WEDDING CRITIQUE OF THE WEEK 6/04/09 - AKA WEDDING PHOTO OF THE WEEK

<p>This week - we're looking at a ceremony picture.<br>

In your critiques - Include what you would do to improve the shot or why the shot is perfect as it is and why. Remember that this is not a contest. Sometimes an image will be a winning image and sometimes an image that needs some help.<br>

The photographer up for critique for this week should remember that the comments expressed each week are simply "opinions" and the effort and focus of these threads are to learn and to take images to another level. There will be times where the critique is simply members pointing out why the shot works which is also a way for others to learn about what aspects contribute to a good wedding photo. In reading all critiques -- You may agree or disagree with some points of view - but remember that there are varying approaches and often no right or wrong answer.<br>

Susan Wolfe is the brave photographer willing to accept critiques this week ;-)<br>

<a href="../photodb/user?user_id=1243267">Susan Wolfe</a></p><div></div>

<p>Also - I've created a Wedding Photo of the Week Archive so these will be easier to find in future.</p>

<p>The bride looks lovely in this shot. I would suggest cropping the fingers out of the lower left corner. </p>

<p>I really like this shot. I would like to see what it would look like as a closer crop and in a deep black and white to really bring the focus to the light hitting the bride's face.</p>

<p>I like the moment and the exposure. I've attached a crop below to eliminate the fingers in the bottom left corner and using the "rule of thirds", the crop places the groom close to the intersecting thirds at the upper left of the frame.</p>

<p>BTW, I like the bride's expression here but I think the groom is the primary focal point, in a neat understated way...........</p><div></div>

<p>I'd like to see it in black and white to highlight the emotion. The groom just doesn't look as "into it" as the bride does, so my feeling is that black and white would draw you into the emotion and the light on the bride's face more. </p>

<p>There's three subjects here. One is beautiful and emotional, one is uninterested and one is a distraction. I prefer a vignette to bring the eye into the center of the frame, where the most interesting subject is.</p><div></div>

<p>I will no doubt be scolded heavily for this liberal edit.</p><div></div>

<p>No, Matthew. That's exactly what I was doing with it, although I hadn't tried B&W yet. This is a great learning experience for me and I appreciate all suggestions.</p>

<p>Matthew, I actually think your edit is very beautiful. Well done.</p>

<p>Great work and great points here... Well done. </p>

<p>I do like the image with the simple crop that David made as a true photojournalistic shot. We all know that the ceremony is a series of shots and that many are shooting for "real moment" type images that the couple often want... It is helpful to 'capture" the right moments with anticipation of events and to crop out (in-camera) - any distractions... But it is still a true moment and regardless of expressions of the bridesmaid and husband. Those have great value to many clients as well. </p>

<p>Granted, <em>"The groom just doesn't look as "into it" as the bride does...." </em>but your eye keeps being drawn back to the groom. Like Mary, I like the "real moment" quality of the image and it's great to see a black tux with details.</p>

<p>It a great moment but maybe a slightly lower shooting position would have been better. A shorter focal length and being closer to the couple could have been beneficial as well as it would have diminished the size of the background but then again harder to find an uncluttered background. I guess in most cases there are not much room to manouver anyway.</p>

<p>As for post processing the white balance is a little off but that is because it's mixed lighting. I would have tried to lower the brightness of the bridesmaid and the background as I don't think they add much to the image. And maybe a bit more dramatic - as a painting would have been.</p><div></div>

<p>Agree with the color change Pete - the veil does have a lot of cyan in the orig.</p>

<p>Agree with the color change Pete - the veil does have a lot of cyan in the orig. However, the blue dress is reflecting color into the veil so I had to isolate the veil to fix it. Otherwise the blue dress ending up looking black</p><div></div>

<p>Hmm - in PS the dress was still blue - here it is purpleish - interesting because the flowers are still blue.</p>

<p>Thank you, Pete and MaryBall. I found the lighting in this church to be very, very difficult. There was filtered daylight over the center of the sanctuary, brighter daylight over the altar, and a blue, stained-glass window at gound level at the back of the aisle. Yikes. I took a custom white balance reading at the center and tried to make the best of it. Here I was hiding behind a pillar at the front side just before the priest asked me to shoot from the back (the wedding coordinator had told me there were no restrictions and was as surprised as I was that he asked me to move. I think he was new, but I assumed she had discussed it with him.) Color is something I find very difficult, but I can see the cyan now that it's pointed out to me, but in Pete's version, the dresses and the tie aren't as blue as they should be. Thank you all for this great learning tool. </p>

<p>Susan, as you said there are not much blue in the version I did but that is because I wasn't going for a realistic color reproduction. After white balance correction (tricky in this one) I desaturated and added a yellow tint to the image to make it more monochromatic.</p>

<p>And I like it that way (mono). But do I need to put the blue dresses back with a layer mask? Is there another way?</p>

<p>Not read all this but looked at the pics. Matthew edit 2 is by FAR the best. That moody bridesmaid wasn´t doing it for me.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>@Susan<br>

Yes, you can use a layer mask to avoid desaturating blue. Just select blue with the "select > color range" tool and then "select > inverse" and then when you add a hue/saturation layer mask the blue will be excluded.</p>

<p>Lots of post processing talk in this thread, but it's all good I guess :-)</p>

 

<p>Thanks, Pete. That's exactly the kind of hint I was looking for. My CS4 upgrade is in the mail.</p>

<p>Here's my take on it...<br /> Everything I did was done on layers, and the opacity of each later was adjusted to taste.</p>

<p>First I adjusted the contrast of the image with curves. Cropped the image.<br /> on one layer I erased everything but the skin with the eraser tool and applied a blur to it, then set to opacity to something like 20%</p>

<p>Another layer I desaturated the image and then applied a light blur to it and set it to 'overlay' and then once again adjusted the layer opacity.</p>

<p>Another layer, I did a 'lighting effects' 'spotlight' I kind of put a beam of light as if it was pointing angled right onto the brides face. Once again, adjusted this layer's opacity.</p>

<p>Finally I made a new layer and simply used a black paintbrush to dark the edges a little bit.</p>

<p>I think that's everything. I thought about removing the bridesmaid as well like some of the previous posts, but It's not something I would ever do for a bride unless specifically requested by her.<br /> <img src="http://clarkcorona.com/temp/temp-internetfix.jpg" alt="" /></p>

<p> </p>

<p>Actually the person that gets my attention is the out of focus one in the lower right corner. Unless this person was closely related or a close friend of the bride or groom, I'd take the whole face out. The bridesmaid doesn't bother me--the expression of the groom either. I prefer the actual, original image, with color and exposure tweaks being of minor importance to me. However, the human eye always goes to a face, even if it is out of focus, so I'd either crop out or remove the OOF face, as noted.</p>

<p>I like David S's crop for better composition.</p>

<p>I like the whole shot, with the BM and also conversion to B&W.</p>