Photo for Wedding Announcement

I am gonna take some classes in the fall on photography/PJ/as well as post processing. I have been using the canon digital raw stuff but i don't know my foot my hand as far as post processing goes!

Foxgguy2001 wrote in post #5705267
i like #2 and #7... #2 i like the red BG... it's complementing without being destracting... #7 has a fantastic BG, and great pose, prolly my fav. Some of the other have destracting BG's... like the waterfall, for example.

I hear ya, I guess I'm still trying to balance out having an interesting background that doesnt compete with the main subject. Maybe if I zoomed out a ton (non portrait style) the background wouldn't distract as much?

Kristy wrote in post #5706638
I think #4 or 7 would work nicely... if you turn on "Image Editing Okay" we can play with them and show you some ideas....

Woot! lets see what you can do!

auroraskye wrote in post #5709228
If you keep your SS high enough you shouldn't have to worry about the lack of IS. IS is really helpful in lower SS conditions. Outdoor shots really don't require low SS.

I think that overall, not bad. They are very classic poses. They all are very off in the WB, very warm.

1 - Soft/Warm, a bit underexposed.
2 - This is very warm and a bit underexposed, but has that hot spot. She looks killer here. I wish he wasn't leaning back, it's really unflattering for him. Keep in mind that when you are shooting people to make sure they keep their chins out and slightly down. She is doing a great job of it.
3 - Very similar as above, dark, yellow, good classic shot but I wish he was holding his head in a different position.
4 - Same comments
5 - Same comments, less yellow more cyan
6 - I think this is my favorite. SAme comments about his chin, and too bad her hand is chopped but nice shot overall, just needs to be processed to remove the yellow and lighten it up.
7 - Similar comments to above. Really dark, yellow, hand chop but cute shot! Processed properly I am sure it'll be great.

Thanks for the pic by pic critique! I was shooting the first couple shots with the 24-70 with a 430 EX for fill at first, and I kept my SS at around 1/30. For the later pictures in the series I switched to my 70-200 2.8 IS and my speeds dropped to 1/10 1/15. Even with IS on, it was tough to hold em steady at 80mm+ and I have a lot of blurry pics in the series. I was shooting 30 minutes before sunset, so the light was perfect, but it was getting darker and I probably should have bumped the ISO up a bit.

I am kind of confused about the correct way to white balance. In canon raw utilities i just selected the white point as the guy's, and copied that condition to all the pictures. Is there a more effective/accurate way to do it?

I agree about the Chin thing, I reminded my models at first about head away = masculine and head close = feminine, but I definitely need to watch the chin.

Hands? ^%$&@*! Good call, i think i get so caught up in trying to get the exposure and composition correct that I don't pay attention to the lower part of the frame. Will try to do better next time. Thanks!

For crisp pictures you always need to keep your SS above 1/125 when photographing people. Particularly hand holding. What were you keeping your ISO at? To me, the first thing to change when you need a significant amount of light is your ISO. I use Lightroom and I just find a white or black area that gives me a preview that I think looks right. I do a lot of eyeballing and fiddling.

I know it's hard to sometime keep your eye on the whole thing, with the hands. I've been there. It just comes with time I think. Plus, don't forget, you could always take a step back and shoot a wider frame and crop after you take it, so you have more wiggle room!

auroraskye wrote in post #5709984
For crisp pictures you always need to keep your SS above 1/125 when photographing people. Particularly hand holding. What were you keeping your ISO at? To me, the first thing to change when you need a significant amount of light is your ISO. I use Lightroom and I just find a white or black area that gives me a preview that I think looks right. I do a lot of eyeballing and fiddling.

I know it's hard to sometime keep your eye on the whole thing, with the hands. I've been there. It just comes with time I think. Plus, don't forget, you could always take a step back and shoot a wider frame and crop after you take it, so you have more wiggle room!

Good call. I was shooting ISO 100 the whole time, at F8. What aperture do you use for portraits?

Well it depends on the effect I am going for.. For a couple I'd say 5.6 - 8, depending. Or if I am using the 50mm, as wide as 3.5. You could have probably opened it up a little more to help with the light situation. f/8 is a pretty good safe aperture to ensure good focus. But yeah, I would have definitely bumped that ISO. Did you say what body you're using? I just have an XTI and I can shoot at 800 ISO with good exposure and have almost non-existent grain. But.. of course that IS when I nail the exposure...which isn't ALWAYS.. but I'm getting there!

auroraskye wrote in post #5710143
Well it depends on the effect I am going for.. For a couple I'd say 5.6 - 8, depending. Or if I am using the 50mm, as wide as 3.5. You could have probably opened it up a little more to help with the light situation. f/8 is a pretty good safe aperture to ensure good focus. But yeah, I would have definitely bumped that ISO. Did you say what body you're using? I just have an XTI and I can shoot at 800 ISO with good exposure and have almost non-existent grain. But.. of course that IS when I nail the exposure...which isn't ALWAYS.. but I'm getting there!

I hear ya! I was shooting with my XTi as well. It seems like I either shoot wide open or around f8. I was just worried about DOF issues as I have never shot mid length and closer portraits before.

Good feedback you're getting here....

Here are a couple edits just to give you an idea of how they would look processed and in a large mat.

I don't think the waterfall is too distracting, and I kind of like the framing on it... and the exposures on their faces is acceptable with no hot spots.....so I processed that one, going against the popular vote. I did blur the falls out some to help bring the focus back on the couple.

One thing I notice is that the color is very off in them. I'm terrible at color correction, so I'd suggest shooting in RAW or better yet, doing a custom white balance when you're shooting..

So both shots are curves adjustments, (with some masking out of certain areas), some saturation adjustments, and teensy bit of skin softening... small files are difficult to work on, but you get the idea...

Hope it helps some.

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Well done Kristy!

I like the edits on both of these, including the crop of his hands on the first one...
nice job

Just playin around..i imagine a nice glow if its going to be on a wedding invitation..

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Good job kristi, Now i realyl do like the waterfalls one!

#6. I think its the best combo of composition and lighting. You would need to knock down the blown background a bit, I believe.