please critique these wedding shots...

thenimirra

I make my presentation to the bride on Saturday and I'm starting to get anxious. Please take look and tell me what you think....I'm looking for OOF, distracting backgrounds, etc. etc.

http://www.picture-yourworld.com/gallery/5235298_icCtV#319725230_qD79S


The password is Jordan

Thank you!

geospatial_junkie

You could try using a service like Lumipix or ProShow Gold to create DVD slideshow. That other recommendation is to use photoshop and create your own backgrounds using various custom shape tools and brushes. I guess potentially, you could experiment with textures as well.

After looking at your gallery, I would recommend to try and soften up some of the images. Not a ton (don't create that angel glow that everyone seems so fond of), but just a slight diffusion. Be careful not to blow out the bride's dress though when doing this!! Keep it on the low side!

http://cartographica.smugmug.com

evoryware

http://www.digitalgrin.com/showthread.php?t=97830

Bill_M

thenimirra wrote:

I make my presentation to the bride on Saturday and I'm starting to get anxious. Please take look and tell me what you think....I'm looking for OOF, distracting backgrounds, etc. etc.

http://www.picture-yourworld.com/gallery/5235298_icCtV#319725230_qD79S


The password is Jordan

Thank you!

In my opinion, not enough shots of the bride & groom together. From past experience, that's always a shot that sells best, just a simple close cropped portrait of the two of them posing together after the ceremony.

thenimirra

Bill_M wrote:

In my opinion, not enough shots of the bride & groom together. From past experience, that's always a shot that sells best, just a simple close cropped portrait of the two of them posing together after the ceremony.

I have a separate gallery of the bride and groom portraits that I took of the couple after the wedding.

evoryware you crack me up. I'm went for days not hearing from anybody on this board about the pics and I was starting to freak out. You are right...I need to chill, everything will be alright!

evoryware

chill and keep shooting!

I wish I could take my own advice! lol

Sam

Sheba,

Here is what i see: Technically the images are very good. The exposure in most cases is spot on. You have done a great job capturing the white dress, and tux along with the dark skin tones. You could teach me a thing or two here.

If there is an area to work on it would be the artistic side. Have the images tell a story of the day. Create a series that begins in the morning with the bride, and groom getting ready, arriving at the church, the ceremony, the formals with family, the reception, and the bride, and groom leaving the event moving on together to start their new life.

Sam

Vivid Visions

I agree with Sam
Hi Sheba,

I am not a frequent poster here--too busy most of the time to follow most of the threads, but as I wedding photographer myself, I know how anxious you must be to get some feedback on your images.

I agree with Sam. The photos are technically very good. You clearly spent some time making sure the exposures would be right, and that's very important. Now that you seem to be comfortable with that, you should consider working on the artistic side of things.

Check your compositions. Try to get people looking at the camera. Work on showing closeness between the bride and groom. Weddings are all about EMOTION. Grooms camping it up by pretending to run is cute, but the sales are in the images of the bride getting ready, the interaction with her family and wedding party, the detail on the dress, the rings, the jewelry, the flowers, the shoes (wow--Red shoes! I'm dying to know why--and your photos could tell me why).

Check out some wedding magazines to get a sense of what looks good, and how to light it. I would worry less about the exposures, and more about the compositions. I bet you will find that the less than technically perfect images are the favorites of the clients.

And making the client happy puts money in your pocket, after all.

All in all, I think you did a nice job.

Justin Phillips

I thought your photo's were great! It is awesome to see photo's like that as I am trying to learn the art of the wedding photo myself. If you would not mind, what did you do for lighting inside. Was it all available light, or did you have flashes in there?

thenimirra

Thanks for the comments guys. Please try to remember that I had three other shooters including myself and I didn't take those shots of the groom, plus, I had six galleries. I only listed one of those galleries in the original post (and I have since made my presentation to the bride and it was great!). I had shooters at the bride's house getting dressed, another at the groom's house getting dressed; I took formal portraits of the bride and groom after the wedding, the reception...I even took shots of the bride in her dress in my home studio. It was definitely a full coverage event.

Weren't those hot pink shoes amazing....I took a great many shots highlighting those shoes....you had to watch for it because the dress was so long, the shoes tended to only peak out every once in a while....it was really for her benefit since others couldn't truly see them.

When I shot the bride for her portraits, I used studio lights, Wescott Spiderlites to be exact and one Alien Bee.

Everything else is natural, available light with fill flash both indoors and out.

Maybe later, I might look into taking some strobes with me at the reception, but thankfully we still had plenty of light in the room with large picture windows. The reception was in the middle of the day with everything ending before 8 p.m.