Late Evening Outdoor Wedding

SLRdude

One of my friends asked me to photograph her wedding this past weekend.
You all know this stuff is HARD and I was terrified that I would mess it up. I'm used to shooting in a light box and unlike objects, you can not reposition stuff and do it all over again, you can not create perfect light unless you got tons of equipment, you can't always tell people what to do.. etc. The challenges are endless, and I am just one guy with a D90, a kit lens and a flash lol. I also have very very little experience photographing people.

Will this be my first and last wedding? I don't think I'm cut out for this stuff just yet! I simply have no experience photographing people and weddings are just not the best place to start as the liability is just too huge.

After spending a month reading everything I could find on this forum (and others), here are some of the pics from Friday night.


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8.


Then... it got DARK and the flash had to work overtime, which in turn killed the skin tones. They started late, and the ceremony began around 19:20 or so. And there were no ambient lights. Just light from a very distant Sun. Pretty, but a photographic nightmare. (at least to me)


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And other not so great pics like this one.

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But I lucked out and I was able to get a few decent ones while the Sun was still shining a bit.

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16.


It was an interesting experience, and I am not satisfied with the stuff I got. Fortunately for me...




At the end of the day... isn't that all that matters? Not to me. While I am beyond happy that she likes them... I wish that I was happy with them as well.

Thanks.

sweet caroline

Chip, you got some really nice ones! Darkness is definitely a challenge. If the bride is happy, that is HUGE!

Caroline

kpage

Chip ~
I like some of the early ones you listed of them messing around!

The sunset pictures are so pretty too! There are places for improvement but give yourself some credit!

Chiriqui Charlie

You are much too hard on yourself!

SLRdude

Thanks guys!

I must admit that I hesitated posting those here as I was terrified to hear the feedback . (I have seen some pretty harsh but accurate comments in the past)

At the end of the day, I am hard on myself because that's how I learn. The moment I am satisfied I become lazy and stop learning. It becomes good enough vs the best that I can do. I much prefer the latter.

zoomer

I would say you did fine. Are they technically perfect, some are pretty good some not so much, but she loved them and you survived and got out with some good shots.
Success!!

Qarik

you did fairly well. Nothing mind blowing but they are well exposed, in focus and cleanly framed. #9 is an example of a bad shot that you won't be showing right?

SLRdude

Qarik wrote:

you did fairly well. Nothing mind blowing but they are well exposed, in focus and cleanly framed. #9 is an example of a bad shot that you won't be showing right?

I guess it is now huh? lol