I certainly agree with much of what has been posted here and I think that if you roll it all together into a ball you are going to wind up with a "photographer". A photographer is first a technician, then an artist and finally a business person. Not necessarily in that order. I feel that this thread has become more about the art than anything else and I don't agree with that. The photos posted were set up or posed by the lead photographer on this wedding so judging CA on this is a moot point. All we can really judge is their abilty to produce a technically good photo. The good news is that this is something that you don't have to be at a wedding to improve upon. CA, practice your techniques. Look hard at your photos and decide what you think is wrong with them. What comes to my eye is that you need to practice basic exposure technique and learn to balance your lighting. Quite often photographers underexpose a persons face to allow for an overlit background. Learn to use a fill light and you photos will improve greatly. If you can't control the background try standing in another position. Go out into your backyard and set up a model in front of a heavily shaded area and one overly sunny. The model doesn't have to be a person. A mop or broom sticking out of a bucket will do. Your neighbors may think you've lost it but it will acheive its purpose. Finally, in regards to what makes a good photographer, PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE.
0
Matthew SavilleRegistered Users, Retired ModPosts: 3,352Major grins
...The good news is that this is something that you don't have to be at a wedding to improve upon...
Bingo. The only thing you really need to be AT a wedding to gain experience is, well, the pressure. You can train yourself in most every other aspect of photography, by going out with a couple of friends as models, or shooting a birthday party, etc. etc...
Bingo. The only thing you really need to be AT a wedding to gain experience is, well, the pressure. You can train yourself in most every other aspect of photography, by going out with a couple of friends as models, or shooting a birthday party, etc. etc...
Good luck!
=Matt=
If people don't mind and you do outdoor weddings, famers markets are THE place to get some good candid photography experience!
In addition to everything else that's been said here - if you're looking to work on your PP techniques - spend some time in the Whipping Post looking over over people's pics, and seeing how their processing worked or could be better. I'm still on the short end of the learning curve, but I've found the time I've spent there critiquing other people's shots invaluable.
Another ideas is to take images from the various photo-hosting sites out there and play with them to see what you can tease out of them. There's a certain "solving a mystery" type of thrill in taking something that was shot completely wrong, and bringing out something really special with the right PP work, and it gives you a wide variety of materials - and their corresponding issues - to practice on.
Good luck!
Save $5 off your first year's SmugMug image hosting with coupon code hccesQbqNBJbc
My impression of the pics is they could be a LOT better with a little Photoshop work, especially if you shot RAW. Tend to be too dark and the ones shot in the shade look like they were shot in the shade. All quickly fixable in Lightroom or PS
Thanks to both of you. So other than PPing, which I know need help, the photos looks good? And Josh, did you take a look at the gallery for Alex and Hilary that I re-edited or just the original one?
I do shoot only RAW, however the first two weddings were shot in jpeg because that's what the photographer I was working for shot in and edited in, so I just followed suite, wishing I hadn't now though.
Thanks to both of you. So other than PPing, which I know need help, the photos looks good? And Josh, did you take a look at the gallery for Alex and Hilary that I re-edited or just the original one?
I do shoot only RAW, however the first two weddings were shot in jpeg because that's what the photographer I was working for shot in and edited in, so I just followed suite, wishing I hadn't now though.
I had only looked at the first gallery, but looking at the others, there are some dark ones there too (as well as some good ones!) look at the one on the first page with teh BG hugging. The backlight is throwing the exposure way off.
Many others could use a little POP.
another little hint a photographer taught me when I was shooting video-- have the girls point the flowers more toward the camera, hiding the stems.
I had only looked at the first gallery, but looking at the others, there are some dark ones there too (as well as some good ones!) look at the one on the first page with teh BG hugging. The backlight is throwing the exposure way off.
Many others could use a little POP.
another little hint a photographer taught me when I was shooting video-- have the girls point the flowers more toward the camera, hiding the stems.
I realize they are a bit dark. I had just gotten my flash for this wedding and hadn't yet had a lot of practice with fill flash. I couldn't bring up the exposure too much without blowing out the brides dress. I recently found out about the "expose to the right" shooting, so am going to be trying that.
