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It's a very good shot. The only thing I don't particularly like about the image is the greenish tint in the vignetted area. I would probably have just left it in a gray tint, since the rest of the image is b/w. But: bravo!

Personally, I believe this was an excellent capture of a quite spontaneous moment, as been mentioned previously. There are some misgivings that might have have changed the image for the better, mostly one aperture, thus increasing time a bit as well. However, I believe one of the greatest changes for the better is a cropping change to an 8 x 10 format, removing most of the child and that brilliant white space of the sky.

PERFECT timing! Wow! I love it!

The shot is technically OK; it's sharp etc. Otherwise to me not very impressive.
The cropped one is already much better as the boy is disturbing the atmosphere.
Further people that believe in doves at a wedding may like this; I'm not one of them.

Whether you like the cropped image or the original is really just a matter of whether the reaction of the crowd gives meaning to the photo, and I think the reaction of the crowd is everything in this photo. Cropping out the white sky - not so helpful when you lose the people. I didn't find the sky to be that distracting anyway. It's not like a jumbo jet is flying across that area or something.

Erik, I agree with you. I've noticed a tendency with PN critiques toward what I consider over-cropping. What are often considered so-called "distractions" worthy of the crop tool often give a photo its life, texture, ambiance, and character. The cropped version, IMO, has lost much of the original's personality. Isolating a subject is more direct but can be less captivating and rich. I don't find the smiling, joyous young man a distraction. My eye can multi-task. It can be aware of the bride and doves as main subject and be aware of that young man as a significant subplot, helping to define the subject. The crop may be more classic, more focused, and perhaps more easily digested, but it's lost the spontaneity and movement of the moment. The crop feels static, more like a statue and less like live theater.

To crop or not to crop..........

Well, certainly it ends up being a matter of focus. My first blush was that there was imbalance because of the solid nature and positioning of the doves. A redux might allow one to find that the open sky is just a third light object, with the doves, that does sort of lends a sense of balance. The kid is actually pretty cool for context, something I am much more interested in these days in my own work.

So, the answer really lies in what you want the photo to accomplish it seems. I still find my eye playing back and forth between the doves and their natural 3rd member, the out of focus bride, which creates a very nice triangular movement around the image. I also think that the crop helps with that awkward bird, somehow minimizing it or allowing our eyes to see through to the elegance of the one partially covered.

Keeping the right side in makes the image a bit more inclusive and maybe more loose(less classic/expected), but maybe that is all--not better. It works ok for me and I don't think it makes a great deal of difference in the scheme of things, but there is still a sense of it being an afterthought and not integral to the real image here. Maybe I am just tired of the cute little kid photos that seem so pervasive in wedding shots these days, sometimes rendering the bride and groom as nearly secondary subjects!

The image is outstanding due to the moment capture and the bride in the perfect place. The crop living out the white space gives the doves and bride less distraction. BW seems to be the perfect presentation due to many whites to deal with. Congratulations of a fantastic capture!!!

So beautiful!

Dave, I think the crop works very well

Very nice composition

I think this is a great shot. However, I don't like the white area in the upper right. I found a solution that I would use if I were the photographer. The camera location is low, looking up, causing a perspective problem with the building. I used Photoshop's cropping tool with perpective checked to move the upper right corner to the upper left corner of the white area. Then I changed the image width (not constraining image) to 90% to approximately fix the distortion. And finally, I read another comment saying the boy both added something, and took away. I cropped him out. These are just ideas to think about. Use any that you like, or toss them all.
On second looking, I like DL Anderson's version better since it doesn't distort the center bird's head. The bird's perspective is more important than the building.

I think "both sides" in the discussion of whether to crop have valid arguments. I agree that the upper right corner is distracting because it is so bright. The crop brings more attention to the bride, and I would guess that she would be quite happy with the photo. On the other hand, the crowd adds much to the photo, especially the excitement on the young boy's face. Sadly, one can't have it both ways. We can have our opinions, but if I were in the shoes of Pantis, I'd be asking the bride what she likes best. It may be that both could be in the album.

Nice photo. The soft focus on the bride is spot on.
The photographer at my wedding last year in Moldova was planning on doing a shot with my wife and I, startling a group of pigeons into flight using her parasol. We'd seen one she did at another wedding and it looked great. Unfortunately, while she was quietly positioning herself to take the shot, my Mum decided to get rid of all these nasty birds messing up our wedding photos, and scared them off herself... Thanks Mum!

