Katie and Louie, a landscape photog's attempt as a wedding photog

stirinthesauce

Well, here is my first attempt at the world of wedding photography. I primarily shoot and sell landscapes. However, I have extensive experience shooting concerts over the past 3-4 years and have done the occasional child portrait session. Wedding photography though is something I have no experience in. Got a phone call from a guy I know in NOLA and he asked me to shoot his wedding based off of him being familiar with my concert and landscape photography he has viewed. I said sure, why not! We set a price, and off I was in mid - October to New Orleans with my fiancee for 2 days of shooting.

Here are just a few that were included in their wedding album.

#1


#2


#3


#4


#5


#6


#7


#8


#9


#10


#11



#12


#13


#14


#15


#16 cuttin' a rug


#17 For Mmatt, notice it is a schempz, lol!


#18


#19



Lots of fun and lots of learning down there. Many things I will do different at the next one. Very grateful for a full frame body and a good speedlite as it was DARK at the reception. Basically no light. In a warehouse with a full band.
My workflow had to change dramatically. I am a CS3 guy doing one image at a time with regards to landscapes. Bought lightroom and still learning the ins and outs but made processing much quicker and easier as I had maybe 1500 images to sort through and edit.


Thanks for looking,
Jon

stirinthesauce

Here's a few more of the reception from their online gallery:

#20


#21 totally unposed, these 2 just hanging out, buddies


#22 There was so much emotion coming from the bride during the dance with her father. Too many to choose from, they all had emotion.


#23 The bride was not the least bit hesitant to get out on the dance floor and show her moves.


#24


#25 ready for cake?


#26 guess so


#27

Agnieszka

I think you did a GREAT job!

Just watch your white balance + flash, her dress looks blue in #9-11 (but you should definitely be able to desaturate that a bt in photoshop )

#2 & 6 are my favorites, very pretty!

stirinthesauce

Agnieszka wrote:

I think you did a GREAT job!

Just watch your white balance + flash, her dress looks blue in #9-11 (but you should definitely be able to desaturate that a bt in photoshop )

#2 & 6 are my favorites, very pretty!

Angie, thank you for the feedback.

Note on 9-11: I was going for a surreal look and that was a recipe plugin in Lightroom used for the effect. Original does not look like that. Kinda liked the bluing effect but you may be right. Think I will go in and tone back the saturation.

Wil Davis

Nice pictures!

#4 - could be closer together, but the expressions are great!

#5 - Oh, man! If the focus had been better, and the framing just a little more to the right (to include more of the b/g congregation) that would have been the shot of the day! Just look at the flower-girl's glance at the ring-bearer!

#15 -

#24 - Nice one!

Thanks for sharing!

- Wil

mmmatt

Hey Jon!

yeah, lovin the Schoeps cake! A taper friend I should assume? Of course the cake looks more like a sm58 but I think we can let that slide!!

***As a side note here, Jon and I have been forum buddies for 5 or 6 years through another forum that I used to frequent that is relative to live concert recording or "taping". We both moved into photography around the same time. Jon is a super good guy incase anyone is wondering!***

So anyways, I like the series Jon. 2, 5, 20, and 23 are my faves. 5 is a little soft on the girl but I like it anyways. In a general sense, I would like to have seen shots a little wider so they can better tell the story. Try to think of your comps as being dual subjects. the main subject and the surroundings. Not every shot, but some. With the 1st dance for instance, you could try to get mom or grandma in the background or even just the crowd of people watching. Pull your subject out of the center of the frame and show the room a bit. When shooting a landscape you try to put something of interest in the foreground right? Same thing when shooting people. look around this site and you will find masterful examples of that!

I also don't particularly care for the direct flash in the reception shots. Feels very harsh to be. Exposures aren't bad, just harsh on your subjects. This can be toned down by adding more ambient, or by bouncing. Don't be afraid to shoot that 5d at 1600 iso... nothing wrong with making the camera do what it was built for!!! And/or slow down your shutter speed, but let a little more of the ambient in and it will soften some of that. Best IMHO, is to bounce from the side walls. You can bounce in damn near any room, and the darker the better. Done right it looks like you have an assistant holding a softbox off to the side, and has the advantage of lighting more evenly accross foreground, center and background. 20 for instance would have had even lighting on the girl with the p&s ans well as the b&g. I have only struggled bouncing in rooms that were extremely cut up, (an indoor replica of old downtown Milwaukee streets was my toughest one), and really large rooms that have almost black walls. You can bounce pretty much anything else.

One of these days I'll have to come down to TN again so we can do some backpacking. I LOVED South Cumberland (thanks for the suggestion) and would like to see more of your neck of the woods. Maybe then we could take a few hours for me to show you how I bounce.

Anyways, not bad at all for a first time out. Not a lot of "art" but certainly archival of the days events and that is first and foremost.

Matt

joshhuntnm

love the expression in #6!

Priceless!

stirinthesauce

Thank you for the feedback everyone! #5 frustrated me not getting the focus better. I am not comfortable with AI Servo, I shoot stills, but was in AI servo mode for this one. It just wasn't tracking right (using a 70-200f2.8L) so I went back to one shot, center focus.

Matt, thank you for feedback, and yes, you are correct on not as much "art." My biggest concern being my first time was just to get the important ones and do less "freestyle" or rather attempting shots I had no experience in.

