first wedding (Hawaii)

well ok actually this was the first real time out of the house with my new 30d. a friend of mine lent me his 85 1.8 and 550ex so i used them too. they did have a pro photog but i figured i could get some experience out of this. so i took some shots so feel free to comment them or leave me any tips.

thanks

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http://i76.photobucket​.com …irsoft808x/_MG_​0347-1.jpg
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http://i76.photobucket​.com …irsoft808x/_MG_​0412-1.jpg
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http://i76.photobucket​.com …irsoft808x/_MG_​0441-1.jpg
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http://i76.photobucket​.com …irsoft808x/_MG_​0588-1.jpg
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http://i76.photobucket​.com …irsoft808x/_MG_​0606-1.jpg
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http://i76.photobucket​.com …irsoft808x/_MG_​0636-1.jpg

I like what I see. I thought you were implying that you were the pro photographer by your Title. Your work looks professional. If you had not said otherwise I wouldn't have known. It looks better to me in terms of framing and composition than many wedding shoot pics shown here.

Great shots, I love the lighting,

thanks for the positive comments guys. i know that my learning curve will only continue.

Nice series... i excellent lighting and Background DOF...

ugh. Watermark is annoying!

ALaS wrote in post #4755095
ugh. Watermark is annoying!

(Complaining cause he can't use the pics in his portfolio!)

hah i agree watermark is distracting.

interesting that you included #12 for review. what was your reasoning behind that shot given that its completely underexposed and that theres no real subject matter to focus on?

tkoutdoor wrote in post #4755390
(Complaining cause he can't use the pics in his portfolio!)

Hahahaha....

Mid Pac Country Club huh? I found that place to have tricky lighting the few times I've shot there.

Overall nice job. Here are some observations...
#1 - Real good idea on this detail shot. Would've like to have seen more of the chair back with the maile lei coming up and over to the next chair.

#2 - Again, nice detail shot. My eye gets drawn towards upper left to the solitary rose petal. Although the center rose seems like the the intended focus point.

#3 - Good shot of both of them looking up. Seems like most people when walking down the aisle are shy and only briefly look up. Difficult to time these and from your vantage point you probably only had a moment or two before they went past your lens. Maybe play with cropping out the ugly overhead sliding door area. Just a tighter crop in general may improve the photo even more.

#4 - This is a tough angle. You were above them shooting down on that tiny landing area b/w staircases right? Again, maybe crop out the groomsmen on the right and the 1.5 bridesmaids on the left. These 2.5 people don't add anything to the photo and it may serve the photo better to have them cropped out.

#5 - Flat out cute.

#6 - Beautiful expression on the bride. Nothing you can really do about the minister growing out of the grooms body...tough angle.

#7 - Great expressions you captured.

#8 - Great expressions. No shadow from the flash (assuming you used flash). Table and part of dress may be blown out. Keep an eye on that or try and recover in post processing. This is one of the harder things in shooting weddings...metering with flash with someone in white and someone in black. I always try and favor the dress of the bride as brides really want to be able to see how beautiful the dress was in the photos. Blown out will "look white"...but there'll be no detail no show off to her friends.

#9 - Always like these kinds of shots...but damn they are tricky. Cutting off heads are hard to do creatively. So easy to make it look like a mistake.
As it is, it is not too flattering on her arm the way it terminates so abruptly. I'll try and lead the eye to a point that tapers more. Maybe just above the shoulder area. Having the image continue up and over the shoulder would probably deemphasize her arm a bit. Again, watch for blown highlights in a very important part of the image...her dress.

#10 - Always good to show action like this. I had a hard time the one time I was shooting an event that had a dragon dance. I found I like the ones where I dragged the shutter a bit to show movement and deemphasize a confusing background (blur it out some). With lots light pouring in you'd have to stop down a bit and probably drop the ISO to get in the 1/30 or below range.

#11 - I like this one. Clone out the guests in the background (might be hard with the jacket showing through the glass on the table). Always remember to check your corners while composing. Especially when you can take your time to compose a shot like this one (i.e. wait for the people to pass...). Blown out detail on the right side of the cake?

#12 - Yeah...it's dark, but if it really speaks to you I'd clone out the window frame coming right out the top of the bouquet. The background is blown out so it should be easy to remove the post and blend in with the background. You can also try warming the photo up a bit...and then compare against the cooler blue tone of the current one.

#13 - Nice bouquet shot. Did you take any zoomed out a bit? Looks like the wooden table/bench it is on may have made for a nice 'path' to draw the eye towards the bouquet if pulled back a bit. The lonely bouquet shots are always nice...

#14 - The limo pic has a nice perspective on the car, but the B&G and groomsmen aren't doing much and because of that my eyes keep getting pulled back to the front rim/headlight of the car. I know this isn't a posed shot but keep anticipating a more interesting development/interactio​n b/w the people in the frame (a hug, kiss, shaka...whatever). If it doesn't happen organically, and you really like the angle your at, consider giving a little encouragement ("c'mon kiss her" or something like that). But really that is entirely up to your style/comfortable level.
The other thing I notice with this photo is the blown sky. Try and practice exposing for both the sky and the couple (use your camera's metering to meter for the blue sky and use 550ex to light up the car and couple). There may be a risk of getting a harsh reflection from the flash off of the limo doing this though. Just a suggestion...

While heavily debated and totally personal...subtle use of the liquefy filter in photoshop can be useful (arms and chins). Especially when the shots are not posed and you don't have the benefit of instructing the bride on how to turn her head so she doesn't create the appearance of a double chin.

It helps to pull back sometimes and look at it from the brides perspective. It may be a perfectly exposed photo, with no distracting elements and great smiles, etc...but she may look right at her arm and go "oh no...I don't like it"...and you and I might have never thought is was an issue.

Are these straight outta the camera or have you done any post processing to them (other than resize for posting)? It could be my monitor at work, as it is poop, but most of the images look a little underexposed and/or could use a little curves adjustment.

Again, overall nice job Chad. Aloha!

"Are these straight outta the camera or have you done any post processing to them (other than resize for posting)? It could be my monitor at work, as it is poop, but most of the images look a little underexposed and/or could use a little curves adjustment."

On my monitor they look acceptable. Not any more of an issue than that he may have chosen this exposure level as his style. They don't look defective in any way.

tkoutdoor wrote in post #4755390
(Complaining cause he can't use the pics in his portfolio!)

haha this is partially true. i guess i could try and make a watermark for the corner.

kaitanium wrote in post #4756750
hah i agree watermark is distracting.

interesting that you included #12 for review. what was your reasoning behind that shot given that its completely underexposed and that theres no real subject matter to focus on?

i just thought that the shot was intresting.

the wedding was at the koolau golf club.

jgogums, thanks for all the tips. i did do some quick pp but i was tired and im still just starting out. like i said, this was my first ANYTHING! haha

They are fairly underexposed on my calibrated monitor.