FIRST WEDDING - Need Critiques

ShannonNicole Photography

This was my first wedding that I had done, Ive been in portrait photography for over a year and have improved quite well. I'm now looking to start doing more weddings, considering that these pictures were just taken as a gift to the bride. But by surprise she has offered to pay me bc she had turned out to like them more than her paid photographers - although he was just really a video-grapher. Anyways - I need critiques, whats good and whats not so good.... Please Help - THANK U

Photo 1 -
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Photo 2 -

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Photo 3 -

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Photo 4 -

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Photo 5 -

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Photo 6

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Photo 7

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indiegirl

Can't see them

Qarik

sorry, I don't care for the processing at all. I can't get past that to critique anything else.

Nickj

These photographs are great. You can promote these photographs on facebook, blog and social media sites.

Moogle Pepper

I kinda like 5+7, but, as Qarik mentioned the processing is hard to look past. Do you have anymore for this wedding? They look a lot like casual snaps.

VayCayMom

I'd like to see some with fresh crisp color and no soft focus. The one with the gals in the purple bridesmaid dresses might work with that.

lizzard_nyc

VayCayMom wrote: »

I'd like to see some with fresh crisp color and no soft focus. The one with the gals in the purple bridesmaid dresses might work with that.

Hi there,
I am not a wedding photographer, but still I can mention to you something more specific about the processing, especially in shot #1 and #2, their pallor is very off. I think you went for desaturated but they look like they are dead, to be brutally honest.

I love the look on the their faces in shot #1, but the processing detracts from that great capture. Maybe just B&W.

Jeremy Winterberg

Something that Matt Saville will say if he ever chimes in is the processing is from and needs to stay in the 90's. Selective black and white is not good. and you have that in most of your images.

Moogle Pepper wrote: »

They look a lot like casual snaps.

Keep in mind Shannon wasn't the main photographer, she was a "second" shooter to the paid photographer/videographer. Most of the time second shooters only get the casual snapshot type images depending on how controlling the paid photographer is. At least thats what I've noticed.

ShannonNicole Photography

Thanks Jeremy, I actually wasn't even the 2cd shooter, more like the 3rd, I hadn't tried to step on anyone's toe's.. I allowed the photographer and the 2cd shooter to grab all of the main and important images.. But glad everyone has such harsh critiques... Glad the bride and groom liked my "bad editing" more than the photographer's plain images.. But I will keep in mind to not add as much softness to the photo's

Matthew Saville

Jeremy Winterberg wrote: »

Something that Matt Saville will say if he ever chimes in is the processing is from and needs to stay in the 90's. Selective black and white is not good. and you have that in most of your images.

I was going to let everyone else handle this one, but now that you mention it...

it is my firm belief that on average a photo should be able to stand on it's own two feet, straight-out-of-camera. (SOOC) Especially "partial B&W" processing. Let's think for a minute- why did you make part of the image B&W and part of it color? To emphasize something, to draw the viewer's eye. And in my personal opinion, photoshop shouldn't be used that way.

Admittedly, there are many amazing photographers who *DO* use photoshop as an artistic tool, and they create some amazing work. But all of them will strongly argue that you still need to start with an impactful image as your foundation. Personally I admire those photographers, but that style just isn't for me and so for the past couple years I've focused on making my images have impact SOOC.

If the click of the shutter is to be the last step in the creative process, what do you have to work with? Four things- Light, pose, composition, and timing. That's it. (Of course I'm rolling together things like lens selection, color, texture etc. all into the composition category)

I REALLY don't want to hijack the thread, but since at first most people are mortified of this "SOOC" ideology, I'll post just one.


(If you google "what does SOOC mean" I do believe my blog post will come up with more images... This picture was a JPG I shot, with in-camera B&W and the contrast turned up to +2 or +3... Nothing was done to the image in Lightroom or Photoshop etc.)

So, Shannon, I honestly encourage you to do two things- DON'T STOP playing around in photoshop and trying new things. You should always be experimenting, and hey it's a good business tactic to stay "hip" and do whatever the latest processing is. (currently, textures and faded film looks.) HOWEVER, the other thing I'll recommend is this- Think FIRSTLY of the four things I mentioned, and try to make your images stand on their own two feet straight out of the camera.

ShannonNicole Photography wrote: »

...Glad the bride and groom liked my "bad editing" more than the photographer's plain images.. But I will keep in mind to not add as much softness to the photo's

Like I said, it's a viable business model to do what sells. This and each geographic area may end up with different taste at different times. But as we joked earlier, around where I work as a photographer, that style of partial B&W is out of date by 10-20 years. So, it's your call. Like I said, please do keep experimenting and keep an eye on the latest trends. But I would definitely encourage you (and all photographers including myself) to always focus foremost on the foundation of the image itself. :-)

Take care,
=Matt=