As for the flash and exposure, this was my concern at the venue. The building was quite unattractive, just a concrete slab warehouse so to speak. Also DARK, I mean almost pitch black. The ceiling was high and black, walls were exposed brick. This looked to be a music venue that doubled for events. Was shooting at iso 1250 and 1600 most of the time. I did correct the exposure during the reception but in processing, did not like the background so creatively (B&W processing) removed it. I do have shots though with it (in the B&G gallery) and I will post some of what I think you were asking for above. The flash was bounced, however, the bounce card I was using is quite large and may have been giving to much frontal bounce from the card. I have a smaller and have been using it more. Of the one with the girl with the P&S above, I have another shot processed differently (maybe 2 seconds before that one) that I will post up as well. This was definitly a learning experience and will do a whole lot different next time around.

A few more:






Thank you again everyone for the feedback.

Jon

mmmatt

stirinthesauce wrote:

As for the flash and exposure, this was my concern at the venue. The building was quite unattractive, just a concrete slab warehouse so to speak.

Dark doesn't matter, and neither does an unattractive room. There ARE attactive things in the room that you can compose around. people being the biggest one of these. I'm not going to litter your thread with my shots but if you look here http://dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=149992&page=2 at images 31 and 33 36 you will see what I mean both in terms of flash direction and composing. The 2nd one I decided to grain out... I don't think the flash missed on this one, I think that was all post. Flash does miss sometimes when bouncing however because you are using the full blast of the flash every time you pull the trigger and the batts drain quickly.

Matt

philx123

mmmatt wrote:

Hey Jon!

yeah, lovin the Schoeps cake! A taper friend I should assume? Of course the cake looks more like a sm58 but I think we can let that slide!!

***As a side note here, Jon and I have been forum buddies for 5 or 6 years through another forum that I used to frequent that is relative to live concert recording or "taping". We both moved into photography around the same time. Jon is a super good guy incase anyone is wondering!***

So anyways, I like the series Jon. 2, 5, 20, and 23 are my faves. 5 is a little soft on the girl but I like it anyways. In a general sense, I would like to have seen shots a little wider so they can better tell the story. Try to think of your comps as being dual subjects. the main subject and the surroundings. Not every shot, but some. With the 1st dance for instance, you could try to get mom or grandma in the background or even just the crowd of people watching. Pull your subject out of the center of the frame and show the room a bit. When shooting a landscape you try to put something of interest in the foreground right? Same thing when shooting people. look around this site and you will find masterful examples of that!

I also don't particularly care for the direct flash in the reception shots. Feels very harsh to be. Exposures aren't bad, just harsh on your subjects. This can be toned down by adding more ambient, or by bouncing. Don't be afraid to shoot that 5d at 1600 iso... nothing wrong with making the camera do what it was built for!!! And/or slow down your shutter speed, but let a little more of the ambient in and it will soften some of that. Best IMHO, is to bounce from the side walls. You can bounce in damn near any room, and the darker the better. Done right it looks like you have an assistant holding a softbox off to the side, and has the advantage of lighting more evenly accross foreground, center and background. 20 for instance would have had even lighting on the girl with the p&s ans well as the b&g. I have only struggled bouncing in rooms that were extremely cut up, (an indoor replica of old downtown Milwaukee streets was my toughest one), and really large rooms that have almost black walls. You can bounce pretty much anything else.

One of these days I'll have to come down to TN again so we can do some backpacking. I LOVED South Cumberland (thanks for the suggestion) and would like to see more of your neck of the woods. Maybe then we could take a few hours for me to show you how I bounce.

Anyways, not bad at all for a first time out. Not a lot of "art" but certainly archival of the days events and that is first and foremost.

Matt

Just to say, Matt, I looked at your site and you have some really nice stuff there. Very impressive. I was hoping there was a way of commenting without jumping into this thread, but I couldn't see anything.
Just wanted to say how much I like your work.
All the best
Phil

mmmatt

philx123 wrote:

Just to say, Matt, I looked at your site and you have some really nice stuff there. Very impressive. I was hoping there was a way of commenting without jumping into this thread, but I couldn't see anything.
Just wanted to say how much I like your work.
All the best
Phil

Well thanks Phil... not my thread here but I appreciate it.

Matt

stirinthesauce

mmmatt wrote:

Dark doesn't matter, and neither does an unattractive room. There ARE attactive things in the room that you can compose around. people being the biggest one of these. I'm not going to litter your thread with my shots but if you look here http://dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=149992&page=2 at images 31 and 33 36 you will see what I mean both in terms of flash direction and composing. The 2nd one I decided to grain out... I don't think the flash missed on this one, I think that was all post. Flash does miss sometimes when bouncing however because you are using the full blast of the flash every time you pull the trigger and the batts drain quickly.

Matt

thanks again, Matt. I do see what your saying.

Shima

Photos #1-19 in the first post aren't showing up for me, not sure what's happened there. The rest are displaying though and looks good for an attempt into the wedding world, just wondering what I'm missing in those first 19!

stirinthesauce

Shima wrote:

Photos #1-19 in the first post aren't showing up for me, not sure what's happened there. The rest are displaying though and looks good for an attempt into the wedding world, just wondering what I'm missing in those first 19!

some of those first 19 are showing up, others are not. Not sure what is going on. Must have changed something on that gallery.

Shima

stirinthesauce wrote:

some of those first 19 are showing up, others are not. Not sure what is going on. Must have changed something on that gallery.

Now I'm only seeing #15 and #19

Matthew Saville

I wish I could see the rest of your photos! As a landscape photographer turned wedding photographer myself, I can appreciate the style that a nature photographer has when approaching a portrait. Lots of my portraits reflect my outdoorsy passion, for sure... I hope you can fix the embed codes!

=Matt=