Kristen and Dave

mmmatt · June 16, 2010

**more images a few posts down**

Hey there,
Just thought I would share my preview from last weekends wedding. I haven't gotten files from my 2nd shooter yet but I'm sure there will be much more to show as I go through the 2000+ shots from the event.

Here are a few early favorites. Any coments, questions or c&c is appreciated.

01.

02.

03. I'd be real curious if anyone gets what I was going for here.

04.

05.

06.

07.

08.

09.

10. These next two are shot bouncing off the brown shake siding on the building to the right. The color of light ultimately matched the overcast dusk pretty well!

11.

12.

13.

14. The next two are iso 3200 at dusk w/o flash... I am really loving the 5dmkii... just upgraded from the 5d classic a few weeks ago and I can't believe the difference in high iso.

15.

16.

Thanks for looking!

Matt

cr8ingwaves · June 16, 2010

nice series.
#.03= 3 stooges!

Agnieszka · June 16, 2010

Very nice, solid work Matt.

#1: (close up of the bride) This crop is a bit too tight for me (I'd like to see her eye brows)
#2: (Getting her hair done)

#3: (Guys), I don't get your reference (didn't grow up here + I'm not much of a reference sort of girl, haha), but it's a good shot, and I'm sure the guys like it.
#4: (bridesmaid dress) Cool shot, good eye. The only thing that is disturbing me is the white "corner" on the bottom right / but I'm sure it was hard to shoot without having it in your way.
#5: Again, a bit too tight for me ... but a nice shot
#6: (ceremony)

#7: (couple walking) MY FAVORITE. I love the light gray background, the groom pops out with his dark suite ... very, very pretty.

#8: (couple at the late). I like the shot, but I think if she would have had HER right hand on the arm of the chair it would have been better ...
#9: (ring shot) Nice compositions, nice colors ... just a bit soft?
#10/11:

#1213: (portrait of couple & dancing shot)

#14: (couple at the lake) Really loving this one

#15: (portrait of the couple) Hm, the cars in the background are somewhat disturbing to me. I'd either desaturate the red headlight, or just put it in b&w, I think that would look better
#16: (flower shot) The black thing (in the background) is somewhat disturbing to me ... should be easy to clone out tough ... I think I'd do it.

Thanks for sharing

mmmatt · June 16, 2010

Thanks for the comments! Yes #3 is an attempt at the classic 3 stooges pose as shown here .

Angie. as for the close crops of her face I did a lot of them. I wanted to do a facial study of her so I shot many similar, and certainly some not so close. I see your point about the eyebrows. I wasn't sure what to do about the stone wall shots... when shooting I didn't really catch the cars in the frame. I originally had them at a different point on the wall and then my 2nd suggested we move them to get the yellow flowers (that you can't really even see in this shot) in the frame. Seemed like a good idea at the time, but I could have shot them from the other direction or where I originally had them posed and these would have been better. Live and learn right! Thanks again for all the comments.

Matt

Qarik · June 16, 2010

good stuff here Matt. I am not a fan of the 1st shot..crop is too tight and over exposed look combined with the raccoon eyes is making her face look unflattering. 15 would ahve been great but the cars and her pose..it looks awkward.

smurfy · June 16, 2010

Love, love, love # 14! Very pretty.

heatherfeather · June 16, 2010

Aren't the 5DII's lovely? I just love mine... And I upgraded from the MKI too, so I know exactly the delightful transition you are going through.

Loving 8, 10 & 14...

I don't know if it is the brown suits, but all the color shots seem on the edge of muddy.... like the black point needs to be set just a bit stronger.

I'd love to see 8 as a pano crop... that shot is purdy, with a gorgeous location!

nicoleshilliday · June 16, 2010

heatherfeather wrote: »

I don't know if it is the brown suits, but all the color shots seem on the edge of muddy.... like the black point needs to be set just a bit stronger.

Humm. I kinda like how the brown suits match the tone of the photo.

Really nice stuff. Like everyone else..#1 crop is to tight and the tonal value doesn't match your later b&w shots (which i like much better).

LOVE LOVE LOVE the mood in #14. Real winner. Great shots.

Ed911 · June 19, 2010

I too am not liking number one. I just don't get it. But, I get all the rest. Nice set.

The brown suits look nice on my calibrated monitor. Not that I'm disagreeing with anyone, but just so's you know...they look good to me...nice captures.

My favorites are 3, 7, 11, and 13.

Thanks for sharing.

mmmatt · June 19, 2010

Ed911 wrote: »

I too am not liking number one. I just don't get it. But, I get all the rest. Nice set.

The brown suits look nice on my calibrated monitor. Not that I'm disagreeing with anyone, but just so's you know...they look good to me...nice captures.

My favorites are 3, 7, 11, and 13.

Thanks for sharing.

Great Ed... just add to my confusion!!!

