I could learn to hate the LED flashes on iPhones. The durn things stay on for like 2 seconds. OTOH it gave me a little bit of a rim-light.

Originally Posted by Icebear I could learn to hate the LED flashes on iPhones. The durn things stay on for like 2 seconds. OTOH it gave me a little bit of a rim-light.

And it does reinforce the fact that the focus of the picture is entirely on the couple. I think this makes the shot even more unique. But in the long run, flashes from guests cameras/phones will only spoil most shots.

Beautiful shot; the girl (bride? bridesmaid?) should love it - her smile comes thru as genuine, as does the rest of their posture, even their hand clasp.

The iphone flash is distracting, but the rim-light is nice; would have been good to crop the flash out, but you'd have to either crop too close or allow just that background girl's left arm to show (!); guess you could let leave - it's not that distracting.

I kinda like it!

Thanks everybody. I appreciate your comments. I agree that it did make this a particularly "fun" shot. The iPhone wielder was a bridesmaid and the groom's little sister, so it was actually quite cute. Obviously, this is only one of dozens and dozens of images we got of the bride dancing, so in practical reality, if I didn't like it, it could have been a tosser with no loss.

Although I think in this instance the phone flash added something nice to the shot. Better still that the perpetrator was the brides little sister. Still, it underlines the difficulty of being a wedding shooter in today's world.

Was at a reception this weekend. I watched with a mix of amusement, pity and disgust as the hired shooter tried to photograph the bridal dance. As it began, I counted over thirty people descend on the scene with various forms of camera in hand. From cell phones to PAS, consumer DSLR to pro cameras. One guy (guest) had a D4 with what appeared to be a 24-70 with a L bracket off camera flash and modifier.

What started of as amusement and pity turned to disgust when I saw guests repeatedly jump in front of the hired photog to get shots and make it almost impossible for her to get clean backgrounds without someone in the scene holding a camera/phone.

Don't think I'd have the right temperament to shoot a wedding. Be too easy to punch someone!

John, you timed that shot perfectly!

Originally Posted by Icebear Thanks everybody. I appreciate your comments. I agree that it did make this a particularly "fun" shot. The iPhone wielder was a bridesmaid and the groom's little sister, so it was actually quite cute. Obviously, this is only one of dozens and dozens of images we got of the bride dancing, so in practical reality, if I didn't like it, it could have been a tosser with no loss.

And just think, if the flash didn't go off, it would look like lil sis was reading her email/texting on big sis's special day.

Now we can see that she just wanted to get a shot of the wedding photographer.

Originally Posted by MarkR And just think, if the flash didn't go off, it would look like lil sis was reading her email/texting on big sis's special day. Now we can see that she just wanted to get a shot of the wedding photographer.

HA!

Hi I'm new to this forum and this thread sparked my interest because I just did a wedding this past weekend and while I was photographing the first dance a guest snapped away on the opposite side and I got a beautiful rim light. It looks almost like I did it on purpose. You can't see the guest. So all the guest photographers can add some real interest sometimes. I would post the image but I am on my iPad at the moment. I would just chalk it up to one of those happy accidents.

It might add some rim light, but it's very distracting. And for all the reasons stated...I can understand why some think it's interesting, but if you look at it for very long, the flash, bright white, hot spot in the image makes you look there and takes away from the image...rim light or no.

The eye is naturally drawn to the brightest part of the image...and it is here too. It's the first thing that I see and then I see the bride and groom, or husband and wife.

So, not good...certainly not as good as it could have been. And, like most amatures...she's shooting the back of the brides head...not going to be a keeper.

In My view its a cools shot - captured the moment exactly as it was !

Thanks, Carl.