So aside from my PP issues, and just lack of experience doing it, the idea seems to be that my photos are under exposed a little. I'm curious as to why this would be? Is it because of what I'm metering off of? I have my exposure compensation to 0ev most of the time and use the evaluative metering (I think I need to switch to spot for portraits?). Should I be bumping the exposure compensation to like +1/2 or +2/3 or something when I'm shooting? I think the underexposure is the cause of some other issues I'm having as well (ex: visible noise at lower ISO's), so I'm hoping finding the solution to this fixes other issues. I tend to prefer most of my photos a little underexposed anyways, just a personal preference I guess, but I totally agree with the wedding photos need to be a bit brighter. I'm planning on doing some positive exposure compensation anyways to try the "expose to the right" technique, see if I can get some better results that way. Do most people do that?
So aside from my PP issues, and just lack of experience doing it, the idea seems to be that my photos are under exposed a little. I'm curious as to why this would be? Is it because of what I'm metering off of? I have my exposure compensation to 0ev most of the time and use the evaluative metering (I think I need to switch to spot for portraits?). Should I be bumping the exposure compensation to like +1/2 or +2/3 or something when I'm shooting? I think the underexposure is the cause of some other issues I'm having as well (ex: visible noise at lower ISO's), so I'm hoping finding the solution to this fixes other issues. I tend to prefer most of my photos a little underexposed anyways, just a personal preference I guess, but I totally agree with the wedding photos need to be a bit brighter. I'm planning on doing some positive exposure compensation anyways to try the "expose to the right" technique, see if I can get some better results that way. Do most people do that?
Thanks for all the help.
I am in the process of figuring this out as well! I have my first wedding in April. My understanding is that when you expose to the right you are trying to go as far to the right as possible before getting blinkies....So there isnt really a ec value to stick to...you just go back one step once you get blinkies... then you can dial it down in post if you want and not have as much noise and keep your detail....
I am in the process of figuring this out as well! I have my first wedding in April. My understanding is that when you expose to the right you are trying to go as far to the right as possible before getting blinkies....So there isnt really a ec value to stick to...you just go back one step once you get blinkies... then you can dial it down in post if you want and not have as much noise and keep your detail....
on my camera I can get blinkies even when the histogram is not "over" exposed to the right and when I load em up in photoshop the don't look too hot. Not sure why this is on my Nikon, could be a camera thing so I am not sure that blinkies are always so bad. Depends on the situation.
Snady :thumb
my money well spent
Nikon D4, D3s, D3, D700, Nikkor 24-70, 70-200 2.8 vrII, 50mm 1.4, 85mm 1.4, 105mm macro, sigma fisheye, SB 800's and lots of other goodies!
oops Sandy, Let me revise that......Actually according to Scott in the first link you can shoot into your lens cap and set that as the custum white balance. That "Tricks" your histogram to where you can shoot until you get blinkies and pull back. You will have to set another white balance after the fact and it is not adviseable to show your client the images on your lcd. I tested it out and it produced much better then normal for me images. Check out the first link above for more in depth/Accurate explanation.
So, to all of you who took a look at my photos I asked about in this thread awhile ago, I've gone through and completely re-edited two of the weddings with all my new knowledge of PP. I would like to get some opinions on the new edits and to see if they are an improvement over the previous, still work needed to be done, worse, whatever.
So, to all of you who took a look at my photos I asked about in this thread awhile ago, I've gone through and completely re-edited two of the weddings with all my new knowledge of PP. I would like to get some opinions on the new edits and to see if they are an improvement over the previous, still work needed to be done, worse, whatever.
Hey Bryce, great job. The colors look great, the contrast and clarity is fantastic. I think you'll do great again in the future! Good luck at your next wedding...
Hey Bryce, great job. The colors look great, the contrast and clarity is fantastic. I think you'll do great again in the future! Good luck at your next wedding...
=Matt=
Matt, Thank you so much. Thanks for the time you took to look through my work and comment. I appreciate it.
Your work is fairly typical of a an inexperienced wedding photographer.
Crops are to tight, photos do not pop, colors are dull, poorly chosen backgrounds.
Compositions need creativity and balance.
So you are starting out where most of us started out, with a lot to learn.
Now it is up to you as to whether you will put in the time and effort to improve your photography to the point where you can succeed at wedding photography.
Probably the biggest block to progress with beginning photographers is the unwillingness to form a realistic assessment of their skills. If a person does not think they need to improve much then they probably won't.
This comment is not directed at you, just a general statement.
