Night wedding in Charleston

emeraldrose

So I finished editing and uploading the pics from my recent wedding. With over 1300 pictures taken and over 400 pictures edited They will have more than enough to choose from and I look forward to getting started on their album. They were so sweet and you could tell the family was supportive and happy for the young couple. They had their wedding at the Planter's Inn in Charleston, SC outside at dusk with only candles and the waning sun to light it, super romantic.

I had a few obstacles in as far as photos went that went beyond the waning light. My beautiful bride had just had emergency surgery about a week and a half before hand and so couldn't move as fast or turn as much as most brides could. We had only about 45 minutes for ALL formals including bride/ groom portraits and then those had to be done at night within a few hundred yards of the hotel. We still got some good shots, but I had so many more ideas, oh C'est La Vie! lol.

here's a sampling the rest can be found at http://www.emeraldrosephoto.com/clients/walterwedding pw:tawalter

PLEASE let me know what you think. I'm going to do more weddings now. I had done a couple in the past, but as soon as I really wanted to start my business I had some major life obstacles come up and I couldn't imagine being apart of a couple's happy day, the thought made me cry so yeah not a good mix for brides lol. Now I'm better and this wedding was a trial for me. I knew I could do it technically (well in normal light as you'll remember my advice posts lol), but needed to see how I felt afterwards and I loved the experience of being apart of her big day and reassuring her that everything was beautiful and that I'll create those memories for her.

I don't think this is a perfect job, there's a lot I would have changed and a lot I learned, but she and her family loves them which makes me happy. But it def. proves that finding GOOD assistants is vital if using off camera flash. The people that I know know photo weren't available the day after thanksgiving, everyone was with their families, so I used friends. But she was so caught up in the service she wasn't paying attention to me when I wanted her to move and so some of those big shots are very noisey. I also wished I had gotten more detail shots and more shots of the family and attendants.

BTW I :lust the d700, only a couple things I would change and it's funny how my d70 used to feel heavy, but after the d700 it feels like a cardboard box lol.

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emeraldrose

any suggestions, CC?

Qarik

they are in large part in focus, well exposed, and decently framed! I took a look at few in the gallery overall not bad at all!

heatherfeather

I wish they were bigger... these are so tiny, I just don't feel as though I can comment properly. But from what I can see, it looks like you made some great photos!

Also, you'll get more comments if you number them. That way I can say "I just love #12" without counting. I think I really do love #12. Fabulous coloring.

emeraldrose

heatherfeather wrote:

I wish they were bigger... these are so tiny, I just don't feel as though I can comment properly. But from what I can see, it looks like you made some great photos!

Also, you'll get more comments if you number them. That way I can say "I just love #12" without counting. I think I really do love #12. Fabulous coloring.

thanks guys

thanks for the advice, haven't really made too many posts as far as my work b/c it takes so much time to get all the links and whatnot lol so this was just copied from my blog, but now i know for next time lol.

Blurmore

I like your use of foreground elements, with the branches and such. The dress detail shot is just exquisite, excellent capture. The one of them on the couch is riding the fence between too set up and not set up enough. A word about your processing. It is good but kind of everywhere. I certainly don't expect everyone to do what I do and that is make a custom tone map and split tone for each job and apply that to every monotone image, but more than one colorized mono just begs the question WHY? Why does an image make more impact in viradon than in selenium? I know it is some people's "thing" to really mix it up with B&W conversions and selective colorings, but I'd say it is easy to take it too far, like one might be gussying up a weak image with a wild treatment. All in all very good work.

NateWagner

I agree, they look like a nice set... but I wish they were bigger.

emeraldrose

Blurmore wrote:

I like your use of foreground elements, with the branches and such. The dress detail shot is just exquisite, excellent capture. The one of them on the couch is riding the fence between too set up and not set up enough. A word about your processing. It is good but kind of everywhere. I certainly don't expect everyone to do what I do and that is make a custom tone map and split tone for each job and apply that to every monotone image, but more than one colorized mono just begs the question WHY? Why does an image make more impact in viradon than in selenium? I know it is some people's "thing" to really mix it up with B&W conversions and selective colorings, but I'd say it is easy to take it too far, like one might be gussying up a weak image with a wild treatment. All in all very good work.

You make a very good point. I was going on a photo by photo keeping in mind that the clients wanted a 'sepia' look. But you're right it should be looked at as a whole body of work and not just the individual images (i mean duh! what was 4 years of school for this but that lol). I personally love most images in antique photo and in b/w (going back to my film days I guess) and honestly would have loved to put the same image up with diff. processing, but that would confuse them and be a no no for me lol. for me unless the color is there to SAY something, I generally prefer one of the other 2 options, though I know what my client wants is color images too.

so thanks for the feedback, makes a lot of sense and will have to remember that for next time.

Crystal-Pixel

These look great I do see alot of grain in the nightshots though, from high ISO I'm assuming? Did you use flash?

emeraldrose

Crystal-Pixel wrote:

These look great I do see alot of grain in the nightshots though, from high ISO I'm assuming? Did you use flash?

Yeah I used very high iso's and that's what MOST of the grain is from, but some is from improper exposure (i should know better). I had a flash off camera with umbrella, but I tried having it off to the side and it just wasn't doing what I wanted so most of what you see, if not all the ones i posted of the ceremony itself is all available light. Next time I'll probable keep my flash on camera so it's with me where I need to be lol.

mmmatt

Hey there!

These are nice. I agree with most of what Blurmore said, I really like 6, 18, and 21. Thems my faves!

As for the umbrella, that is tough for sure. An umbrella sucks so much juice out of a speedlight that they are pretty much useless in really low light. Unless of course you have them right in somebody's face, in which case it can be very nice. I have been meaning to try a silver one and see how that works but the white ones I have don't cut it and I typically just go bare bulb or with an omni-bounce if I want to soften it a tad.

Matt

Weisel

I think you made a great set of photos, and it was a pleasant feeling to look at them here. That's the point. So, I think aside from a lot of the things already pointed out by others, you did quite well, and I think you have a nice touch for wedding photography. Well done.

emeraldrose

thanks guys, now I have to work on figuring out how i want to market myself as a wedding photographer.

Danspage

Maybe next time have the lights in the hall up a bit more, use a faster lens, try to fill the frame and exclude the background(aim down) or try to fill the background with the off camera flash.

I have a hard time with dark rooms also. Last time I used my off camera flash on a light stand just below the white ceiling and pointed it so that it hit a large part of the ceiling but not the heads of the guest. The flash on the camera was used with a large bounce card.

Maybe someone has a good link on how to light a big room. I think that turning up the room lights helps the most.

emeraldrose

thanks, actually I've been meaning to post on this. I thought the d700 was a full frame camera, but the files seem to be the same crop ratio as my d70 and I made sure to have it set to full frame mode, so I'm a little confused, but regardless gotta leave some space for the various crop sizes.