Another two from wedding weekend

bdcolen

And parents of the bride share a moment while waiting for the photographer who was taking the formals - not my job! :clap

heatherfeather

Love (!) the first one. Beautiful comp, crisp and love that backlight.

BTW, do you ever use flash?

adbsgicom

First one is very nice. The second one is funny! Love her expression against the other's obliviousness to your presence.

bdcolen

heatherfeather wrote:

Love (!) the first one. Beautiful comp, crisp and love that backlight.

BTW, do you ever use flash?

Thanks very much. And indeed I do use flash - when I can't shoot without it. My goal, however, is to capture what I see - in color or black and white - and not to perfect what I'm shooting. I did this wedding - and the party and rehearsal - as a gift to the bride's parents, but knowing that I hate doing formals - and am not particularly good at it - they hired a local shooter for three hours. Isure she used flash to shoot bride and Dad coming down the aisle, and I'm sure her images will be quite different from mine. I also know she didn't get image 2 posted here.

Anyway - flash. Sunday(?)I posted a few images taken late in the evening from the party. I shot them at 1/8 second and slower, but used a touch of flash. So I do use it.:D

divamum

BD, it is very cool to see you posting a "pretty pretty" shot like #1 (omg, BD in.... COLOUR??!! ) I love it. The light is glorious, and the expression even more so. Love it!

The juxtapositions in the 2nd one are priceless. And I bet that's one of the pictures that gets shown to everybody over the years!

bdcolen

divamum wrote:

BD, it is very cool to see you posting a "pretty pretty" shot like #1 (omg, BD in.... COLOUR??!! ) I love it. The light is glorious, and the expression even more so. Love it!

The juxtapositions in the 2nd one are priceless. And I bet that's one of the pictures that gets shown to everybody over the years!

Thanks! Hey, everyone's got to go over to the pretty side once and a while.

michswiss

bdcolen wrote:

Thanks! Hey, everyone's got to go over to the pretty side once and a while.

Oh dear, now between the current DSS challenge and these two images you'll have me taking colour shots again.

What I like about #1 is the way the dress acts as a reflector on the gentleman to the Bride's left. He's practically glowing. #2 really feels like street / doco ethos taken to a wedding party. And I like it. Sure adds another dimension to the image. (Oh, and there's a tree growing out of the young lady's head! :giggle )

divamum

michswiss wrote:

What I like about #1 is the way the dress acts as a reflector on the gentleman to the Bride's left. He's practically glowing.

That's the light that I love too.

Looking at this more closely this morning..... BD, what IS providing the fill on the faces of the bride and her dad? Since the sun is that nice backlight - and there's a specular highlight on dad's forehead.... where's the light from the front coming from? Did you use flash for this one, or did you catch the other photog's fill flash or did the path reflect the light back up onto them or is it because you exposed for their faces and let the bg blow out or...... The more I look at this, the more confused I'm getting

JohnBiggs

Whats the lightsource for shot 1. I mean I assume its the sun behind them, but where is the light in front coming from?

bdcolen

divamum wrote:

That's the light that I love too.

Looking at this more closely this morning..... BD, what IS providing the fill on the faces of the bride and her dad? Since the sun is that nice backlight - and there's a specular highlight on dad's forehead.... where's the light from the front coming from? Did you use flash for this one, or did you catch the other photog's fill flash or did the path reflect the light back up onto them or is it because you exposed for their faces and let the bg blow out or...... The more I look at this, the more confused I'm getting

Flash? Wash your mouth out!

It was pretty simple actually: I took readings with both the camera's built in metering - and had already taken readings with an incident meter, and did a bit of averaging. On top of which there is the white dress, and they were walking down a white 'carpet.' I have about six images of them coming down the aisle, and all are quite similar in terms of the lighting, exposure - so it clearly has nothing to do with anyone's flash.

divamum

bdcolen wrote:

I took readings with both the camera's built in metering - and had already taken readings with an incident meter, and did a bit of averaging. On top of which there is the white dress, and they were walking down a white 'carpet.'

In other words, old-school technical skill of seeing the light and knowing how to meter for it. .

Man, I still have SO freakin' much to learn. I get by thanks to a quick eye and modern exposure systems, but when I see something like that shot and realise it was all done "the hard way" I know how far back to basics I still need to get. I wish I could figure out why I find it so difficult to think in terms of "numbers" and nail it in my head instead of letting the camera do so much of it. Grrrr.

I think somebody should make you a tshirt that says "Flash is the Antichrist. Except when I need it" (YES I am just having some fun with you!!!! )

JohnBiggs

bdcolen wrote:

Flash? Wash your mouth out!

It was pretty simple actually: I took readings with both the camera's built in metering - and had already taken readings with an incident meter, and did a bit of averaging. On top of which there is the white dress, and they were walking down a white 'carpet.' I have about six images of them coming down the aisle, and all are quite similar in terms of the lighting, exposure - so it clearly has nothing to do with anyone's flash.

All the averaging in the world didn't put the highlight on the FOB face or the balding guy in the FG. The light is coming from above so its not the dress or the white runner. I guess the sun must have also been hitting something behind and above you which is a lucky situation if you are saying you didn't create or help it.

bdcolen

JohnBiggs wrote:

All the averaging in the world didn't put the highlight on the FOB face or the balding guy in the FG. The light is coming from above so its not the dress or the white runner. I guess the sun must have also been hitting something behind and above you which is a lucky situation if you are saying you didn't create or help it.

I'm saying I didn't create or help it. Period. Most of the light was coming not from above, but from behind and to the left. But there was also some coming through the tent-like roof over the pavilion. And, whether you want to believe it or not, there was light being reflected off the white runner, and her white dress.