Can anything be done with the big light?

Okay, here is a random image from the ceremony of my most recent wedding, which

happened to be my 3rd one : ) The big fluro light in the top of the pic bugs

me. I have several more where they are even more noticeable. I am curious if I

did something wrong or what I could do better next time?

Thanks,

amy<div></div>

Ha!!! Sorry wrong pic. I need to rename them. That is a reception dancing one... here is the right one

You can clone it out with photoshop. When not at the most high end facilities you can shoot other angles to avoid distracting backgrounds. Amy don't forget your post production work. The white balance and color is off and you should correct those things before letting people see your stuff. Everything you post and say is a refelection of yourself on here or the client.. just a tip... I liked the dance shot.

Thanks. Yeah the WB was all over the place in the church. It was okay on some and then crazy on others.I shot in RAW so now I have to figure out how to correct that. I know how to in LR but my trial ran out and I cannot buy it until next month. I have PS cs2 but have not figured out how to fix the WB yet.I am on a laptop (new) It is a long story but I was halfway thru editing them on my new laptop when the color went and basically I got a lemon. So, now I got a new one. I usually post process on my desktop but it is blown for the moment : ( I have had really bad computer luck this week. Needless to say I am going to have to get feedback on the color. Is the color all off on the dancing shot too? To me, it is missing something or is it that I took at such a high iso because of the very dark reception hall. Thanks for your help Steve

Hi Amy

 

Love the dance shot great expression.

 

Both images could benefit from cropping.

 

Since the bridal party does not look good, the one woman seems bored beyond belief why not crop into the B&G even a vertical and eliminate the whole ceiling issue. The bridal party doesn't seem to contribute much to the composition and the position of the B&G would be stronger without the distraction of the rest.

 

Yes you could clone it out but that is a lot of work on a mediocre image.

 

Shot from the other side of more straight on the ceiling might have been less of a problem.

 

Brooke

Use flash and faster shutter speed.

Hi Amy, Unless you stood on a chair or ladder (which I don't think anyone does in a church) don't think there's much you could have done from this angle. We all want the picture to be perfect, but with some venues, there's only so much we can do and in many case something that bothers us isn't even noticed by the client because they are not scrutinizing it like we are.

 

Re: post for this...When I have a big chunk of something I need to cover up, instead of cloning I would just copy a selection of the ceiling into a new layer and cover it up (you may need to slightly transform it to maintain the perspective.) The other thing you can do in post process which would perhaps be quicker than cloning or covering it up is bring down the brightness of the light (via one of the many methods in photoshop) so that it is still there, but doesn't stand out as much.

 

Re: dance, nice capture. Did you try dragging the shutter, I think letting in just a bit more ambient light would have separated the subject from the background a bit more and the shadows may not have been so harsh.

 

Lightroom will be a worth every penny when you get it!

Thanks. i took A LOT of pics. This was a free wedding and they were promised 120. I have tons more than that. I am not dead set on using the pic since I have a lot of the ceremony that I do like. I have a funny one of one of the bridesmaids staring at her fingernails. Anyway, thanks for the suggestions. Also, what is the best way to fix the WB?

No, I did not try dragging the shutter. Honestly I ventured out from the auto mode into manual, but not that far yet. Still working on getting there... Maybe next time. this was a freebie. I had planned on putting all of them on my website and letting the clients choose which 120 they want. If they want more, I can sell them and then maybe recoup my cost.

If not in lightroom, you can adjust WB by opening Adobe Bridge, then double click the RAW image and it will open up in Camera RAW. You will similar (but not as many or as powerful) adjustment options like you used in Lightroom including WB.

 

I found best way to practice dragging the shutter is at the receptions. There is so much downtime there and there are only so many photos you can give the couple of everyone dancing so next wedding just try shooting at a wide aperture, set your ISO to 400 and try various low shutter speeds. You will see a huge differenc in gaining more natural light with less fall off (and that outerspace look) from the flash. I am by no means an expert and still learning the technique so forgive me if that was not the technically correct explaination, but hopefully you get the idea.

Thanks Gina. I will try that next chance I get... Also on the WB thing, I tried earlier and just adjusted a few using auto color. It worked great on some and others it barely made a difference. Curious as to why?

Auto color has nothing to do with white balance. Figure out the Raw converter in bridge and adjust the White balance then the color and exposure etc. You might be able to change the date on your computer back before lighroom expired to use it but not shure what it will think about the image caputure time.

