Shooting my first main wedding (4th wedding total)

Candid Arts · May 20, 2009

This Saturday. Going up to Seattle to shoot it with my room mate for her best friend. It will be paid, but at the "friend discount". I've learned a lot since my last weddings I've 2nd shot at, so hopefully I take this one and get some better work out of it.

Any helpful tips or ideas or pointers or anything?

Just wanted to say pre-thanks to everyone here that has contributed to my ever gaining knowledge on the subject.:clap

PackingMyBags · May 20, 2009

Ha, looks like we are going to be shooting about the same time. I will be the solo photographer, so im a bit nervous. Anyways be sure to post up your results. It will be interesting to see what you come up with this time.

PS im that "girl" (im really a dude) that you started your last wedding thread about.

Good luck!

Scott_Quier · May 20, 2009

Candid Arts wrote:

This Saturday. Going up to Seattle to shoot it with my room mate for her best friend. It will be paid, but at the "friend discount". I've learned a lot since my last weddings I've 2nd shot at, so hopefully I take this one and get some better work out of it.

Any helpful tips or ideas or pointers or anything?

Just wanted to say pre-thanks to everyone here that has contributed to my ever gaining knowledge on the subject.

Without some specific qualifiers / questions or insight into the setup, it's kinda hard to add to what is already available in the various posts and stickys.

But, I can offer my well-wishes .... hoping all goes well for you this weekend!:D

Candid Arts · May 20, 2009

PackingMyBags wrote:

Ha, looks like we are going to be shooting about the same time. I will be the solo photographer, so im a bit nervous. Anyways be sure to post up your results. It will be interesting to see what you come up with this time.

PS im that "girl" (im really a dude) that you started your last wedding thread about.

Good luck!

Nice. Well my room mate is technically the primary, but she's also a bride's maid, so it'll pretty much be me shooting most of the time. Oh I will most certianly post my results. Might be a little bit though because the Wednesday after I'm doing a Senior Portrait shoot as well, plus moving into a new apartment. But they will be up, come rain or shine...

Yes, I'm sorry about that. Rather embarrassing on my part...

Thanks, and good luck to you as well.

Scott_Quier wrote:

Without some specific qualifiers / questions or insight into the setup, it's kinda hard to add to what is already available in the various posts and stickys.

But, I can offer my well-wishes .... hoping all goes well for you this weekend!:D

Yeah I guess there is really nothing specific that I'm looking for, I think I've got what I need as of now. My biggest problem is coming up with ideas of poses and what not for the people in the photo to be doing. I have a hard time thinking of (or remembering) poses and on top of that, actually telling them what to do. It's my biggest thing I need to work on right now.

Thanks though for the hopes and wishes.:D

Ed911 · May 21, 2009

My only suggestion, is that if you already aren't doing it, is to get your flash off of the camera...use a light stick and see if you don't get some better images. It's a real step up from pumping out camera mounted flash images.

Looking forward to your images from the wedding.

Candid Arts · May 21, 2009

Ed911 wrote:

My only suggestion, is that if you already aren't doing it, is to get your flash off of the camera...use a light stick and see if you don't get some better images. It's a real step up from pumping out camera mounted flash images.

Looking forward to your images from the wedding.

Am doing it. Got a flash bracket, as well as two light stands with umbrellas for other flashes just for up close portrait type stuff to try and get some nice fill light. Thanks for the tip thought, and I'm excited to see the work as well.

PackingMyBags · May 25, 2009

Any updates?

elizabeth_Luna · May 25, 2009

What he said

Candid Arts · May 26, 2009

Thanks everyone for the interest.

Well...I don't know if you've seen my other thread in the digital darkroom section, "Wedding + SERIOUS ISSUES = Not in a good mood", but I had some issues with the wedding, well the photos at least. I had my ext. HD take a dump on me pretty much over night. I thought I had lost all of the wedding photos I took (1457) for about 24 hours by the time I figured out the problem. On top of that, the B&G haven't paid us yet, so getting the photos edited and uploaded is not a priority. PLUS, I have another shoot Wednesday (my first paid senior portrait shoot), so editing those will take priority. Also, on top of all that, I just moved into a new apartment. Moved a full 2 bedroom apartment into a new two bedroom apartment and unpacked and set the new place up about 99% in one day. So I've been super busy. Oh yeah, and also I don't have interenet set up at my new place yet, so right now I'm borrowing someone elses internet and it is really hit and miss.