Monitor calibration is a funny thing. I have 2 monitors, both 1080i res, both calibrated with a spyder 3 pro, and they don't look anything alike. Go figure! The biggest thing I have been struggling with since calibrating my monitors has been brightness. I was used to having a brighter display and having to push things to brighter than what looked right to me to match the work I see here. I typically push exposure until I get some blown highlights and then recover slightly. I think I may be now pushing things a little too much in raw which would explain Heather's thoughts on the brown suits. It is also hard for me to correct for white balance on browns without a patch of white to click on. After posting the two outdoor bounce shots I certainly noticed I didn't have them matching in terms of exposure or white balance. I'll have to take a shot with some white in it and use a patch of his jacket to manually match to. That just sounds like fun! :puke1 Luckily, even though the bride didn't wear white, the tablecloths, tent, trellis, and many other things are white and can be used to color balance from in 90% of the shots.

I'm not sure what happened on 1, and I agree with all the comments about it. I like her expression, but I'm not sure what happened on the conversion. Obviously I didn't take the time I should have to properly dial it in. I may have done that one when the sun was pouring in a window or something.

FWIW I have cloned out the black object in the flower shot and reprocessed #1 per comments here. Thanks so much for being a 2nd set of eyes for me guys. There are other issues with these shots that I am unable to fix and less pleased about (like the parked cars in all my stone wall shots, and all the hands and toes I cut off...), but the suggestions mentioned here are great.

I've got a ton of files to go through on this one so in a couple of weeks I will re-post and give you guys a better taste of what we did.

Thanks so much for the comments and if anyone has something more to say, let 'er fly.

Matt

TGAllen · June 19, 2010

smurfy wrote: »

love, love, love # 14! Very pretty.

^^^^^^this!!!^^^^^^^^

mmmatt · July 17, 2010

Here are few more I wanted to show you guys, any c&c isgreat.

17.

18.

19. The Moms

20.

21. Best Man

22.

23.

24.

25.

26.

27.

28.

29. This one is for Jeremy

The girl on the far left won.

30.

31.

32.

thanks for looking and for any comments!

Matt

divamum · July 17, 2010

Whatever you did on 31, I want to know about it. In detail.

LOVE.

mmmatt · July 18, 2010

divamum wrote: »

Whatever you did on 31, I want to know about it. In detail.

LOVE.

Under exposed image, bumped exposure and a few other tweeks in raw, no nr or sharpness to preserve the grain, and I think that is just the TRA pool party action but there may be a little more to it too, I can't remember. I was going through some of these quickly to get them done. I think it is interesting how the bug holes in the leaves actually acted like smaller apertures and exposure was reduced in the holes.

Matt

ren · July 19, 2010

I like 14, 30 and LOVE 31!

Greg49 · July 19, 2010

Awesome job!!!! When I was going through the first set, I thought #14 was a cake topper. I don't know, just did.

mmmatt · July 20, 2010

Greg49 wrote: »

Awesome job!!!! When I was going through the first set, I thought #14 was a cake topper. I don't know, just did.

Not quite following the cake topper comment but the first part I understand perfectly. Thanks for the compliment and for looking. Thank you too Ren!

All the pier shots I am showing are right at dusk and ambient light only. The overcast sky really did add some uniqueness to those and it think made them pretty special. I have to say I am really curious what a light stand in the water just off the pier would have done... almost did that but it seemed a pita at the time. We have a lot more from there and my 2nd was shooting from their left on the other side of the pier which turned out nice as well.

If I get motivated enough today I'll put up some of his work also as a 3rd set from the event. He shot nearly all ambient and I shot mostly flash (other than the few ambient shots I showed here) so this event is a great comparison between the two styles. The guy who was my 2nd here is really a great shooter and was actually my mentor when I got into wedding photography. He bounced when we shot in the past and gave me a love for that look, and then surprised me by never pulling out his flash for this one and now he has me wanting to improve that side of my work... finding light is an art and far more than just not using a flash! He has hundreds of big dollar wedding under his belt but doesn't like the full day pressure, the booking, or any of the after-work so he does primarily corporate report type of work.

We thought since we had time between the formals and the reception that we would surprise the crowd with a little laptop slideshow from the day so I sent him to the resort bar to shoot whoever was there and I did some quicky edits in my van. In that half hour he nailed all sorts of great stuff! The crowd was all over the laptop too trying to get a peak. I only did 10 or so edits, but I mixed in their e-session pictures and people were hovering all night. When the time works out people love that. I don't often have the time but when I have a 2nd it is often doable and always appreciated.

Thanks again for all the nice comments guys!
Matt

whoiswolf · July 22, 2010

hm, solid work, Picture 30 is superb......but i miss one thing....i miss the love in the wedding portraits... no toucing, kissing...

ImageX Photography · July 22, 2010

Nice work!!!! You did a great job and I am SURE the couple is very happy with their pics.

trevorb · July 27, 2010

Really like the tones and perspective on #12.

mmmatt · July 27, 2010

Thanks guys for the comments. Wolf there was a kiss version of almost all the posed one I show here, but they were certainly not the most affectionate couple I have ever worked with. Some are more than others you know. I got that kind of thing but these were my faves regardless. When I have to push people that way, I don't get the magic that I think of based on your comment. They aren't the PDA type.

Matt

Kristen and Dave

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