Just checking Amy - have you calibrated your monitor? Doing WB's etc won't be much use if you haven't calibrated it. When I did my first calibration, I was amazed at how far it was out, and I had wasted a whole lot of post-processing time that had to be done again. I agree on LR - you will love it once you can get it.

no i have not(i know bad bad new photographer : ( i am using my laptop cause my desktop moniter is fried. oh yeah I love LR, gotta have it soon. Hopefully, if I book the wedding that I think I am tomorrow then I will buy it... I have a long wish list of things I want... actions, smugmug, showitweb, photography class, photoshop class, and the list goes on and on. I am trying to do this without getting in debt and taking out a loan for now. That is hard when you are first starting out and have a family to help support. Anyway, I have about 100 more to go thru and then I will post them on my website for a critique from everyone. I am excited about them overall. But, there are some where I know I can definately improve and those are the ones I have been asking questions about. I will have to post my equipment nightmare story when I post the critique. Maybe tomorrow I will finish.

Amy Photoshop Clone tool for the light. Here is a less than 60 second job, the full size shouldn't take you more than a few minutes.

 

As for the color, looks like the WB is off. Did you shoot raw? Its limiting with Jpgs, but here is a quick tweak for the WB too.

 

Mark Nagel

Amy Photoshop Clone tool for the light. Here is a less than 60 second job, the full size shouldn't take you more than a few minutes.

 

As for the color, looks like the WB is off. Did you shoot raw? Its limiting with Jpgs, but here is a quick tweak for the WB too.

 

Mark Nagel<div></div>

Hi Amy - I totally understand. Being a newbie myself, I am on the same arc - new equipment / classes / buying software / learning software / dealing with equipment failure (had 3 drives, some RAM and a monitor blow on me within a few weeks of each other), so I totally get it. If you can borrow a monitor calibrator from a friend or colleague, it will be well worth it - otherwise all your post time may be wasted. If that really isn't possible, speak to your lab, and maybe get some test prints to make sure you are getting the colours / white balance / brightness etc that you expect. When you can afford a calibrator - I find the Gretag Macbeth Eye One to be very good, and reasonably priced, although more seasoned pro's on here may have other recommendations on the best way to deal with calibration. Sorry to take the thread off track.

 

Looking fwd to seeing the rest of your work. Warm regards.

yep, everything is in Raw. I will play around with bridge. I have not even used it yet. I have been converting via picasa which is sooo user friendly.

Yes, great point about the Calibrator. When we started out I was stressing about which one to get and we didn't have the budget for a high dollar one. After reading reviews I ended up with the Spyder 2 express and honestly, I haven't found the need or see the point in upgrading. It was only about 70-80 bucks and whether we're getting premium prints from Pictage or quickies from Costco, they look great. I can't imagine much of a difference from the 'pro' calibration systems but I will agree, before we got the tool most of our images printed out much darker and less vibrant than they looked on the uncalibrated monitor. Also we use the Spyder on our desktop LCD monitor AND the laptop so don't let the laptop stop you from calibrating and ultimately saving time which = money :)

This is why I would give so much for a dodging and burning tool in ACR!

I would have cropped that light out when taking the shot.. I would have stood in a different place or not taken the shot.

 

White balance at the camera for Flourescent lights is always an issue since flourescent color temperature is all over the place. Shooting digital you can do a custom white balance for each situation and save it (or you can iwth the Fuji S 2 etc.) as Cus 1, Cus 2 etc.

 

With film, the way to correct white balance for flourexcent lighting is to use flash. Remote strobes with a radio slave or an assistant with a slave light can help provide flash in addition to the flash on a bracket at the camera. the same will work for Digital. I used both but use mostly film.

 

I do not think I would have taken the shot you took of the wedding party/vows at all in the first place (in looking at it again). The perspective makes the Groomsman appear to be midgets. Remember, every image you take is of a 3 dimensional situation that is transferred to a 2 dimensional medium (print, film, image.. it matters not!).

 

When shooting a ceremony you only need to take a few shots.. and if they do not allow flash, the officient usually will cooperate in a reinactment of the vows, rings etc. and you can use flash then.

 

My last shot, if flash is not allowed, is the shot of the Father kissing the bride as he gives her away. Then I SIT DOWN (it is a religious ceremony, and it is important to respect that) and the next shot I take is of the first kiss and then the recessional. After the Receiving line, I do the reinactment and alter returns.

 

Just the way I do it and what I do and what I might have done here.

Thanks

Nancy, I have some without the lights from different angles that I took to get rid of the light factor. I just wanted to know if there was something that I did wrong when taking the pic other than not taking it. I took more pics than I normally would of a ceremony because they kept insisting that I could stand anywhere and go anywhere to get the pics. I had not planned on going up in the choir section above the pulpit, but now I am glad that I did because I got some of my best pics from there and the large wedding party blocked the view of me. Hopefully I will get done with these soon and get some feedback on it overall.

Hey Mark, my attempts at the clone tool look horrible. Do you mind sharing how you did that?

Amy, it really just takes practice. Play with that photo, try and capture the area equivalent to the to be cloned area so the lines will line up. I tend to grab the area (alt on a PC) with the pointer and use the pointer again to line up the area to be cloned. Really hard to explain, easy to show, but practice and it will become second nature. Also pick the appropriate brush size and plan on changing it and the clone pick spot often.

 

Mark