And.... second wedding

divamum

Things I learned:

1. My greatest skill as a wedding photographer is booking INCREDIBLE people to co-shoot with me and make it look like I know what I'm doing. :rofl Last time, I had the fantabulous Nicole Shilliday; this time out, Michael Glenn came along to help me out. I refuse to call either of them "seconds", because they did so much more, not only getting great shots, but also gently nudging me where I needed to be and setting a wonderful example for me to model. Michael is as professional as he is talented, and he also charmed everybody in a 100ft radius, including our rather anxious bride and her mother. So grateful he was there. Thanks, dgrin, for connecting me with these talented photographers who are also just fun, terrific people! :lust

2. Excited, happy faces will always be compelling, but location (ie a pretty one) and light (ie there is some) are the things which allow for gorgeous, artistic wedding pictures. I am certain that the best of the best can make even banal backgrounds in pitch darkness look fabulous, but I'm not there (or even close) yet. Putting it in the "things to work on" file.

3. Another Lighting Hell experience. I wish I could have ditched the zooms for fast primes and an extra stop of light, but it was awkward enough framing things from where I was in the ceremony; the zoom was a big help in that regard. I'm also going to have to do some serious work in post to clean up the indoor family formals, after the ceremony - balancing ambient+flash with enough depth of field was really tricky, and I'm not 100% pleased with the sooc results. :deal

4. I'm SO MAD that I missed their "cake" - they didn't actually HAVE a cake, but a tier of donuts. But it didn't get set up until during dinner, it wasn't' "featured", I didn't know about it, and by the time I realised it was there, it had already been half-eaten and wasn't a photo-op. Grrr.


In any case, enough blahblah - some first edits. Michael got the dress and a bunch of details so those are all present and accounted for, I just haven't had a chance to go through and edit them yet :thumb

1abc Teeny, tiny room to dress in. One room for everybody. I wanted to try some Ted-style "through half-closed door shots", but the door opened on the wall side and into the room, which would have taken up at least 2-people'sw worth of space, and I'm not sure it would even have been possible. The last shot is after the first-look - they all came back and had beers before the ceremony!



2abc Their first look was super-sweet




3abc They also exchanged gifts. He got her a necklace and earrings to wear, and she got him a "Breaking Bad" hat and cufflinks (they're huge fans). (MG got some great shots of the cufflinks themselves, I just haven't had a chance to edit his files yet!!)




4ab These were fun - they were FREEZING, but managed to laugh about it and have a giggle despite. We had verrrry sweet light, and the location is great. We felt a bit rushed (the bride arrived nearly 45 minutes late from the salon), but it worked out fine. (btw There's decent airspace around them for cropping in the originals, it's only in this quickie collage I made in Picasa that it's clipped)



5abc Cave. I wish I had the confidence to use preset off camera flash on a stand, but the performer in me has real issues with it - it just seems so intrusive to me. I did use bounce flash for most shots, but even that wasn't quite enough from the spot behind the officiant where I was shooting. Once again, I marvel how those of you who shoot alone do such a great job - with two of us, there is a gorgeous set to put together, but it would have been really tricky solo, if only because of where there was(n't) access to stand. Btw, in b, that's her dad in the background between them



5abc Lots o' dancing



6 After dinner, I pulled them aside for a very quick supplemental - there's a really cool wall of beer labels at the brewery, and I'd wanted to use it earlier and just didn't have a chance. They'd finally relaxed by then, and I love this shot of them!

Icebear

Bravo! Your first-look shots are esp wonderful IMO.

michaelglenn

Loving the pics!! You did wonderful for your second wedding outing, and I'm super thankful I got to meet and work with you. Looking forward to more winners from this set!

Sam

I think you did a nice job, the couple will be happy.

Reception shots are always difficult. I struggle hugely with the flash, chimping more than a monkey on crack.

As for the color balance between ambient and flash, I have found a 1/4 CTO gel helps a lot.

Smart move hiring photographers that are better, and / or more experienced than yourself. This is a win for you, and a win for the couple! Good thinking.