Please don't crop that boy out of this photograph ... ??? .... what is wrong with people for even suggesting such a thing?
This photograph captures an all round atmosphere, and that boy is very much a part of the strength of narrating this wonderful, lively event.
The fact that the doves are fixed (not blurred in motion) adds to the beauty of this moment, we all already know it is fleeting, and we're trying to hold on to that wonderful wedding day, in every crisp detail, to see something extraordinary. Sure, a motion blurred dove would also be a great picture, but that doesn't make THIS picture any less wonderful. This works perfectly too.
And a wedding event, is not just about the bride & groom, but inclusive of the family that gathers together, and feels the emotion together, and bonds together. So I repeat, don't crop that boy.
This picture works well, as I have stated why ... and some people just wish to add their two bits, and make things different for the sake of making things different ... they lose the possibility of simply enjoying a great work of art, for what it is.
All the best, and keep capturing these lovely moments.

i don't know if it's better cropped or not but i really like this picture.

congratulations

Very original and nice moment to keep!

S.

Hadi, I agree with what you say about the boy. At the same time, this is the one critique forum where honest thoughts, objections, opinions, other visions, are given. We don't have to blindly accept whatever a photographer puts before us here. How would anyone ever learn or grow if we simply accepted every "work of art" for what it is? One of your key points, and I agree, is that it's a wedding picture. The young guests at a wedding are often as important (as subjects of the photos) as the bride and groom. I see so much delight on bride's faces when they look at pictures of the guests at their wedding, especially years later. As a matter of fact, the key here is that this is a wedding picture. It is NOT a work of art nor does it seem it was intended to be. We throw around the term "art" way too often, and that has the tendency to dilute it. Very, very few wedding pictures are art. They are not intended to be and they are not looked at from that perspective. They are every bit as significant and in some cases more significant than art. Snapshots, as well, except for a few, are not art yet they have great meaning and significance for us.

It's so good it couldn't be better if it was staged. The candid elements lets the heart read into it. I love it for what it is.

I love the photo, and would trust my first reaction ("great shot") over my considered analysis. Having said that ... I'm glad the doves are sharp, because I'm bored seeing cliched shots of birds with blurred wings. I love the way the bride is beyond the depth of field, as it paradoxically invites us to think more about her (why is she soft?), rather than taking her for granted. In a sense, we're invited to look at what she's looking at. Again, speaking as someone who is not a wedding photographer and hardly ever goes to weddings in any capacity, her treatment, like that of the doves, is the surprise option. Her framing, of course, does enough to tell us it's her big day, she's the main human interest etc. I also think, while the crop gives a greater classical balance, and the blob of sky is certainly odd, that the uncropped version is better. I love the boy's reaction, and making it all centred would create a stagey feel. The lack of balance helps the sense of spontaneity, as many other "imperfect" elements do. That sense is the key to the photo. As some others have hinted, given the spontaneity, and the difficulty of capturing birds in this way, frozen in such a nice frame around the bride, my eye/brain makes an allowance for imperfection.

It seems to me that the photo has basically two layers, which have a radically different visual impact.
I very much appreciate the reaction of Pantis Sorin, who is openminded and aware to recognise the difficulty of the photograph and the consequent limits of the visual impact.
Getting back to the two layers, whose separation has no visual reason whatsoever:

1. there is the general scenery of a wedding: a happy couple and a happy crowd - as it should be in any wedding. It does not make any sense to crop, because the group of people has to stay there. It belongs to the scene and to the photo.
2. and then there are these doves. I have to say that they are really ugly. They give me a feeling of non-life, as if they hung from invisible lines. They are in harsh contrast to the general feast, they look dead in the lively context of a wedding.

Pantis Sorin is aware of the issue, which is due to the difficulty of the situation and of the photograph, and this is a great sign of openmindedness and selfcriticism.
And I agree with Fred. This is not a work of art, it is a piece of documentary for the happy couple, spoilt by the harsh separation of the two layers.
As to Paul D, I wish to comment that the stiffness and rigidness of the doves really undermines the visual impact of the whole photo and it detracts from the originally intended lightness and happiness of the documented event.
If the motion was depicted, and I'm sure the author is aware of this, this is not a matter of a cliché but rather balancing the overall message of the photo and unifying the two layers.

If possible, I would have used a slightly slower shutter speed to show movement in the wings.

…that the birds are perfectly frozen!  I don't think I would change anything and all the people's expressions are great.  Congrats on POTW!

The photograph is prety spot on for timing and composition. If you were going to start editing e.g. by cropping, you could paste in a bit (not all) of the groom from another shot applying a bit of Gaussian blur if required.

Come on, gang! This is a quick candid photo! This is not a portrait. It is great! All you PORTRAIT photographers who are making coments about DOF, and cropping and positioning are nuts!
The bride out of focus is right -- the doves are the important subjects. The little boy to the right is important -- his expression tells it all and he is probably related to the bride. The B&W is great for all the whites in the photo. Cropping the upper right crops the little boy, too. So just darken the upper right -- and the upper right is NOT distracting -- the DOVES are the attraction.
You can't set up this photo. Brides love candid shots and this one is a winner