Your work is fairly typical of a an inexperienced wedding photographer.
Crops are to tight, photos do not pop, colors are dull, poorly chosen backgrounds.
Compositions need creativity and balance.
So you are starting out where most of us started out, with a lot to learn.
Now it is up to you as to whether you will put in the time and effort to improve your photography to the point where you can succeed at wedding photography.
Probably the biggest block to progress with beginning photographers is the unwillingness to form a realistic assessment of their skills. If a person does not think they need to improve much then they probably won't.
This comment is not directed at you, just a general statement.
Hey Bryce, great job. The colors look great, the contrast and clarity is fantastic. I think you'll do great again in the future! Good luck at your next wedding...
=Matt=
I went and looked again, I could see tight crop on a few, but not near all. But yes, I am inexperienced in wedding photography, only done three. So obviously I have a LOT to learn, and I know this, and am willing to learn. I know some of them don't pop, but a few do. First wedding was a very dull and horribly lit wedding, that plus inexperience made for not near excellent results, not even great for most of them actually. Backgrounds are something that I have been working on in my more recent portraiture, but have yet to do another wedding.
I'm looking for realistic assesments here, that's why I'm posting my work. I want to know the good and the bad. It seems however, by your statement, every picture is horrible.
I am giving you a realistic assessment. As I mentioned before it is not easy to hear it/believe it when the news is not good.
To be fair to you I went back and looked at both the reworked galleries.
I had not looked at gallery 1 before, there are significant color problems in that one and generally not as good as the second gallery which is the one I looked at before.
So I looked at the second gallery again. Appx. 50% of the shots are cropped to tight. Generally the color is dull and the photos do not pop.
There are a few good shots compositionally but the color is dull with no pop.
The best shots are some of the detail shots like of the glasses etc.
I normally do not read the critiques of other posters or let them influence my critique. We all view your work from different viewpoints experience and skill levels.
The learning process if you really want to improve can be tough, you need to have a tough skin if you really ask for the truth, which you did.
Trust me....nobody got hammered worse than me when I first started out posting work for critique. On the flip side you need to be able to tell when people are sugar coating it or really giving it to you straight. People who tell you your work is good when it is not are not doing you any favors.
People who tell you your work is good when it is not are not doing you any favors.
Unless of course that is their honest opinion.
Then you need to look at their work and gauge how much weight to give their critique.
Of course this is an artistic endeavour and opinions vary considerably. You may like oversaturated colours and shoot mostly from floor level at odd angles with a fisheye lens. Of course I don't know if that is true or not, hopefully not BUT... if it is true then of course the crops would be too tight and colours bland.
My opinion on the galleries now...
Disclaimer I am on a laptop with aweful colour rendition so i will not comment on colours, other then to say that the colours do look a little washed out and under saturated on THIS computer. But that is common on my laptop so take that for what it is worth (nothing).
First gallery....
too tight crop on pics 1, 2, 5, 12, 19, 26... Specifically, 26 head cut off of bride a bit. 19 fingertips, 12 i think I would have like to see all of the dresses hemline maybe even the feet, 5 head at top of ear, 2 i would have liked to see bottom of closest ribbon, not all the ribbon just bottom loop if that makes sense, 1 corner of book.
Besides that I like them. Even with that i wish I had photos like that from my wedding.
Second gallery....
#8, not fan of the crop at the knees. i think I would have cropped it a little under the hands. I prefer to avoid bright spots at crotches, well between knees, like this.
#9 looks tilted to the left. Lines of the pillar do not line up with side of frame
#10 snipped off the brides back.
#11 I like a lot. Very sweet picture, to bad bride had eyes closed
#12 Hair of guys on right seem to blend into background (possibly laptop related).
#15 difficult crop... Would liek to see bottom of bouquet but would also like crop to be a smidge higher, above the man's cuff.
Sorry will stop there.
i am being as critical as possible here. I also have no wedding experience at all just comments on personal opinions. Wish I could see the colours better and make comments on those.
Overall I think the second gallery was better. I think yo might have been dealt a bum hand with dark bland background and that horrific slanted pathway in the background.
Overall I do like them, just being critical of flaws, or at least my opinion of flaws, in them as a second opinion. And don't worry you will get to critique my first wedding soon. I will be shooting a friends wedding and just hoping i take better pictures then her friends with the disposable cameras
I am giving you a realistic assessment. As I mentioned before it is not easy to hear it/believe it when the news is not good.
