jackie_boldt Posted April 18, 2007 Share Posted April 18, 2007 Ok, I think this is my last one from this wedding. This one image is bothering me. I like how all of the different hands are coming around the bride, but I'm not 100% sure if it is a keeper. Any thoughts? The first image I posted is the original with very minimal edits. The second one is my "quick and dirty" take on it. Again, since I'm not a Photoshop pro, any tips would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!<div></div> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackie_boldt Posted April 18, 2007 Author Share Posted April 18, 2007 Here is my edited version<div></div> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ellis_vener_photography Posted April 18, 2007 Share Posted April 18, 2007 background is very distracting and Idon't like the crop that Jackie applied. I don't think it is a keeper really, it's just too busy compositionally and it doesn't really make a "telling gesture". But its a good idea so revisit it at your next wedding asssignment. Look up Burk Uzzle's work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thomas_sullivan Posted April 18, 2007 Share Posted April 18, 2007 Having now seen both your recent posts...you do pretty good with the originality of pics...but you have to pay attention to those backgrounds. They're killing you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackie_boldt Posted April 18, 2007 Author Share Posted April 18, 2007 When you are taking these pictures and she is standing in the middle of a doorway putting her dress on, there really aren't too many options for changing the background of the picture. I'm assuming since you can't get the perfect background in every picture, I'm assuming you rely on post-processing. What do you recommend I do? Use the blur filter in Photoshop? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brooks whittington Posted April 18, 2007 Share Posted April 18, 2007 I recommend a faster lens, and a smaller fstop... I shoot just about everything at f1.4 or below, and it helps photographs like this... Other then doing that, the crop is fine... ~brooks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackie_boldt Posted April 18, 2007 Author Share Posted April 18, 2007 I was using a 2.8, but I could have been using my 50mm 1.4. It was a very small, crowded room, so I figured using my wide angle, zoom (17-55 2.8 IS) was good choice. I'll keep that in mind for the future, Brooks. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jake_holt Posted April 18, 2007 Share Posted April 18, 2007 I second Brook's comment - so many "getting ready" rooms are just god awful, and then there are neon bags, water and coke bottles all over. You can't move everything, but you can shoot wide open so the background is just blur. My Canon 24 1.4 was just about the best money I ever spent in this business - wide enough to get most everything, fast enough to shoot in a cave - and between 1.4 and 2.5 or so, the background in ugly rooms is a non- factor. IMO, fake photoshop depth of field blur is the epitome of "cheese." Stay away from it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidroossien Posted April 18, 2007 Share Posted April 18, 2007 When you crop, try to use any natural lines that you can to strengthen the composition. But mostly, think about and consider what you find most interesting in the frame--the many hands all trying to help the situation. Cropping any of them out, in this case, seems like a mistake to me. Cutting off the bottom is a mistake because it shows what some of those hands are holding onto, and why they are needed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elisha_c. Posted April 19, 2007 Share Posted April 19, 2007 It's late and I went a little crazy in photoshop - but here's a different way to see things. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kelly_m.2 Posted April 19, 2007 Share Posted April 19, 2007 here is the "cheesy" photoshop blur... some people like it.. I fall victim to it far too often... it is kinda dreamy ;)<div></div> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fotografz Posted April 19, 2007 Share Posted April 19, 2007 Multiple "busy" hands are iconic imagery for the getting ready part. Some work. Some don't. That you question the image enough to ask here is a clue. To hone your editing skills is one of the best endevors you can do in post. Resorting to Photoshop fixes is one of the worst endevors. Here's a favorite mantra taught to me by a highly respected film editor: "When in doubt, throw it out" : -) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kai_jones Posted April 19, 2007 Share Posted April 19, 2007 i think kellys' version works. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larry_moore Posted April 19, 2007 Share Posted April 19, 2007 Get closer If this was shot tight in on the hands and the opening of the dress might have potential. Good example of inexperienced shooter! I would not bother to spend time on this. Just because you could do something doesn't mean you ought to. My goal is to spend little time post and a lot of time at the shoot to get things that will work for me and the client. A few moments organizing is so well worth it to me. I get bridesmaids to tidy before getting the bride dressed That few moments translates to not needing to fix everything later. Positioning this moment also helps. Try taking a bit of control rather than assuming that something visual will just happen. Brooke Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackie_boldt Posted April 19, 2007 Author Share Posted April 19, 2007 With all due respect, Larry, that isn't how I work. I try to stay out of the way as best as possible and try to let