First Post & First Wedding

Calm Light Photos

I've been admiring the talent on this board for quite some time now, but thought it was time to get my feet wet. The following pictures were taken this past August at my first wedding shoot. I actually begged the bride & groom not to use me because I'm not a "wedding photographer" and I know that my lack of expertise and lack of the right camera equipment may not serve them well. However, they insisted. Apparently their photographer pooped out on them 2 days before the wedding, so they were desperate.

Some day I will be a wedding photographer, but first I need better cameras and lenses and I need to learn photoshop. Aside from my shortcomings, I think I have the eye, but would love to hear from you all who really know what it takes. C&C most appreciated. Thank you for looking!

1.


2.


3.


4.


5.


6.


7.


8.


9. Getting on the rustic horse drawn wagon.


10. Nearly all settled in on the wagon.


11. And away they go, off to the reception.

du8die

All things considered, what a great start.

There are a few minor compositional things (chopped off tops of heads) and a few hot spots, but other than that, exposure looks good to me, colors look good, nice use of DOF. They should be very happy with these.

Scott_Quier

I don't know what equipment you used, but it seems to have served you well. This is a stunning first effort!

Specific comments:

• What color was the bride's dress. In some it's white, in #5 it's not.
• I think there might be a touch too much blur in #2
• 6, 7, and 9 - wonderful!
• Not too sure about the chopped off heads in #8

joshhuntnm

You accomplished the essential goal: capture the emotion.

Good work.

Calm Light Photos

du8die wrote:

All things considered, what a great start.

There are a few minor compositional things (chopped off tops of heads) and a few hot spots, but other than that, exposure looks good to me, colors look good, nice use of DOF. They should be very happy with these.

Thank you for your reply - I really appreciate it! Yes, the chopped off heads and hot spots....well, it was quite a fast paced event, as I'm sure all weddings are. I don't have the fastest camera or lens (Nikon D40 and 55-200 f4.5) so there was lag between some shots, and a few of those shots were taken while I was walking with them - running ahead, turning around, snapping and running again. They had a procession from a guest cottage to the church. All in all, they were happy.

Calm Light Photos

Scott_Quier wrote:

I don't know what equipment you used, but it seems to have served you well. This is a stunning first effort!

Specific comments:

• What color was the bride's dress. In some it's white, in #5 it's not.
• I think there might be a touch too much blur in #2
• 6, 7, and 9 - wonderful!
• Not too sure about the chopped off heads in #8

Thank you, Scott. I really appreciate your generous and helpful reply. I have a Nikon D40 with a 55-200 f4.5 lens, so considering the pace of the event was fast, my camera couldn't keep up with some of the shots. I think that's why #8 in particular was chopped. However, I liked the movement in the photo anyway. Maybe I should either cut it off even more or crop the person on the far right altogether?

The bride's dress was not pure white, so I'm sure where it appears white, it is simply blown out. It was more cream color. The blur in #2 was, in part, to soften the makeup, which I thought was a little too heavy.

I have a question for you (or anyone, for that matter!) I have no clue how to use photoshop, although I've given it a try. Where do I start? The tutorials mean nothing to me, mostly because I have no clue what they are talking about! Aside from school, how does one begin to learn post processing? Thanks!!!

Scott_Quier

Calm Light Photos wrote:

I have a question for you (or anyone, for that matter!) I have no clue how to use photoshop, although I've given it a try. Where do I start? The tutorials mean nothing to me, mostly because I have no clue what they are talking about! Aside from school, how does one begin to learn post processing? Thanks!!!

I like Scott Kelby's 7-Point System for Adobe Photoshop CS3 (USBN 10: 0 321 50192 6, USBN-13:978 0 321 50192 9).

This book covers all the basics you need in an easy to understand fashion. Working my way through it right now, but I haven't seen anything in there addressing writing/editing actions.