Through my life I have watched people refuse to hire candidates who are or appear to be better then themselves out of fear.

Sam

divamum

Thanks, all. It was definitely more of a scramble than the previous event as it was much less structured (PSA for brides: WEDDING COORDINATOR!! Even if it's only a friend with Teh Mad Oranizational skills, please have somebody who isnt you or your mom to run things on the day!!), but it was fun. There's of course a boatload of things I wish I had done differently and long for a do-over: those donuts, plus no ring shots - she was really late and it just got missed in the frenzy (and if I'm honest I think it would have been tough to get them to hand the rings over anyway - just a hunch). THANKFULLY I got that great shot of her hand during the first-look/gifts and his shows up nicely in several shots (and MIchael got some awesome ones of the Heisenberg cufflinks!) so I think she'll be pleased. She said over and over that she wasn't into staged shots and really wanted tons of candids; this is one of the reasons (I think) that her formals list was settled on so late, and so much longer than expected, as it was imposed on her by family members rather than what she had originally wanted.

In any case, now to put together a coherent set. There really are a lot of great shots, particularly outdoors before the ceremony! That was some sweet light

Sam, I think I could (sort of) understand people feeling threatened if they were intending to specialise in weddings, but it does seem more ego-driven than anything. I truly can't imagine having done these without experienced help (and, as I keep saying, can't actually imagine wanting to do ANY wedding without two shooters - if I ever get asked again, I will continue to insist on it!!)

My watermark; MG's shot (which gets confusing, since my initials are also MG lol, but this is Michael's shot). I wanna know HOW you focused this accurately on something that small at 1.2 while moving (and there was more than one, so I know it wasn't a fluke!!!). Seriously. (This is virtually sooc - just a tiny contrast tweak and my standard sharpening/NR recipe for the 5dII)

StueveShots

All of this is lovely! The outdoor shots, especially, are great--the light was beautiful and the colors of the wedding party's dress are complemented so well by the charming setting. Your shots appear to capture that expertly.

BTW, I can understand your impulse to avoid a the flash on a stand. (The director in me would never have allowed it in my wedding--fortunately I was married in a very bright, light-filled space!) I'd be very curious to hear what kinds of less obtrusive solutions there are...

Icebear

Hey, MG, was this the wedding with the gigundous "must-get" shot list?
How'd that work out?

divamum

Difficult. We managed it in the time allowed, but even with a family "border collie" it was a bit chaotic!

I'll be honest - last time, in the church, the formals turned out to be pretty easy (to my surprise). This time, they taxed my technical skills to the max: tough space (I couldn't back up any further without going down a flight of stairs), no levels to arrange the larger group, tough light (balancing flash + ambient AND keeping everybody in depth of field), subjects that wanted to do it their way (and so were hard to move around) - just generally tricky.

Can't say I think the results are anything more than representational, but we got all of them within the time allowed .... very glad we had the opportunity to get those elegant bridals and wedding party shots (which were the ones which mattered to the B&G) before the ceremony, in LIGHT!

(I admit I cheated and extended the floor in front of them and borrowed sides from another shot in post on this first one - at least it gives a LITTLE bit more airspace)

divamum

PS thoughts on how these could have been done better welcome, on case I ever wind up doing this again!

kobistar

It is great!

Icebear

I'd say these were just wonderful. Beautifully lit. Well focused and well posed.

divamum

Thanks, John. I'm glad you think they're ok, because I was kind of disappointed with them - they're not awful, but I'd have loved to make them a little more elegant, a little more evenly lit (maybe I should have bounced instead of used OCF? Not sure..), and a little less flash-dominant. As well as have more room for cropping (I guess I'll fix that by adding a border). I guess these are photographer nits - hopefully they'll be happy with them because of what they represent and not be nearly as fussy as me/us about the technical details...

Icebear

I doubt very seriously you could have properly illuminated that large group with bounce flash from a speedlight given what I can see of that ceiling. Did you really only use one umbrella?

divamum

Two - each at about the 1/3 mark of the lineup, as high as I could get them and feathered down. The dance shots were bounce flash - that's what I would have loved to achieve for all the formals but I, too, felt the group was too large to cover with only one. The two flashes are different power, and I feel like they illuminated differently, so it's not as even as I'd like. Thank goodness for gradient layers to even it out ...

