect. There will always be shots we want to get back, or things we would do differently, it's the nature of being a photographer (in my opinion). I believe you have a good base to work from and this experience will definitely be valuable moving forward as now you know you can handle the demands of a wedding.

Any more photos to add?