To be fair to you I went back and looked at both the reworked galleries.
I had not looked at gallery 1 before, there are significant color problems in that one and generally not as good as the second gallery which is the one I looked at before.
So I looked at the second gallery again. Appx. 50% of the shots are cropped to tight. Generally the color is dull and the photos do not pop.
There are a few good shots compositionally but the color is dull with no pop.
The best shots are some of the detail shots like of the glasses etc.
I normally do not read the critiques of other posters or let them influence my critique. We all view your work from different viewpoints experience and skill levels.
The learning process if you really want to improve can be tough, you need to have a tough skin if you really ask for the truth, which you did.
Trust me....nobody got hammered worse than me when I first started out posting work for critique. On the flip side you need to be able to tell when people are sugar coating it or really giving it to you straight. People who tell you your work is good when it is not are not doing you any favors.
The first gallery is the wedding that I shot entirely in JPEG because that's what the primary dealt with, so editing was with limits. Plus it was a dark church, with tungsten and natural light, no flash allowed. It was a horrible way to break into wedding photography.
I have a hard time believing the "dull" color in the second gallery. The colors them selves were fairly bland with a dull yellow and green for the flowers and other arrangements, however after I adjusted Hue and saturation in LR, they were miles improvements from the RAW files. The detail shots are what I do best anyways, I'm just breaking into people pictures, and have been more of a fan of the detail type shots in my other work.
I understand not reading other people's critques before making your own assessment. Just from what I've seen of Matt's work, and what's he's had to say on the forums, he is well respected in my opinion.
I do have a tough skin for critiques, it's the lack of critique that get's to me. And when someone says that all your photos are not good, then I get defensive. Because I know there are goods and bads in all of my work, and w/o specifics, nothing can be learned. I'd take more kindly to a post that says in this picture this is bad, that is bad, this is bad and that is horrible, more so that the picture is bad. Because it's actually saying something and taking the time to point out what needs improvement and what is working.
Then you need to look at their work and gauge how much weight to give their critique.
Of course this is an artistic endeavour and opinions vary considerably. You may like oversaturated colours and shoot mostly from floor level at odd angles with a fisheye lens. Of course I don't know if that is true or not, hopefully not BUT... if it is true then of course the crops would be too tight and colours bland.
My opinion on the galleries now...
Disclaimer I am on a laptop with aweful colour rendition so i will not comment on colours, other then to say that the colours do look a little washed out and under saturated on THIS computer. But that is common on my laptop so take that for what it is worth (nothing).
Firstly, thank you for taking the time to comment on what you did. I greatly appreciate the photo by photo crit.
First gallery....
too tight crop on pics 1, 2, 5, 12, 19, 26... Specifically, 26 head cut off of bride a bit. 19 fingertips, 12 i think I would have like to see all of the dresses hemline maybe even the feet, 5 head at top of ear, 2 i would have liked to see bottom of closest ribbon, not all the ribbon just bottom loop if that makes sense, 1 corner of book.
Besides that I like them. Even with that i wish I had photos like that from my wedding.
I see what you mean on all the crops. As I said this was my first wedding with horrible lighting. So I was running from here to there making sure I got more pictures of everything instead of (apparently/obviously) better pictures of the important things. So I wasn't taking my time on each photo like I should have been. Which is something I most certainly do now. I'm starting to learn to take a wider shot than I want to leave room for cropping to how I want in post.
Second gallery....
#8, not fan of the crop at the knees. i think I would have cropped it a little under the hands. I prefer to avoid bright spots at crotches, well between knees, like this.
I assume you're talking about the spot between his knees that makes the bench visible? As I do see what you're saying, my eye does not go there when I look at it, so I don't see it as an issue personally.
#9 looks tilted to the left. Lines of the pillar do not line up with side of frame
#10 snipped off the brides back.
#11 I like a lot. Very sweet picture, to bad bride had eyes closed
9 - I do see that. The pillars, weird angled path behind, all made for not "proper" looking shots, alignment for that was difficult.
10 - I see that as well. I'll check if the original is a wider view and that was something I just over looked when cropping.
11 - I tend to have a tendency to capture people blinking (or eyes closed).
