Daddy's Dance

This is just adorable! I love the way the daughter looks at the daddy that conveys so much to the story of this photograph. Exceptional capture.

Thank you Lester :)

Wow, classic, elegant and warmly touching.  A photo that this Dad will treasure forever...  Mike

It's just another wedding photograph out of the millions (billions, maybe?) shot every year, and this one has too many extraneous elements in the background. I suppose some people will argue that it's a "candid moment" or even a grab shot, and the stuff in the background doesn't really matter. I don't buy into that argument. At all. The extra elements in the background cause the viewer to lose sight of the main subjects. The background overpowers the emotional content.

The only thing this photograph has going for it is that it's in black and white.

Aside from finding the composition a little awkward because of the way the couple is centered and the action in the background is equally distributed on each side, I think it works. I like the strong highlighting on the bride's far cheek almost but not quite blending into the wall. I do like what is being shown in the background. The central couple is strong enough and, to me, the background gives the presence and feel of a wedding in progress, rather than a clean and more isolated portrait of the couple. I think each approach has its place and a good wedding shoot would have many solo shots of the couple and many like this that give a flavor of the event.

It's rare to find much more creative or artistic wedding photos and it's probably the case that most mothers-of-the-bride wouldn't appreciate too much breaking with tradition and what they've come to expect. They want their kids pretty much set into a mold looking good and happy. They want clear eyes like this and a loving look. They want the memories.

These photos are made for a purpose, and I can't see that this one doesn't serve that purpose, at least adequately, though not transcendently and not with much alternative flair.

One technical flaw I can't escape is in the toning where the red is bleeding through in some areas in a somewhat unsightly way, particularly on the more shadowed side of the brides face as well as on her upper arm and on the back wall on the right, among other places. A more nuanced method of toning, or perhaps it's just the jpg/PN conversion, would be a bit more pleasing to the eye.

Love the connection between the girl and guy holding her. Not only do I like the background elements, I wanted to see *more* of the background. But I'm a fan of the entire milieu in people photography and tend to consider the background and surroundings part of the flavor rather than distractions.

I'll bet the family loves this photo. That eye contact makes all the difference.

Are the highlights blown? I'm on a laptop at the moment and can't tell for sure. The left side of her face seems to blend into the background.

I see the effect Fred mentioned - common with duo/split toning and JPEG compression. Melissa's doesn't look too bad. Some of my own look much worse. Happened to some of my duotoned monochrome photos when I used the batch uploader - recompression made a mess of the duotoning and introduced ugly blotchy color artifacts. Using photo.net's single photo uploader can bypass any additional compression so subtle toning effects should look exactly as they do in your editing software (assuming the usual sRGB stuff).

The bride has a hypnotic look on her face. I'm not sure whether it's because of the circumstances leading up to this moment, or because of the look she's getting from the groom, or because of the intensity of her love. Regardless, I see the tonality of her face and of the wall in the background as being quite compatible with - and perhaps reinforcing - her expression. I like this photograph, and I get the feeling that the bride and groom like it too.

Good job, Melissa.

Lex, on my desktop monitor, which is a good one, I am seeing (or at least sensing) at least a bit of separation between the face and wall, and I like the way that strong highlighting pushes the envelope without crossing a line.

She isn't the bride and the guy isn't the groom. She's the guy's little girl.

I like this image. There seems to be a good connection between the subjects. The narrow depth of focus isolates the pair and renders the background less distracting while giving a sense of place and purpose. The girl is quite pretty in this lighting.

However, I don't like the exposure/post-processing. If not for a tuft of hair on the far side of the girls head, her entire head would merge with the background. The hand is blown out. I know this is often considered and artistic "look". It's not to my taste and it looks like an exposure/PP mistake.

Otherwise it's a delightful, candid at a wedding.

I think it's great. Mostly for reasons mentioned by Lex. The background gives valuable context. Having the subject centered gives stability/timelesness to the moment. The genre alone elevates it above most photos, in that (personal bias rising) capture of relationships between people is one of the highest aspirations of photography. And this does it well, particularly with the highlights in her eyes depicting her concentration on him. Of course having such a totally photogenic subject aids the cause!

Correction-should read "her entire face would merge with the background".

I'm not convinced that's not the groom, but that's definitely not the bride unless they are in a country where you can marry 10-year-olds.

I don't find the background distracting because it's sufficiently out of focus, but on my work monitor, which isn't particularly good, the photo is a bit eery because the entire left cheek of the girl seems to be missing. I do like the fact it is not a posed shot (or at least doesn't appear to be). I might have cropped out the woman and little girls on the left side of the frame either in-camera or in post, and as always with B&W, I'd like to see the color version.

My bad, Jim . . . Just substitute "male" for "groom" and "female" for "bride" in my comments.

It's a charming shot for the girl's family and there is a sweetness in her expression, but I don't like its central framing, and to be more effective it needs to be much more tightly cropped. A nice portrait orientation, cutting off the distracting elements at the side would, improve it mightily. Technically I suppose the highlights are blown, but I don't think this worries me: I am not sure it could be fixed without ruining what there is. I think that with the cropping it would transform the image into something that concentrates the eye on the girl's lovely expression and happiness (assuming there is enough residual detail in the file after cropping).

I'm not sure it is the bride and groom, as the girl look realy very young ,while the man ,even in his back, looks much older.
The couple is not realy centered, as the LHS line, is a strong division of composition , vs the RHS part.
I like the 3 parts,when the BG tell a little story of the event, even though it is not a very unusual scene. The light and B/W are soft, and as such, it is a nice family memory.

If the photo would be cropped from the left and right side the toxic relation between child and man would be stressed. The audience attention is pulled aside in the original frame and adds the wedding context. I found the illumination of the girls face overdone. General impression is very good.

This shot is a candid journalistic style shot but regardless of the extraneous imagery in the back ground the photo draws you into the girls eyes capturing the magic of the moment. I think it is quite good. It could be cropped, extraneous background removed with Photoshop or just leave it as it is, a really nice candid image at a live event. I think the image captures the moment. If I was the dad and that my daughter, that shot would be framed and on my desk. Nice work from Melissa.

I really like the shot...the tint of the photo and i really like the eye contact between the two.

It seems to be clear that the female is more like late elementary school to junior high age, too young to be the bride. As several people have pointed out, her face is over-exposed. It can probably be fixed in post processing.

I like the background on the left side of the image. They provide the context of a wedding, but they are too far to the left and the image is not showing enough of them. I know, as a candid image, the photographer had no choice. However, the bright light on the right side is very distracting.

I would crop it as indicated. We would lose the context as well as the distraction in the background. But the bright round object in the background remains. That is still distracting and can be cloned out if desired.

The age of the girl makes this image a bit weird. She seems too young to be the bride but is older than a little girl adults typically hold.