Also, if I tell you I needed to be at ISO 1600+, you'll see how little light there actually was; frankly, I liked the abmient/flash balance best at iso 3200 (!!) but I wanted to reduce noise, so dropped it back some, at which point they got a bit overflashy. Had to decide which problems I was willing to deal with in post on a case-by-case basis!!

Icebear

With enough time, it's easy. Given what you had to work with, you have no reason to be disappointed. Be disappointed you didn't have more time, maybe, but not with your results.

divamum

Thanks, John. Ironically, I got through them with time to spare, but I was very aware that I had to move FAST and so just kept trucking through. Maybe developing a better internal clock is as important as anything else!

zoomer

When I need to use light, I light the group shots with one umbrella right over my head, raised up a few feet.. Gives even consistent light on the entire group.

divamum

That's what I did Zoomer, only with two umbrellas, each placed at about 1/3 - the setup was too wide for one to be enough. Even with that, I needed to keep ISO at 1600+ - I got what I feel was the best ambient>flash ratio at ISO 2500 :-/

I'm just accepting that this was a lot of people to make look great in tricky light in an awkward space (what DO you do when there are no levels to raise people in the back, or seat them at the front?). I've got at least two "good enough" ones of each grouping to give them (after I've done the $%Y&#! eyeswaps for the blinks), so hopefully it will be ok. I'm SO SO SO SO SO SO SO (did I say SO?) happy that we did the wedding party beforehand outside - super-pleased with those, so at least I've got some group shots I can be proud of!

zoomer

divamum wrote: »

That's what I did Zoomer, only with two umbrellas, each placed at about 1/3 - the setup was too wide for one to be enough. Even with that, I needed to keep ISO at 1600+ - I got what I feel was the best ambient>flash ratio at ISO 2500 :-/

I'm just accepting that this was a lot of people to make look great in tricky light in an awkward space (what DO you do when there are no levels to raise people in the back, or seat them at the front?). I've got at least two "good enough" ones of each grouping to give them (after I've done the $%Y&#! eyeswaps for the blinks), so hopefully it will be ok. I'm SO SO SO SO SO SO SO (did I say SO?) happy that we did the wedding party beforehand outside - super-pleased with those, so at least I've got some group shots I can be proud of!

well....when I first started doing weddings I stressed a lot of the family and group pictures. Now coming up on 100 weddings in I don't sweat the family group pictures...they are more of a count of who all was there. With big groups I give everyone an opportunity to have their head showing...sometimes people in the pics just don't care if they are showing up and will put 0 effort into it.
Yes hills are great or stand on a chair, I try to never go more than two rows deep so will go wide rather than deep. If it is more that 15 people or so I just have them mob into the back with the bride n groom and their parents front and center. Then I say something stupid, click when they laugh two or three times. Then I check for blinkers....then I yell we got blinkers....they laugh I click a few more.
With groups it is get the shot and move on now...just don't spend a lot of time or energy on them.

I spend my time and energy on the bridal portraits, wedding party, and the bride and groom together portraits.

We used to sit and go through every picture no the twin monitors with our clients....very enlightening experience....really an education on which pictures the clients care about.

Brett1000

nice set

trevorb

Love the box opening shot, the creamy colors and the expressions are priceless. Very lovely set.

kdotaylor

I agree, these are lovely. Having struggled myself with lighting/groups, I'm in awe of what you've accomplished here.

divamum

Thank you all so very much!! Still finishing up the full set - I gave the bride her "previews" (I've been delivering about 100 of my favorites as soon as possible so they have *something* right away), but they're on their honeymoon across the holidays until Jan 11th, so I still have a little while to get it completely done. Those formals have taken a ton of work, but nearly there!

PS Make sure you see Michael Glenn's year-end post, including a couple of his own shots from this wedding. He did a beautiful job (and gave me some WONDERFUL images to include in the final set!!)