#12 Hair of guys on right seem to blend into background (possibly laptop related).
#15 difficult crop... Would liek to see bottom of bouquet but would also like crop to be a smidge higher, above the man's cuff.
I see the same thing on the hair. I don't know how I would go about fixing that though in post... Is it possible?
I see what you're saying, maybe crop lower and in from the left to actually cut the lower part of the arm off maybe?
Sorry will stop there.
No need to be sorry, or stop for that matter. If I could have something like this for every picture I've taken, I'd be more than happy to hear it all.
i am being as critical as possible here. I also have no wedding experience at all just comments on personal opinions. Wish I could see the colours better and make comments on those.
Overall I think the second gallery was better. I think yo might have been dealt a bum hand with dark bland background and that horrific slanted pathway in the background.
Overall I do like them, just being critical of flaws, or at least my opinion of flaws, in them as a second opinion. And don't worry you will get to critique my first wedding soon. I will be shooting a friends wedding and just hoping i take better pictures then her friends with the disposable cameras
"as critical as possible" is more than I could ask for. This is how I learn what is working and what is not, as well as how to fix it. The second gallery was actually my third wedding, and I learned a lot from the first two, however, I've learned even more since, as well as gained confidence in my skills and being able to direct people to what I want them to do. The background was the choice of the primary that I was shooting with. That is where she lined everyone up. Ontop of that, the black suits didn't help make the guys stand out.
Well good luck on your first wedding. My fourth one is coming in about a month. So I'll be posting them up here as well for some critique. Again thank you for your critique, if you feel the need to keep going on the photos, I'll read it all and and take anything I can from it.
I went through the second gallery to see if any of the photos that had cropping issues were done post. Only one had a cropping issue that I could fix. The one with the pillar that looked off. So I fixed it and replaced it. It looks a lot better. Thanks for the comment on that one. Sadly, none of the other ones were cropped. They were the original photos for the most part.
Comments
Atlanta, GA USA
my smugmug
Atlanta Modern Wedding Photographer
SheriJohnsonPhotography.com
Thank you so much.
OneTwoFiftieth | Portland, Oregon | Modern Portraiture
My Equipment:
Bodies: Canon 50D, Canon EOS 1
Lenses: Canon 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5, Canon 24-105mm f/4L IS, Canon 50mm f/1.4, Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro, Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8
Lighting: Canon 580EXII, Canon 420 EX, 12" Reflector, Pocket Wizard Plus II (3), AB800 (3), Large Softbox
Stability: Manfrotto 190CXPRO3 Tripod, Manfrotto 488RC4 Ball Head, Manfrotto 679B Monopod
I am not much on here anymore as there is just so much riff-raff and I have been spoiled at another forum...that I am at with Matt...
But I just wanted to say that I shadow everything Matt says on this and could not really say it better myself...
www.brandonperron.com
Good luck!
=Matt=
My SmugMug Portfolio • My Astro-Landscape Photo Blog • Dgrin Weddings Forum
If people don't mind and you do outdoor weddings, famers markets are THE place to get some good candid photography experience!
Another ideas is to take images from the various photo-hosting sites out there and play with them to see what you can tease out of them. There's a certain "solving a mystery" type of thrill in taking something that was shot completely wrong, and bringing out something really special with the right PP work, and it gives you a wide variety of materials - and their corresponding issues - to practice on.
Good luck!
Las Cruces Photographer / Las Cruces Wedding Photographer
Other site
I do shoot only RAW, however the first two weddings were shot in jpeg because that's what the photographer I was working for shot in and edited in, so I just followed suite, wishing I hadn't now though.
OneTwoFiftieth | Portland, Oregon | Modern Portraiture
My Equipment:
Bodies: Canon 50D, Canon EOS 1
Lenses: Canon 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5, Canon 24-105mm f/4L IS, Canon 50mm f/1.4, Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro, Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8
Lighting: Canon 580EXII, Canon 420 EX, 12" Reflector, Pocket Wizard Plus II (3), AB800 (3), Large Softbox
Stability: Manfrotto 190CXPRO3 Tripod, Manfrotto 488RC4 Ball Head, Manfrotto 679B Monopod
I had only looked at the first gallery, but looking at the others, there are some dark ones there too (as well as some good ones!) look at the one on the first page with teh BG hugging. The backlight is throwing the exposure way off.
