Last minute wedding jitters. "HELP!" Please COMMENT ONLY, NO RATINGS please. I am only interested in improving - not numerical scoring. Thanks.

The groom on the phone moments before the wedding began. Your

comments/critiques (especially bad) are most welcomed. I believe i

shot this with a 420EX bounced off the ceiling (first time using a

flash). Thanks again.

The flow of the hand against the face would make the crop better with space on the left instead of on the right. This would have the dead space flow up into the face. Just my thoughts.

it's funny you mention that, because he was on the phone with the other hand and i looked away for a moment ready to snap the pic, and saw that he had moved hands. unfortunately, there was something hanging from the wall/people just behind him on his right, which would have "polluted" the shot that way. so, i guess moral of the story is for me to shoot faster! thanks for your comments.

If you are recording the moment- a bit of "pollution" from the space he is in may bring the moment into context and give it a recognizible feel to the environment. So, my advice would be dont worry so much that your shots become static and stale in the future.

 

Overall I think this is a good shot and agree with the above comment but you cant control everything. Maybe a bit more space on the bottom would be nice but overall still good.

 

Are the jitters yours or the grooms?

 

Knicki

Definitely not mine (jitters that is). i have nothing to be jittery about - still enjoying the fun single life! Funny thing is, the groom was sick throughout the wedding evening/night/early morning. Point well taken in terms of the rest of your response, Knicki. Thanks.

Exposure is good and the subject is good. I just think that sepia is becoming cliche

The interesting thing in this image is the man's concentration: I like the intensity of the facial expression, strong even if his eyes are closed.

The toning indeed does not add a lot.

In response to the tonings, my reasons for choosing a sepialike look were severalfold. First of all, this shot was taken with strong tungsten lighting present in the room. Also, the groom's outfit was also yellowish, so that just made for too many yellow things, IMHO, as is. Second, many of my parent's wedding shots were done sepia, so in trying to match the actual day wedding shots, i was trying to "mimick" this. In fact, many of my relative's old country wedding shots are in sepia. Hence, my choosing sepia. If i had been using color corrected film and paid more attention to color to begin with, i guess i could have done things differently. Thanks for the comments.

Actually I would be interested in seeing the untouched version of this picture. Always great to see captures of 'the moments'. Nicely done.

2 point:

 

The eye, I would like see it open.

 

The composition, I agree with Knicki about the context and I also think that could be better move the composition on the left, I mean the empty space on the right is boring, but if you invert the free space the hand help to find a good balance.

ok, here is the untouched version scanned in from negative. the lighting wasn't quite as "yellow" on this as the other shots in the same location.