Wedding Images

[kevrayner]

Few recent images

Feel free to pull em apart ?

Kev

[ash]

Re: Wedding Images

Kev we don't pull anything apart on this forum just merely sort the c rap from the ok

[ash]

Re: Wedding Images

These are ok shots, would be better with a 50mm.
Ash

[Brian Jackson]

Re: Wedding Images

My two cents? Pretty good images that would shine with better/more PP.

[kevrayner]

Re: Wedding Images

Thanks brian....what would you do to them ?


Kev

[Brian Jackson]

Re: Wedding Images

Well, that's the kicker, isn't it?...

Let me say this. My best images are the ones that say something about how I feel, not just show what I saw. I've photographed a zillion (ok, maybe only half a zillion) weddings, and my goal was to show how they felt that day. You're doing good on that front, I think your images are not static, and have some animation to them. That's what makes them pretty good. But I see images 1, 2, and 3 that are lacking in something. 4 is a happy bunch of pixels, I wouldn't fool with that one unless you're bored. Let's take them one at a time.

#1 is composed well, good exposure. What is it an image of? The bride, of course. Is she happy, sad, nervous? Some of those for sure. What she wants to see (and everyone else of course wants too) is to see how beautiful she is. She could be burping, letting gas out, but she better look beautiful doing it. So, brides think of themselves as in a dream on their wedding day. No one is ever thinking about their accounting job, or is the laundry put away. They want to feel like ( and look like, that would be your job) the most beautiful woman ever. So, softness, 'glamour glow', radiance, whatever you want to call it, if it's a shot of the bride alone it should say those things. Nik Software and others provide such easy to use tools to get to there that it shouldn't take too long.

#2 is a great shot, you love the location, they love, well, them. Make your exposure on them just dead on perfect (it's not right now) and let the rest frame them without stealing the show from them. A big fat wide vignette is one way, very slightly blurring the background is another, but make sure that anyone looking at the image sees them, and not the location. Once again, Nik's Color Efex Pro has a lighten/darken center filter that does this great.

Good shot of the boys, but all of that dead space sucks the life out of it. You could have changed your angle of attack, but most likely there was zero time to do that. I agree, I've been there. Two ways to improve this. Square the format, or crop some of the rest of the crew to make it a shot of, who's that guy, oh yeah, the groom. If enough of the fellows are there to suggest that they were there, that's enough for the groom. The bride will only be seeing him in the shot, so more of him doesn't hurt. She wants to see him, he wants to see her. Period. It's like a good shooter and friend told me one day about shooting commercial gigs. His question to whoever was in charge was "what are you selling?". It wasn't always the widget or whatever, sometimes it was more subjective. A wedding is about two people, the bride and groom, and their dream. The rest is relatively unimportant. Everything should revolve around making them look like you managed to get into their dream and photograph it. Just a record of what happened is what everyone else there with a camera does. You get paid for magic.

Hope I haven't run my mouth too much. I have been accused of it, rightly so most times.

[Patrick]

Re: Wedding Images

Well, that's the kicker, isn't it?...

Let me say this. My best images are the ones that say something about how I feel, not just show what I saw. I've photographed a zillion (ok, maybe only half a zillion) weddings, and my goal was to show how they felt that day. You're doing good on that front, I think your images are not static, and have some animation to them. That's what makes them pretty good. But I see images 1, 2, and 3 that are lacking in something. 4 is a happy bunch of pixels, I wouldn't fool with that one unless you're bored. Let's take them one at a time.

#1 is composed well, good exposure. What is it an image of? The bride, of course. Is she happy, sad, nervous? Some of those for sure. What she wants to see (and everyone else of course wants too) is to see how beautiful she is. She could be burping, letting gas out, but she better look beautiful doing it. So, brides think of themselves as in a dream on their wedding day. No one is ever thinking about their accounting job, or is the laundry put away. They want to feel like ( and look like, that would be your job) the most beautiful woman ever. So, softness, 'glamour glow', radiance, whatever you want to call it, if it's a shot of the bride alone it should say those things. Nik Software and others provide such easy to use tools to get to there that it shouldn't take too long.

#2 is a great shot, you love the location, they love, well, them. Make your exposure on them just dead on perfect (it's not right now) and let the rest frame them without stealing the show from them. A big fat wide vignette is one way, very slightly blurring the background is another, but make sure that anyone looking at the image sees them, and not the location. Once again, Nik's Color Efex Pro has a lighten/darken center filter that does this great.

Good shot of the boys, but all of that dead space sucks the life out of it. You could have changed your angle of attack, but most likely there was zero time to do that. I agree, I've been there. Two ways to improve this. Square the format, or crop some of the rest of the crew to make it a shot of, who's that guy, oh yeah, the groom. If enough of the fellows are there to suggest that they were there, that's enough for the groom. The bride will only be seeing him in the shot, so more of him doesn't hurt. She wants to see him, he wants to see her. Period. It's like a good shooter and friend told me one day about shooting commercial gigs. His question to whoever was in charge was "what are you selling?". It wasn't always the widget or whatever, sometimes it was more subjective. A wedding is about two people, the bride and groom, and their dream. The rest is relatively unimportant. Everything should revolve around making them look like you managed to get into their dream and photograph it. Just a record of what happened is what everyone else there with a camera does. You get paid for magic.

Hope I haven't run my mouth too much. I have been accused of it, rightly so most times.

Some very sound advice,
Shot one, well for me the angle is rather awkward, and what a terrible background. As for the soft glam look I wouldn't buy the fancy software I would simply do it in Photoshop, its very easy.

Shot two I agree with you and in this case the angle works well for me.

Shot three, we don't need that top of the picture, as you say making a square frame would effectively crop it away, nor do we need a girls head growing out of the grooms head, I presume it to be a bridesmaid, again do we need the sharp angle for this shot? I would say no. This sort of shooting at an angle can work but can also be overdone, use it sparingly.

The forth well they are lovely as they are.

A lesson gained from two of these shots, take great care with the background and look carefully at what is there and ask yourself will it add or detract from the end result or simply be neutral.

Patrick

[Ian]

Re: Wedding Images

Great thread - just what this forum is here for!

Ian