Many others could use a little POP.
another little hint a photographer taught me when I was shooting video-- have the girls point the flowers more toward the camera, hiding the stems.
Las Cruces Photographer / Las Cruces Wedding Photographer
Other site
I realize they are a bit dark. I had just gotten my flash for this wedding and hadn't yet had a lot of practice with fill flash. I couldn't bring up the exposure too much without blowing out the brides dress. I recently found out about the "expose to the right" shooting, so am going to be trying that.
Thanks for the comments.
OneTwoFiftieth | Portland, Oregon | Modern Portraiture
My Equipment:
Bodies: Canon 50D, Canon EOS 1
Lenses: Canon 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5, Canon 24-105mm f/4L IS, Canon 50mm f/1.4, Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro, Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8
Lighting: Canon 580EXII, Canon 420 EX, 12" Reflector, Pocket Wizard Plus II (3), AB800 (3), Large Softbox
Stability: Manfrotto 190CXPRO3 Tripod, Manfrotto 488RC4 Ball Head, Manfrotto 679B Monopod
Thanks for all the help.
OneTwoFiftieth | Portland, Oregon | Modern Portraiture
My Equipment:
Bodies: Canon 50D, Canon EOS 1
Lenses: Canon 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5, Canon 24-105mm f/4L IS, Canon 50mm f/1.4, Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro, Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8
Lighting: Canon 580EXII, Canon 420 EX, 12" Reflector, Pocket Wizard Plus II (3), AB800 (3), Large Softbox
Stability: Manfrotto 190CXPRO3 Tripod, Manfrotto 488RC4 Ball Head, Manfrotto 679B Monopod
I am in the process of figuring this out as well! I have my first wedding in April. My understanding is that when you expose to the right you are trying to go as far to the right as possible before getting blinkies....So there isnt really a ec value to stick to...you just go back one step once you get blinkies... then you can dial it down in post if you want and not have as much noise and keep your detail....
This actually clicked when I read these.....
1.) http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=121623
2.) http://www.planetneil.com/tangents/flash-photography-techniques/3-dragging-the-shutter/
www.jonbakerphotography.com
on my camera I can get blinkies even when the histogram is not "over" exposed to the right and when I load em up in photoshop the don't look too hot. Not sure why this is on my Nikon, could be a camera thing so I am not sure that blinkies are always so bad. Depends on the situation.
www.jonbakerphotography.com
Thank you.
Wedding 1 re-edited.
Wedding 2 re-edited.
Thank you.
OneTwoFiftieth | Portland, Oregon | Modern Portraiture
My Equipment:
Bodies: Canon 50D, Canon EOS 1
Lenses: Canon 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5, Canon 24-105mm f/4L IS, Canon 50mm f/1.4, Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro, Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8
Lighting: Canon 580EXII, Canon 420 EX, 12" Reflector, Pocket Wizard Plus II (3), AB800 (3), Large Softbox
Stability: Manfrotto 190CXPRO3 Tripod, Manfrotto 488RC4 Ball Head, Manfrotto 679B Monopod
=Matt=
My SmugMug Portfolio • My Astro-Landscape Photo Blog • Dgrin Weddings Forum
Matt, Thank you so much. Thanks for the time you took to look through my work and comment. I appreciate it.
OneTwoFiftieth | Portland, Oregon | Modern Portraiture
My Equipment:
Bodies: Canon 50D, Canon EOS 1
Lenses: Canon 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5, Canon 24-105mm f/4L IS, Canon 50mm f/1.4, Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro, Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8
Lighting: Canon 580EXII, Canon 420 EX, 12" Reflector, Pocket Wizard Plus II (3), AB800 (3), Large Softbox
Stability: Manfrotto 190CXPRO3 Tripod, Manfrotto 488RC4 Ball Head, Manfrotto 679B Monopod
Crops are to tight, photos do not pop, colors are dull, poorly chosen backgrounds.
Compositions need creativity and balance.
So you are starting out where most of us started out, with a lot to learn.
Now it is up to you as to whether you will put in the time and effort to improve your photography to the point where you can succeed at wedding photography.
Probably the biggest block to progress with beginning photographers is the unwillingness to form a realistic assessment of their skills. If a person does not think they need to improve much then they probably won't.