If you are interested in Lightroom, check out The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 book for Digital Photographers by Scott Kelby (do you see a trend building here?) - USBN-13: 978 0 321 55556 4, USBN-10: 0 321 55556 2

HTH

sherijohnson

you did a great job and you literally had NO time to prepare for it in 2 days

#8 is the only one that just doesn't work, I think even if you just crop to show B&G, the image still won't have much value (I think)

welcome!!!!!!

angevin1

I'm sure others here are all better equipped to answer and critique your photos in specificity. That said, I think you did a splendid job and your gear seems fine from this view. Also Those are some of the nicest dresses I've seen this season. What a beautiful and joyous bunch of folks!

cheers, tom

sweet caroline

You did a great job. You should definitely be proud of your first effort. The bride and groom will be happy they insisted on having you. You captured so much emotion. If I had to choose favorites, I'd say 5 and 6, because of composition and energy. I don't care if the top of the groom's head is cut off- it places more focus on the bride and his smile.

If I'm not mistaken, her dress only appears truly white in the b/w photos. In the others it looks like an ivory shade.

Okay, maybe I'm the odd one out, but I find #8 interesting. I'd keep it.

Caroline

Calm Light Photos

joshhuntnm wrote:

You accomplished the essential goal: capture the emotion.

Good work.

Thank you, Josh. I really appreciate your reply! Capturing the emotion is my first goal with all the photos I take, but sometimes "in the moment" my composition slips a bit (or a lot!) Not always, though, thankfully!

Calm Light Photos

Scott_Quier wrote:

I like Scott Kelby's 7-Point System for Adobe Photoshop CS3 (USBN 10: 0 321 50192 6, USBN-13:978 0 321 50192 9).

This book covers all the basics you need in an easy to understand fashion. Working my way through it right now, but I haven't seen anything in there addressing writing/editing actions.

If you are interested in Lightroom, check out The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 book for Digital Photographers by Scott Kelby (do you see a trend building here?) - USBN-13: 978 0 321 55556 4, USBN-10: 0 321 55556 2

HTH

Thanks, Scott! I'll check them out. BTW, what do you think about Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2? That's what I currently tinker around with. A couple of months ago I downloaded Lightroom and gave it a try, but I kept coming back to Corel because of the simplicity, but mostly because all of my photos automatically are filed in corel, making it easy to work with each photo without having to find and upload them. There's a million and one things I still don't understand about corel, but it seems like all the pros use photoshop. Why?

Calm Light Photos

sherijohnson wrote:

you did a great job and you literally had NO time to prepare for it in 2 days

#8 is the only one that just doesn't work, I think even if you just crop to show B&G, the image still won't have much value (I think)

welcome!!!!!!

Thank you, Sheri, I really appreciate your feedback. I see what you mean about #8, but there's just something about it that I really like - mainly the flow of her dress as she's walking. I also like it because it's "different" and imperfect. Thank you also for visiting my website and for your comment on one of my horse pictures.

Calm Light Photos

angevin1 wrote:

I'm sure others here are all better equipped to answer and critique your photos in specificity. That said, I think you did a splendid job and your gear seems fine from this view. Also Those are some of the nicest dresses I've seen this season. What a beautiful and joyous bunch of folks!

cheers, tom

Thank you, Tom. I really appreciate your comment. Yes, they were a lot of fun to work with - very casual, no expectations, just going with the flow. Should'nt all weddings be so spontaneous and fun!

Calm Light Photos

sweet caroline wrote:

You did a great job. You should definitely be proud of your first effort. The bride and groom will be happy they insisted on having you. You captured so much emotion. If I had to choose favorites, I'd say 5 and 6, because of composition and energy. I don't care if the top of the groom's head is cut off- it places more focus on the bride and his smile.

If I'm not mistaken, her dress only appears truly white in the b/w photos. In the others it looks like an ivory shade.

Okay, maybe I'm the odd one out, but I find #8 interesting. I'd keep it.

Caroline

Thank you, Caroline. Your reply is much appreciated! Yes, they were very happy with the pictures. Between my photos and those taken by some of the guests (some of whom were actually professional photographers with awesome gear,) the bride & groom said they felt that the whole event, from beginning to end, was documented beautifully.

Thank you about #8 - I still like it and will definitely keep it!

Scott_Quier

Calm Light Photos wrote:

Thanks, Scott! I'll check them out. BTW, what do you think about Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2? That's what I currently tinker around with. A couple of months ago I downloaded Lightroom and gave it a try, but I kept coming back to Corel because of the simplicity, but mostly because all of my photos automatically are filed in corel, making it easy to work with each photo without having to find and upload them. There's a million and one things I still don't understand about corel, but it seems like all the pros use photoshop. Why?