So that's the update as of now. But I will get some of the photos up when they get edited for you all to look at, and tell me what I did wrong.

I'll also go into a bit more detail on the wedding itself and the issues there...

Thanks though for your interest, much appreciated.

elizabeth_Luna · May 27, 2009

Sorry to hear that hope things work out for you...:D

Stay encouraged

PackingMyBags · May 28, 2009

Bummer man. Get your stuff fixed and get back to us with your results. I take it you were able to save your shots on your HD?

Candid Arts · May 29, 2009

PackingMyBags wrote:

Bummer man. Get your stuff fixed and get back to us with your results. I take it you were able to save your shots on your HD?

I think I got everything fixed. I just imported the photos from my cards to the computer HD versus the ext. HD and everything is working great. Going to start working (slowly) on the wedding photos, until we get paid for the gig, then I'll start pushing them out faster. I'm editing my first paid senior shoot right now, then the wedding photos will be up.

Thanks for the interest, will be posting some shots soon.

Candid Arts · May 29, 2009

Ok. People were asking for photos. As I have not even gone through all of them yet let alone started to edit, here are two teaser shots from the wedding:

#1

#2

C&C appreciated. Thanks everyone.

sweet caroline · May 29, 2009

Nice tease!

Candid Arts · May 29, 2009

sweet caroline wrote:

Nice tease!

Thank you. I was happy with them. Especially the dress photo. I really liked how that one turned out.

elizabeth_Luna · May 29, 2009

Can you brighten the dress up a tad? or are you going with the darker look?

Candid Arts · May 29, 2009

elizabeth_Luna wrote:

Can you brighten the dress up a tad? or are you going with the darker look?

Not going for a dark look, I did try brightening it up a tad before I uploaded this one, just didn't look right. I'll take another look at it though. Great eyes see alike apparently...:D

Candid Arts · May 29, 2009

elizabeth_Luna wrote:

Can you brighten the dress up a tad? or are you going with the darker look?

So I figured out why I liked it darker better, so I made it brighter, and combined the two. Here is the result. What do you think?

PackingMyBags · May 30, 2009

Love it. Already looking much better than your last shoot. Great colors in #2 as well. That is something i was hoping to see you do well in this time.

thumb

Gary752 · May 30, 2009

Candid Arts wrote:

Yeah I guess there is really nothing specific that I'm looking for, I think I've got what I need as of now. My biggest problem is coming up with ideas of poses and what not for the people in the photo to be doing. I have a hard time thinking of (or remembering) poses and on top of that, actually telling them what to do. It's my biggest thing I need to work on right now.

Thanks though for the hopes and wishes.:D

Jerry Day has some How To DVD's out and one of them is on Wedding Photography that I purchased. You can find it at http://www.jerryday.com if I remember correctly. One of the things the photographer stresses in the video is, "If it bends, bend it". The photographer takes you on a wedding photo shoot, and then explains some of the poses he uses. I found the video very useful. I hope this helps others just starting out, just as it has helped me get ready for that first one.

Candid Arts · May 30, 2009

PackingMyBags wrote:

Love it. Already looking much better than your last shoot. Great colors in #2 as well. That is something i was hoping to see you do well in this time. thumb

Thank you very much. Wait 'till you see my senior portrait session photos. That's something that I've been noticing is the "dullness" of some of the colors. Scott Kelby's book has shown me the light in using Light Room and now I can actually do what I've been trying to do. So I'm really excited to get this bunch of photos edited, it's just gonna take awhile. Gonna start working on weeding out the bad ones today, and hopefully make it to the editing process, but we'll see.

Thanks again for the compliments... Much appreciated.