This comment is not directed at you, just a general statement.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21695902@N06/
http://500px.com/Shockey
alloutdoor.smugmug.com
http://aoboudoirboise.smugmug.com/
So this is not true?
I went and looked again, I could see tight crop on a few, but not near all. But yes, I am inexperienced in wedding photography, only done three. So obviously I have a LOT to learn, and I know this, and am willing to learn. I know some of them don't pop, but a few do. First wedding was a very dull and horribly lit wedding, that plus inexperience made for not near excellent results, not even great for most of them actually. Backgrounds are something that I have been working on in my more recent portraiture, but have yet to do another wedding.
I'm looking for realistic assesments here, that's why I'm posting my work. I want to know the good and the bad. It seems however, by your statement, every picture is horrible.
OneTwoFiftieth | Portland, Oregon | Modern Portraiture
My Equipment:
Bodies: Canon 50D, Canon EOS 1
Lenses: Canon 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5, Canon 24-105mm f/4L IS, Canon 50mm f/1.4, Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro, Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8
Lighting: Canon 580EXII, Canon 420 EX, 12" Reflector, Pocket Wizard Plus II (3), AB800 (3), Large Softbox
Stability: Manfrotto 190CXPRO3 Tripod, Manfrotto 488RC4 Ball Head, Manfrotto 679B Monopod
To be fair to you I went back and looked at both the reworked galleries.
I had not looked at gallery 1 before, there are significant color problems in that one and generally not as good as the second gallery which is the one I looked at before.
So I looked at the second gallery again. Appx. 50% of the shots are cropped to tight. Generally the color is dull and the photos do not pop.
There are a few good shots compositionally but the color is dull with no pop.
The best shots are some of the detail shots like of the glasses etc.
I normally do not read the critiques of other posters or let them influence my critique. We all view your work from different viewpoints experience and skill levels.
The learning process if you really want to improve can be tough, you need to have a tough skin if you really ask for the truth, which you did.
Trust me....nobody got hammered worse than me when I first started out posting work for critique. On the flip side you need to be able to tell when people are sugar coating it or really giving it to you straight. People who tell you your work is good when it is not are not doing you any favors.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21695902@N06/
http://500px.com/Shockey
alloutdoor.smugmug.com
http://aoboudoirboise.smugmug.com/
Unless of course that is their honest opinion.
Then you need to look at their work and gauge how much weight to give their critique.
Of course this is an artistic endeavour and opinions vary considerably. You may like oversaturated colours and shoot mostly from floor level at odd angles with a fisheye lens. Of course I don't know if that is true or not, hopefully not
My opinion on the galleries now...
Disclaimer
First gallery....
too tight crop on pics 1, 2, 5, 12, 19, 26... Specifically, 26 head cut off of bride a bit. 19 fingertips, 12 i think I would have like to see all of the dresses hemline maybe even the feet, 5 head at top of ear, 2 i would have liked to see bottom of closest ribbon, not all the ribbon just bottom loop if that makes sense, 1 corner of book.
Besides that I like them. Even with that i wish I had photos like that from my wedding.
Second gallery....
#8, not fan of the crop at the knees. i think I would have cropped it a little under the hands. I prefer to avoid bright spots at crotches, well between knees, like this.
#9 looks tilted to the left. Lines of the pillar do not line up with side of frame
#10 snipped off the brides back.
#11 I like a lot. Very sweet picture, to bad bride had eyes closed
#12 Hair of guys on right seem to blend into background (possibly laptop related).
#15 difficult crop... Would liek to see bottom of bouquet but would also like crop to be a smidge higher, above the man's cuff.
Sorry will stop there.
i am being as critical as possible here. I also have no wedding experience at all just comments on personal opinions. Wish I could see the colours better and make comments on those.
Overall I think the second gallery was better. I think yo might have been dealt a bum hand with dark bland background and that horrific slanted pathway in the background.
Overall I do like them, just being critical of flaws, or at least my opinion of flaws, in them as a second opinion. And don't worry you will get to critique my first wedding soon. I will be shooting a friends wedding and just hoping i take better pictures then her friends with the disposable cameras
The first gallery is the wedding that I shot entirely in JPEG because that's what the primary dealt with, so editing was with limits. Plus it was a dark church, with tungsten and natural light, no flash allowed. It was a horrible way to break into wedding photography.