I know nothing about PSP, aside from what you've written here.

As for why pros go with Photoshop - My understanding is (bearing in mind that this all happened before I started shooting or even thinking about digital) in the begining it was the only tool with wide circulation that could do the job and it was the tool many/most graphic artists were trained to use. As a result of past history and inertia, it has become and remain (for the most part) the tool of choice for photographers. I started using it because everyone said it was the tool of choice. But, I'm trying to move to Lightroom - just need time to learn that application - now that things have slowed down a touch, I might actually find that time.

PS has a lot of functionality - most of which is wasted on the majority of the phogography demographic. So, applications like Lightroom and Aperture have come in behind with a modified toolset more tightly focused on the needs of the photographer. I'm still in the process of trying to learn LR. But it seems to me that it can significantly reduce the time it takes to process a large number of photos, like what some wedding photographers get, between 700 and 2,000 or 3,000 photos.

zoomer

These shots are very good, better than most who claim to be professionals.
You should stick with it and after you shoot a few more and gain your confidence your shots should be even better!
I like all the effects except the blur in 2 and it may have worked if the blurred area had been darkened to highlight the subject more.
Nice job!

zoomer

I also recommend the Scott Kelby books. The only ones I have used that really worked for me.

lisap

Excellent job of capturing the spirit and emotion of the day. Great first job for sure .

-- Lisa P.

zoomer

Scott,
Yes Lightroom is amazing.
I can group process as many photos as I can load in in just a few minutes.
You can edit anything in the photo with the group process in seconds using auto sync and then you just go through and fix the exposures that need it and you are done.
Then I final tweak my favorites in Photoshop which takes MUCH longer.

You may want to try the book "The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Book"
by Scott Kelby.
It walks you through all the processes step by step. You can learn Lightroom at warp speed. Good luck.

Scott_Quier

zoomer wrote:

Scott,
Yes Lightroom is amazing.
I can group process as many photos as I can load in in just a few minutes.
You can edit anything in the photo with the group process in seconds using auto sync and then you just go through and fix the exposures that need it and you are done.
Then I final tweak my favorites in Photoshop which takes MUCH longer.

You may want to try the book "The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Book"
by Scott Kelby.
It walks you through all the processes step by step. You can learn Lightroom at warp speed. Good luck.

I agree on the book - read post #7 in this thread:D

divamum

I have used both Paintshop and Photoshop. While both are good programs, there are MANY MANY more tutorials available on Photoshop - it wasn't until I switched to PS (gotta love access to an educational copy!) that I FINALLY came to grips with the most basic processing concepts, like layers. Thanks to the AV dept I was also given a bunch of textbooks on PS, so I have been able to go MUCH further with it than I was ever able to with PSP, but also there are lots of tutorial sites on the net (and quite a few video tutorials on youtube)

Also, it seems to me that some of the algorithms PS uses produce a better final result; PSP and PS both do the same things, but in different ways, if that makes sense. For instance, the sharpening in PS is cleaner and produces less noise to my eye; the healing brush in PS is much nicer than the comparable tool in the version of PSP I had... etc etc. YMMV, of course, but that's how it worked for me.

I also have LR and do use it for some things, but I find myself sticking with the free Picasa catalog program the most for file organisation. It's just so quick and easy - no fuss, just easy importing and easy access to all my photos, and it will handle raw files now too. The basic editing functions are fine (cropping etc) but I usually do the serious editing in PS now - Picasa has a few preset effects, but they don't have as much finetuning control as I like.

I love the photos you posted!

(PS I read over this and realise I sound like I know what I'm talking about - HA! And if I do... it's only because of all the helpful folks here at dgrin since I've bascially spent the last 3 months glued to this wonderful forum! giggle)

zoomer

Sorry, I did not read that far back. Looks like you are all over it!

Scott_Quier wrote:

I agree on the book - read post #7 in this thread:D

Scott_Quier

zoomer wrote:

Sorry, I did not read that far back. Looks like you are all over it!

Sometimes it better to be lucky than good!

JohnBiggs

I like #8. Maybe not as a shot for the bride and groom, but it looks like a great shot for other purposes.

John