Candid Arts · June 7, 2009

Ok guys (and gals), I've got some of the photos from the wedding edited. I've been having some editing issues recently, and have kind of gotten down on myself for it. So I wanted to get some opinions on what I've done with the photos thus far to see if I'm on the right track, doing good, need to change something(s). Anyways...here is the link to the gallery. Please take a moment to run through it. There's not many photos yet.

ANY and ALL C&C is MUCH appreciated. Thank you in advance to everyone!

PackingMyBags · June 7, 2009

27 i like the most so far. I also like 19 but i can see your reflection in the ring. Nice blue shirt

Candid Arts · June 7, 2009

PackingMyBags wrote:

27 i like the most so far. I also like 19 but i can see your reflection in the ring. Nice blue shirt

Thanks for the reply. I KNOW! I couldn't get away from the reflection, but yes, it is a nice shirt, and thank you...

How are the rest of them? Regarding exposure, color, contrast, etc etc etc...

Khristen · June 7, 2009

Borrowing someone's internet? Is that really the right word

.

It'll get better, you learn as you go.. or so I have anyway. I look forward to seeing some shots.

Candid Arts · June 7, 2009

Khristen wrote:

Borrowing someone's internet? Is that really the right word .

It'll get better, you learn as you go.. or so I have anyway. I look forward to seeing some shots.

Hi Khristen, I'm not "borrowing" anyone's internet anymore...haha, I finally got my own set up. CLEAR wireless, pretty awesome service.

Anyways, as posted a couple posts back, previous to yours, I provided a link with some of the photos from the wedding that I've edited thus far. There's about 82 photos in there right now. I'm looking to get some C&C on, not only the photos them selves, but primarily the editing. Do they look natural in color, is the exposure good, etc etc etc...

Khristen · June 7, 2009

Very good! I thought the high 5 was adorable. Seems like a happy couple.
I too saw the reflection in the ring, but really is not that bad. We're all looking for the minor things anyway.

Are you still editing anymore?

Candid Arts · June 7, 2009

Khristen wrote:

Very good! I thought the high 5 was adorable. Seems like a happy couple.
I too saw the reflection in the ring, but really is not that bad. We're all looking for the minor things anyway.

Are you still editing anymore?

Thank you. Yes I still have quite a few to edit. I still have about 516 to go through...

PackingMyBags · June 8, 2009

First off i think you are editing too many of the same photos. All of the grooms men dressing could have been summed up in 5 shots. I would stick mostly to the brides photos. I also noticed that your close quarter shots come off quite "hot" with your flash and shadows are harsh in areas.

Your outdoors shots as of yet look to be shot at your level as well (6' something). You obviously tower over them both. Come down a bit, so you are at their level...especially hers. Honestly it looks like you battled a ton with shadows and with trying to catch the two posing correctly at the right time. I think the shadows won most of the fights. You do have some nice ones though. Good thing you took a lot of pics.

Sorry if im blunt, but im learning too and i only wish my thread would get this much helpful feedback. Still friends?

Candid Arts · June 13, 2009

PackingMyBags wrote:

First off i think you are editing too many of the same photos. All of the grooms men dressing could have been summed up in 5 shots. I would stick mostly to the brides photos. I also noticed that your close quarter shots come off quite "hot" with your flash and shadows are harsh in areas.

Your outdoors shots as of yet look to be shot at your level as well (6' something). You obviously tower over them both. Come down a bit, so you are at their level...especially hers. Honestly it looks like you battled a ton with shadows and with trying to catch the two posing correctly at the right time. I think the shadows won most of the fights. You do have some nice ones though. Good thing you took a lot of pics.

Sorry if im blunt, but im learning too and i only wish my thread would get this much helpful feedback. Still friends?

I had a hard time with shadows, and with little experience/practice with OCF. No worries on being blunt, that's why I'm putting these here, to learn. Your "blurred" photo you posted was great btw. Leaps and bounds ahead of me.

Anyways, another update. Put a bunch more new photos up in the gallery. Some opinions would be helpful. Thanks everyone.

Candid Arts · June 16, 2009

Anything?

I'm adding new photos to the gallery almost daily now. Something on the treatment and the photos themselves would be great. Thanks.

Shooting my first main wedding (4th wedding total)

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