things happen as they happen. My brides know that and expect that. I don't want to take a part in their day and tell her to not stand in the doorway to put her dress on. That is how they worked it out! Anyway, this wasn't my only shot of her getting her dress on. I just thought it might have the potential be a neat image with all of the hands around her veil. I'm still not sure what I'm going to do with this image. Maybe I'll use it as a guinea pig in Photoshop and see what I can do. I doubt that I'll present this to the bride. Thanks everyone for your help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thomas_sullivan Posted April 19, 2007 Share Posted April 19, 2007 sorry for not getting back...like the above indicate, photoshop tricks are the absolute last thing to use. You can't eliminate backgrounds in pics.........but you can use very shallow DOF to blur them in camera. You can move yourself so the back is not so busy. The pic above would have had a much better starting point if you had moved yourself so that the pictures(?) on the wall only showed the frame part and not what was in it....the background would still not be ideal, but it would be less busy....more simple, thus not competing with the subject. Moving in is ALWAYS a good idea........although cropping is also a choice later, try your best to get really close to the end result in camera. I know it's not always possible....I shoot my twin 2 1/2 year old grandsons, and believe me, there is NO time to anything but follow them, but I always try to pay attention to the backgrounds. If your subject is a light tone, keep the background a dark tone. If your subject is a person's face......DON'T have a bright red in the background. Hide it......behind the person's head if nothing else. After awhile of just paying attention to the background, seeing it with the subject, you get a good feel for seeing the WHOLE pic, not just the subject itself. backgrounds then become as easy to notice as the smile on a person's face......it's there, it's part of the whole You still have to shoot though, even if the background sucks. Just try to make the background work. Or, if worse comes to worse, the best photoshop trick...in some cases......is to not even use the pic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clauder Posted April 19, 2007 Share Posted April 19, 2007 Thomas, that's a very good post, very instructive! You should post more often here... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
larry_moore Posted April 19, 2007 Share Posted April 19, 2007 Jackie I also don't interfere BUT it is easy to excuse bad images by saying "it is not my fault nothing to do about it" Most situations are less than prime but learning to see past the mediocore and problem situations and find ways to record the moment as something worth looking at is a better use of time for you and your clients than overly "photoshoping" images that are weak to start with. Editing ourselves is a difficult thing to learn but once you do it is so freeing. The really great stuff looks so much better with out the clutter of weaker images that take away from those that really sing. Brooke Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackie_boldt Posted April 19, 2007 Author Share Posted April 19, 2007 Brooke (or Larry?), I couldn't agree with you more. I probably could have done a better job with this image when I initially took it, but it isn't a horrible image. It's just not "great". I'm sure the bride wouldn't think it's one of the best, but she wouldn't sour her face at it. Some might really like it! Anyway, I'm not a fan of the over-Photoshoping. I think it's nice to add a neat effect here and there, nothing overdone. That's all I was trying to get at, not necessarily, "fix" the image. It is what it is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gina_marie1 Posted April 19, 2007 Share Posted April 19, 2007 I guess I'll express my opinion contrary to the more experienced...but also as a bride married less than a year ago. I really like this photo, I think often times many photographers get caught up on the 'technical' aspects of an image and forget about the emotions or the story. The background isn't killing me, because the first instance I'm drawn to is the action that is happening. A bride is not going to look at this image for technical defects the way photographers do. She will see the moment. I believe your bride may very well like this and if my photographer had thrown an image like this out, I would have been disappointed. (If I had known it existed). Would it be on the mantelpiece or framed on the wall, no..but it's a neat moment that the bride could never see had you not been there to capture it. I would possibly consider heavy vignetting, to give it a sort of spotlight effect and emphasize the bride and the other's hands. I do not like the cropped version though, takes away from the story. JMHO..take it for what it's worth :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kcolfer Posted April 20, 2007 Share Posted April 20, 2007 I like the idea of the image, the hands, the participation etc. The color is detracting the background is detracting. So change them. Make it black and white, and I am sure I will get lambasted for this, but here it goes- Remove the picture frame and doorway from the background, with those fancy little tools you are given in photoshop. Yeah thats right, I said it. I don't know if it's moral or ethical, but I don't really care. If it will make the one and only picture you have of her getting dressed better, you should do it. Not the ideal fix, but I am sure you'll do better next time. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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