My Wedding Shoot

tmlphoto

After reading Leebase's post, I have gathered the courage to post some of my wedding pictures. I did this as a favor for a friend. Over all, I thought everything turned out OK. It was a very long day, and I wouldn't really want to do it again, but I was a good experience builder. I have something to brag about when I'm older.....I used the Lightsphere II for the candids and two umbrellas with Alien Bee 400 for the formals. Here are a few of the better ones.

The Bride & Groom:


The Rings:


The Wedding Party:


Lighting the Candle:


I can't seem to get some of the links to work. I'll try later. If anyone is interested here is a link to the gallery. Warning: Many pictures.

http://tmlphoto.smugmug.com/gallery/527660/1/23445560

Thanks for looking.

dragon300zx

Me no see the Piccies.

leebase

Fantastic. The color in your photos is simply wonderful. Shots like this:



are just superb! You can really see the advantage of your lighing equipment...not to mention yoru talent

First and last wedding? I'd sure hope not. You have the talent for it. I actually think your posing is better than your candid shooting. I'm the opposite.

Looks like you put all your photos online. There are photos in there that aren't "up to snuff" and you have other shots of the same setup that are great. I've heard it said "the difference between a pro and an amateur is that a pro doesn't show off his bad photos".

Certainly after the initial "look and order" time is over, you'll want to cull your site down to 50-100 photos or so, I would think. And you have so many good photos, that they'll ALL be fantastic.

Lee

tmlphoto

leebase wrote:

Fantastic. The color in your photos is simply wonderful. Shots like this:



are just superb! You can really see the advantage of your lighing equipment...not to mention yoru talent

First and last wedding? I'd sure hope not. You have the talent for it. I actually think your posing is better than your candid shooting. I'm the opposite.

Looks like you put all your photos online. There are photos in there that aren't "up to snuff" and you have other shots of the same setup that are great. I've heard it said "the difference between a pro and an amateur is that a pro doesn't show off his bad photos".

Certainly after the initial "look and order" time is over, you'll want to cull your site down to 50-100 photos or so, I would think. And you have so many good photos, that they'll ALL be fantastic.

Lee

Thanks for the kind words Lee. I don't think I'm interested in being the primary photog at a wedding again, but I think I would enjoy being a secondary photographer. I really enjoy the candids much more than all those formal shots. I have enough stress at my day job , this is really just a hobby for me. Thanks again for the encouraging comments and good luck with your wedding photography business.

tmlphoto

dragon300zx wrote:

Me no see the Piccies.

Fixed, I think. Please try again!

Nikolai

Nice work!
We need more good examples like that!
Cheers!

gus

You have done very well Thomas...what flash is that ? Not having a flash was what killed me at that wedding (my 1st) i shot from behind a pro a few weeks ago.

Excellent work mate

Gus

Nir

Thomas,

I think you did a great job!

tmlphoto

Nir wrote:

Thomas,

I think you did a great job!

Thanks Nik, Gus & Nir. The flash was a canon 580 with a lightsphere II attached for the candids. The formals were with two umbrella used to bounce AB 400's.
Thanks for looking.

ziggy53

Thomas,

Much better than I've seen from some "Pros". Lighting and positioning is wonderful.

One thing to remember, when you have more than one row of people, you have to bring the lights in towards the center and even add some extra light from directly over the camera. In the shot with the entire wedding party, the gentleman between the Bride and Groom, in the second row, has shadow accross his face. The light modeling works very well on single rows, or rows with vertical displacement. For multiple rows of people in the same plane vertically, light has to be pretty flat. This can probably be helped with some post-processing for that fellow's face.

tmlphoto

ziggy53 wrote:

Thomas,

Much better than I've seen from some "Pros". Lighting and positioning is wonderful.

One thing to remember, when you have more than one row of people, you have to bring the lights in towards the center and even add some extra light from directly over the camera. In the shot with the entire wedding party, the gentleman between the Bride and Groom, in the second row, has shadow accross his face. The light modeling works very well on single rows, or rows with vertical displacement. For multiple rows of people in the same plane vertically, light has to be pretty flat. This can probably be helped with some post-processing for that fellow's face.

Thanks for the comments. I really didn't even notice that guy in the back (the preacher) in the heat of the moment. There were a couple of other shots where I wished I had brought my lights in a little closer to center. These were my first ever large group shots. I'm not a wedding photographer, but I did sleep in a Holiday Inn Express last night : . Thanks for looking and thanks for your insightful comments.

ziggy53

tmlphoto wrote:

Thanks for the comments. I really didn't even notice that guy in the back (the preacher) in the heat of the moment. There were a couple of other shots where I wished I had brought my lights in a little closer to center. These were my first ever large group shots. I'm not a wedding photographer, but I did sleep in a Holiday Inn Express last night : . Thanks for looking and thanks for your insightful comments.

Thomas,

I got interrupted and didn't finish my post. I had the same thing happen to me last year.

My cousin pleaded with me to shoot her wedding. I turned her down twice before she conviced me that she wouldnt hate me forever, no matter what, and I shot her wedding with 6 film cameras (4 Medium format and 2 35mm SLRs). Everything went OK and I kept everyone in a single row, except...

In my case, it was her father, my uncle, who created a second row and got lost in the shadow. I shot twice and didn't even realize it until I got the negs back. It's wierd because I took it into consideration with every other shot but that one. Brain F@rt, senior moment or something.

Stuff happens.

Best,

ziggy53

Shima

Wonderful pictures, I really love the color and vivid life like feel they have. You did excellent, a job well done indeed.