First Wedding I've Shot

January 4th, 2009, 12:39 pm

Instead of spamming the page with a bunch of images links, I threw these up on a flickr page which can be viewed here. Also, the photos got thrown extremely out of order when I uploaded them, but I'm sure most of you here can figure out the order on your own - that said, order isn't that important for a single critique (I'd rather have feedback on individual photos than all of them as a set.)

There were also some actual portraits taken which I haven't done yet, but I'm more concerned with the execution of the reception/ceremony shots.

Any critique/suggestions/comments are welcomed, no matter how severe (on either end) they are.

Thanks for your time in advance!

[digitalMedia]

January 4th, 2009, 1:47 pm

No critiques from me. I think you did a spectacular job.

[Bogey]

January 4th, 2009, 4:47 pm

Great shots neksus. Did you learn photography somewhere? They all look nice with adequate lighting, but that's coming from the guy who knows barely anything on photography

January 4th, 2009, 6:01 pm

Not really.
I've always been enthralled with photography, though.
Picked up an SLR slightly before my son was born, and it's escalated from there. I just took 1st year photography during my first semester at University, but it was rather droll - dealing with strictly black and white film. More of a technical course on film developing - but you need it to take 2nd year etc.

[ATNO/TW]

January 4th, 2009, 7:35 pm

Alright, I'll critique one. Primarily because I don't understand it. http://flickr.com/photos/30566716@N03/3 ... 110195731/

OK, I think the lighting is about as spot on as you can get. However the photo gives me no clue as to what those hands are doing. From a religious point of view I can only assume that's the priest's hands doing some kind of anointing/ prayer but the bride (I assume that's the bride) doesn't look the least bit happy.

Focus, lighting and focal point are great. I just don't get the point of the picture. If the bride and groom do, then go for it. But from an outsider's point of view it doesn't make a lot of sense.

January 4th, 2009, 10:43 pm

It's the bride getting ready.
That's the hairdresser putting on the veil

[SB]

January 5th, 2009, 3:56 am

I see your point Mark, however i saw it more as her being nervous while getting ready for the wedding.

Alot of wedding photography nowadays is reportage, it's all about telling the story of the day.

I think you've done a very good job Neksus.

[righteous_trespasser]

January 5th, 2009, 6:17 am

neksus wrote:

It's the bride getting ready.
That's the hairdresser putting on the veil

I saw that immediately, that photo did make sense to me ...

[ATNO/TW]

January 5th, 2009, 8:49 am

lol I guess I don't get to enough weddings anymore. End up at way more funerals than weddings.

January 5th, 2009, 3:49 pm

That's sad!
I guess it's the cyclical nature of life, though...

[Bigwebmaster]

January 8th, 2009, 11:46 am

Made absolute sense to me too, you can see she isn't even in her wedding dress yet so she had to be getting ready. The pictures you took are well done. Alot of the wedding pictures I have seen take pictures like that.

January 8th, 2009, 4:44 pm

Speak of the devil!
Brian have you been wed recently?

[SpooF]

January 8th, 2009, 4:53 pm

haha, ya speaking of weddings, are you going to be sharing any of your pictures?

[Bogey]

January 8th, 2009, 5:19 pm

I'm waiting ...

January 11th, 2009, 6:41 am

(I'm going to provide critical feedback so you can improve the work - this is not a slam or putdown. If you read it that way, start over and read me again. )

1) Your black & whites are more like grey and greyer.
http://flickr.com/photos/30566716@N03/3 ... 110195731/
http://flickr.com/photos/30566716@N03/3 ... 110195731/
http://flickr.com/photos/30566716@N03/3 ... 110195731/

Try and make the blacks = black and the whites = white. It'll give you much more contrast and the images will really pop compared to this low contrast thing that's going on now.

2) People aren't yellow. Or Green.
http://flickr.com/photos/30566716@N03/3 ... 110195731/
http://flickr.com/photos/30566716@N03/3 ... 110195731/
http://flickr.com/photos/30566716@N03/3 ... 110195731/

If you aren't using custom white balance at all times, you should probably be shooting raw so you can correct the white balance later.

3) Watch your compositions for chop-chop.

http://flickr.com/photos/30566716@N03/3 ... 110195731/
http://flickr.com/photos/30566716@N03/3 ... 110195731/
http://flickr.com/photos/30566716@N03/3 ... 110195731/

People should have headroom, don't cut their hands off at fingers, and the main subject should almost-never be dead center.

That's a start at it. I like some of the images for sure.
http://flickr.com/photos/30566716@N03/3 ... 110195731/
http://flickr.com/photos/30566716@N03/3 ... 110195731/
http://flickr.com/photos/30566716@N03/3 ... 110195731/

In a lot of situations it's just your editing that hurts the image. Learning that comes with time too.



Hope that helps!