1st Wedding - C&C Very appreciated

I am not sure I like photographing people other than my kids but figure I'll never know unless I try. This was my first attempt at being assistant photographer with my brother for his friend's wedding. I'd really like to know if my photos are on the right track, realizing I have much to learn. What could I do better? Hopefully I got some of them right?! So here are my top 8 photos in my opinion. Thanks for any C&C!

#1. Just Married

I really like them! A few of them, like the wedding certificate one, seem maybe a little out of focus. But other than that I think you're off to a good start!

The last 4 are the best because the light/shadow is BRUTAL in the others. Of those 4, I like #7 because it is a sweet shot of the proud daddy.

Thank you for your comments! I think they seem out of focus because I was lazy and resized them with Outlook. Here is the wedding certificate one in a little better detail.

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A little difficult to comment since most if not all seem to be suffering from jpeg compression artifacts.

But here's my take.

#1 Odd composition. Too much grass at the bottom of the frame.
#2 The sign behind the groom's shoudler is distracting. The leg kick is on the bride is a little weird because you cutt off the other feet.
#3 Looks crooked. The column behind her is distracting. Probably would have been better shot more from the side.
#4 Decent enough.
#5 Decent enough but I find the background to be a little distracting.
#6 Kind of weird how they are kissing. The guy in the sunglasses is kinda creepy.
#7 Decent. Color looks washed out.
#8 Decent enough. Color looks washed out.

I re-uploaded the photos at a better quality. Hopefully that helps.

Thanks for your comments! I realize I have to get a lot faster at finding the right composition because wedding shots happen one right after the other.
#3. I fixed the crooked aspect anyway.
#5. What would you do differently with the background I was working with?

The wedding was at 4pm in bright sunshine. The only nearby shade was in this patio/gazebo area. I was pretty inexperienced with the flash I had so I was only able to get it to work about 1/4 of the time.

Looks like some/most of your pics could have used a flash for some fill light.

pureshots wrote in post #10649056
I re-uploaded the photos at a better quality. Hopefully that helps.

Thanks for your comments! I realize I have to get a lot faster at finding the right composition because wedding shots happen one right after the other.
#3. I fixed the crooked aspect anyway.
#5. What would you do differently with the background I was working with?

The wedding was at 4pm in bright sunshine. The only nearby shade was in this patio/gazebo area. I was pretty inexperienced with the flash I had so I was only able to get it to work about 1/4 of the time.

They don't look that much better. Perhaps when you are linking them, you are losing resolution? They look soft to me.

As for #5, it's not so much the BG itself, it's the fact that your DOF is too much. What lens did you use and what was your aperture?

SoundNinja384 wrote in post #10649283
Looks like some/most of your pics could have used a flash for some fill light.

I completely agree! I am going to practice with this flash a lot more! Thanks.

nicksan wrote in post #10649318
As for #5, it's not so much the BG itself, it's the fact that your DOF is too much. What lens did you use and what was your aperture?

I was using a Canon L-series 17-40mm. f/4, 1/80sec, ISO 100 and 40mm focal length. Next time I will either back up and zoom in or I will use my 30mm f/1.4 lens a lot more. Thanks so much for the input. I really appreciate it.

Hope you don't mind, but my maybe these are some better shots from the same wedding? What do you think?
9. (I wish I had aimed the camera a little further to the left!)

Decent shots, although the white balance or PP in a few seems a bit off to me... rather more yellowy/greeny than it should be, kinda makes people look ill.

However you seem to be capturing the moments that matter which is a good start... I think you need to maybe take an extra half second before you push the shutter to think about composition more, just as you said in pic 9.
Often a masterfully composed image is what puts your pictures that level above the snapshots from mums ixus.

benesotor wrote in post #10656213
Decent shots, although the white balance or PP in a few seems a bit off to me... rather more yellowy/greeny than it should be, kinda makes people look ill.

Thanks for your input! So, I set the white balance in # 9, 10 and 11 using a gray card - my brother and I both noticed that when we set the temperature/hue to match the gray card shot, everything looked too warm. Any idea why this might be happening?

pureshots wrote in post #10656245
Thanks for your input! So, I set the white balance in # 9, 10 and 11 using a gray card - my brother and I both noticed that when we set the temperature/hue to match the gray card shot, everything looked too warm. Any idea why this might be happening?

What software are you using to process the images?

i'm her brother... I used lightroom and it would make it really warm. I think she used photoshop.

Is there a proper technique for shooting the gray card?