Please critique my first wedding

[jaime_mccormack]

I shot my first wedding the first weekend in April for my best friend. I was

extremely nervous especially since it was for someone so important to me, but

luckily she was beyond impressed with what I was able to capture for her. I

would love some constructive criticism and any advice would be more than

appreciated. I don't have a website at the moment, but you can find my work at

[paul_sokal___dallas__tx]

Jamie,

 

I think for best friend pictures, you did a fine job. If you're interested in becoming a professional wedding shooter, then that's another question.

 

Paul

[gallerytk]

Hi Jaime,

 

Overall nice work for your first wedding. My critique would be to watch your horizon lines, the tilt on the close up of the alter doesn't work well.

 

Good Luck!

[jaime_mccormack]

Paul,

Could you elaborate on why you think that? I've been shooting for seven years now, obviously weddings were not my main focus, so advice would be greatly appreciated.

[think27]

Tiffany Knight. If you've uploaded an example and or correction of an image done by Jamie - Please re submit but this time please take a look at the instructions in the guidelines...

 

I'll also post it here...

 

Image should be 511 pixels or less in width

 

You must put a caption or title in the caption box.

 

Thanks.. We don't want links to images in the forums please.

 

Moderator.

[picturesque]

I personally don't like selective color and the peephole effect--a little too much for me. However, generally you did fine for a first wedding. I'd say the poses are kind of in between traditional posing and PJ style posing (when that happens--maybe I should call it fashion style...). If you are going to do any posing, IMHO, it should be distinctly 'something'. For instance, the shots of the groom with the bridesmaids. The angle is somewhat arbitrary and does not contribute to the composition or story. Also, the bride alone formal is too wide angle for me--I would have shot this horizontal so I could use less of a wide angle and still let the train have breathing room, and I personally don't like the guys' hands in front of them. The mirror shot is also kind of in between. I would have put the couple at more of an angle to the mirror so that you see more reflection and less of their backs. Also, I would have done maybe a couple more 'arrangements' in front of the mirror. I only saw two pages of images. I assume that isn't all you shot, but these are what you want comment on?

[paula2]

Hi Jamie

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I think you did a great job for your first wedding, it's very nerve wracking photographing your first and I can see that you put thought into your groups.

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I would say that if it's something that you want to keep doing then start learning photoshop. I could see on one of the images with the larger bridesmaid you had tried to smooth out her arm, but there are visible circles of a cloning brush there.

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But well done for giving it a go, Paula

[jaime_mccormack]

Nadine - Thank you for your input. I did shoot a lot more than 2 pages of photos but I thought these would get me good advice on critiques. As far as selective color, I didn't use that when I was editing. The mirror shot was more of a candid moment that the B & G were having and I just happened to be in the room to capture that shot. I've been doing live concert photography for six years so getting candid shots are a little easier for me than posing people right now.

 

Paula - I didn't do any altering to her arm, that is how her arm looks. I am still learning all of the little tricks in photoshop and am also looking for filters and plug-ins to add that special look to the photos.

[jaime_mccormack]

Paula - I was looking at the wrong photo you were speaking of and do see where there are still visible circles of the clone brush. As I said, I am still learning Photoshop and have come to experience that editing with a mouse is a little difficult. I think it's time to invest in a wacom tablet!

[jena27]

Not bad for a first go, but you did make a few of the classic first wedding mistakes, like cutting off feet (and lots of them), camera tilting issues (which can easily be fixed), and blowing out highlights (are you shooting in RAW? You'd be amazed at what detail you can recover from either under or over-exposed photos).

[paul_sokal___dallas__tx]

Jamie,

 

I think to take you pictures to the next level, you need to improve your compositional skills. Pay more attention to your backgrounds. Lots of distracting elements there. A lot of your compositions could be improved by shooting tighter, for instance the cake smear shot. Everything is centered in your photos. Change it up-rule of thirds.

 

Try shooting wide open to limit DOF and blur out the ugly background. Change your perspective more to make your pictures more interesting. While your flash technoque isn't bad, you could do better-the lighting looks somewhat harsh, not natural (see planetneil.com, strobist.com) Hope that helps.

 

Paul

[dotun famakinwa]

Jamie,

 

I second Paul Sokal's comments except for the part on the lighting - I actually think it is quite good. The pictures are sharp and exposure is really good. As Paul stated, practice more on your composition. Nearly all the pictures are "straight-on" - There are no interesting angles. Also try to use a shallower DOF to hide clutter and also to give your pictures some character.

 

Dotun

[christopher hartt dallas]

The image "properties" info shows you did a lot of work in Photoshop or other editing program to correct exposures, sharpness, cropping, etc Make sure your images have a gray pt (since you're shooting Canon aot b/w pt with Nikon) established. When you minimized the shadows, a lot of the image "depth" and tone went away also. Off-camera flash and a bracket would help this.

 

Also, why the slow exposures and tight apertures (1/15 & f9)? Did you have a lot of images that you discarded? Your manual settings seem unusual to me. What effect were you hoping to create with them?