I have a hard time believing the "dull" color in the second gallery. The colors them selves were fairly bland with a dull yellow and green for the flowers and other arrangements, however after I adjusted Hue and saturation in LR, they were miles improvements from the RAW files. The detail shots are what I do best anyways, I'm just breaking into people pictures, and have been more of a fan of the detail type shots in my other work.
I understand not reading other people's critques before making your own assessment. Just from what I've seen of Matt's work, and what's he's had to say on the forums, he is well respected in my opinion.
I do have a tough skin for critiques, it's the lack of critique that get's to me. And when someone says that all your photos are not good, then I get defensive. Because I know there are goods and bads in all of my work, and w/o specifics, nothing can be learned. I'd take more kindly to a post that says in this picture this is bad, that is bad, this is bad and that is horrible, more so that the picture is bad. Because it's actually saying something and taking the time to point out what needs improvement and what is working.
Thank you for you comments though and input.
OneTwoFiftieth | Portland, Oregon | Modern Portraiture
My Equipment:
Bodies: Canon 50D, Canon EOS 1
Lenses: Canon 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5, Canon 24-105mm f/4L IS, Canon 50mm f/1.4, Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro, Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8
Lighting: Canon 580EXII, Canon 420 EX, 12" Reflector, Pocket Wizard Plus II (3), AB800 (3), Large Softbox
Stability: Manfrotto 190CXPRO3 Tripod, Manfrotto 488RC4 Ball Head, Manfrotto 679B Monopod
Firstly, thank you for taking the time to comment on what you did. I greatly appreciate the photo by photo crit.
I see what you mean on all the crops. As I said this was my first wedding with horrible lighting. So I was running from here to there making sure I got more pictures of everything instead of (apparently/obviously) better pictures of the important things. So I wasn't taking my time on each photo like I should have been. Which is something I most certainly do now. I'm starting to learn to take a wider shot than I want to leave room for cropping to how I want in post.
I assume you're talking about the spot between his knees that makes the bench visible? As I do see what you're saying, my eye does not go there when I look at it, so I don't see it as an issue personally.
9 - I do see that. The pillars, weird angled path behind, all made for not "proper" looking shots, alignment for that was difficult.
10 - I see that as well. I'll check if the original is a wider view and that was something I just over looked when cropping.
11 - I tend to have a tendency to capture people blinking (or eyes closed).
I see the same thing on the hair. I don't know how I would go about fixing that though in post... Is it possible?
I see what you're saying, maybe crop lower and in from the left to actually cut the lower part of the arm off maybe?
No need to be sorry, or stop for that matter. If I could have something like this for every picture I've taken, I'd be more than happy to hear it all.
"as critical as possible" is more than I could ask for. This is how I learn what is working and what is not, as well as how to fix it. The second gallery was actually my third wedding, and I learned a lot from the first two, however, I've learned even more since, as well as gained confidence in my skills and being able to direct people to what I want them to do. The background was the choice of the primary that I was shooting with. That is where she lined everyone up. Ontop of that, the black suits didn't help make the guys stand out.
Well good luck on your first wedding. My fourth one is coming in about a month. So I'll be posting them up here as well for some critique. Again thank you for your critique, if you feel the need to keep going on the photos, I'll read it all and and take anything I can from it.
Thank you.
OneTwoFiftieth | Portland, Oregon | Modern Portraiture
My Equipment:
Bodies: Canon 50D, Canon EOS 1
Lenses: Canon 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5, Canon 24-105mm f/4L IS, Canon 50mm f/1.4, Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro, Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8
Lighting: Canon 580EXII, Canon 420 EX, 12" Reflector, Pocket Wizard Plus II (3), AB800 (3), Large Softbox
Stability: Manfrotto 190CXPRO3 Tripod, Manfrotto 488RC4 Ball Head, Manfrotto 679B Monopod
OneTwoFiftieth | Portland, Oregon | Modern Portraiture
My Equipment:
Bodies: Canon 50D, Canon EOS 1
Lenses: Canon 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5, Canon 24-105mm f/4L IS, Canon 50mm f/1.4, Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro, Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8
Lighting: Canon 580EXII, Canon 420 EX, 12" Reflector, Pocket Wizard Plus II (3), AB800 (3), Large Softbox
Stability: Manfrotto 190CXPRO3 Tripod, Manfrotto 488RC4 Ball Head, Manfrotto 679B Monopod