My "First" Wedding of 2016

Technically not my first since I did one in January, but this is the kick-off of my summer wedding season. Had an awesome couple and a beautiful location. I will do a little fine-tuning on some of these, but this is what I put up for their sneak peek. Comments and critiques welcome!

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Hello fellow Montanan, i am in Helena, i see that you are from GF.

Over all i think these are great! I think that they will be thrilled with them!

I love the use of the red/grey weathered barn. I love the framing from the meandering stream, the trees and the bridge. Great exposure and you captured some great expressions.I am glad that there is still just enough snow to add to the mountain scenes.

The few things that i would watch out for are:
Image #1. Your reflection in the ring. I love the colors and texture of the wood with the rings.
#2. The idea is neat, the bouquet gets lost in the tree roots. If the bouquet was a brighter color or lit at a different exposure then the background, this may help them stand out. It is just hard to see that they are the subject.
#3. To me, the lens distortion is a killer. I love that you placed the dress out on the balcony, super idea, but the bending of the walls as well as the satellite dishes really take away from this image. The dramatic sky really adds a pop to the image. I would like to see a tighter horizontal shot, if you can still get some sky in the image. I am afraid that if you shot vertically, at least with the dress centered, it would look like someone or some thing hanging on a cross.
#11. Again the lens distortion and the white car are a distraction. I love that you have the grainy and silo in the image, showing their town. Their shadow, i think adds to the image. Again, great sky!

Overall, i really do like these.

Micro5797 wrote in post #18045022
Hello fellow Montanan, i am in Helena, i see that you are from GF.

Hello Neighbor!

Micro5797 wrote in post #18045022
Over all i think these are great! I think that they will be thrilled with them!

Thanks!

Micro5797 wrote in post #18045022
I love the use of the red/grey weathered barn. I love the framing from the meandering stream, the trees and the bridge. Great exposure and you captured some great expressions.I am glad that there is still just enough snow to add to the mountain scenes.

Thanks. I really wish I would have shot from a lower angle on this one to have a background that was more of the barn wall, and less of the ground, but turned out nice nonetheless.

Micro5797 wrote in post #18045022
The few things that i would watch out for are:
Image #1. Your reflection in the ring. I love the colors and texture of the wood with the rings.

Definitely agree...hard to see on the camera LCD, but painfully obvious on a computer!

Micro5797 wrote in post #18045022
#2. The idea is neat, the bouquet gets lost in the tree roots. If the bouquet was a brighter color or lit at a different exposure then the background, this may help them stand out. It is just hard to see that they are the subject.

I agree. I do have a couple others that I shot with the 35mm instead of the 14, and with shallower depth of field that makes them stand out a little more. It definitely didn't come out quite as I wanted it too in my head.

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Micro5797 wrote in post #18045022
#3. To me, the lens distortion is a killer. I love that you placed the dress out on the balcony, super idea, but the bending of the walls as well as the satellite dishes really take away from this image. The dramatic sky really adds a pop to the image. I would like to see a tighter horizontal shot, if you can still get some sky in the image. I am afraid that if you shot vertically, at least with the dress centered, it would look like someone or some thing hanging on a cross.

I agree that the satellite dish is sort of distracting. However, I tend to try to keep things as "real life" as I can. I did toy with the idea of removing it, but honestly just didn't want to deal with it haha! If I can do a simple content-aware fill in Photoshop I will often do so, but with the window this one would be a little more time-consuming!

The distortion on the Samyang 14 2.8 is...definitely there. Here is one with the corrected lens profile...helps a little bit maybe.

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Micro5797 wrote in post #18045022
#11. Again the lens distortion and the white car are a distraction. I love that you have the grainy and silo in the image, showing their town. Their shadow, i think adds to the image. Again, great sky!

This is one I had in mind when I said I still had a little "fine-tuning" to do. Here's a quick edit with the profile enabled and the white car removed. I did get a couple other shots of their shadow as well.

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Micro5797 wrote in post #18045022
Overall, i really do like these.

Thank you, let me know what you think of these others!

As far as the bouquet I like the feel of the first one. Also i like having more in focus in this instance. I do like the leading lines and rule of thirds in the second one. It is a tough one.

I tried doing a lens correction (manually through PS) for the vertical distortion, but it loses some of the dramatic sky.

I do prefer the second white building grain silo better.

I really like the B&W kiss with the shadow! I think that just the shadow alone could be an image, in the same way that a silhouette is.

I am anxious to see others input.

These are really nice photos. I'm sure they're part of a really nice set that the couple will love.

I like them very much. Only thing that really stands out is I would have pulled the tv dish. My eye just keeps going over to it. Use photoshop and just take one of those casements in the front and us the bottom of it to complete that window hidden by the dish with it. Would take a little time but can be done. Again, nice set.

What type of light where you using?

Amadauss wrote in post #18055011
I like them very much. Only thing that really stands out is I would have pulled the tv dish. My eye just keeps going over to it. Use photoshop and just take one of those casements in the front and us the bottom of it to complete that window hidden by the dish with it. Would take a little time but can be done. Again, nice set.

What type of light where you using?

Thanks Amaduss.

This is all natural light except for the 1 obviously indoor shot. For receptions I setup 2 speedlights on opposite corners of the rooms (Actually 4 - 2 for me and 2 for my 2nd shooter, on seperate channels). I just use cheap Yongnuo YN-560s and RF-603C triggers.

Nice set. Distortion on a few of them sort of ruin the shot for me. I like the idea of the dress hanging on the balcony, but I have to admit that I didn't even notice the dress until the 3rd time I looked at the image. I'm not a big fan of adding vignette, but this might be an opportunity to draw more attention to the dress and distract the eye away from the distortion and other objects in the photo.