My most recent wedding. Felt like I could have done better on this one. Weather forecast got consistently shitter as the day progressed and things only brightened up in the late evening. Still, I'm either getting more consistent or less good at culling as I found it hard to cut this one down for the forum.
These guys were a really lovely couple and ahead of the day had given me the impression they were very camera shy. I thought they were very natural actually! They were married in Rusper before a fairly long (hour plus) drive over to the barns in Upwaltham where they had their reception. The barns lie nestled in a valley and I wanted to take them up the hill so we could look down on the venue but due to the rain/mud she wasn't keen. Understandable really.
Harsh critiques always welcome. (As are nice ones!) In line with the guidelines for critique concept, I'm looking for areas I could have done better, any weak shots and anything else you think I may have missed.
Good job mate, weather around here of late has been crap.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, I really prefer your b&w's to colour. Have you thought about going solely black and white. I think it could really set you apart and act as a differentiator.
I've seriously thought about it mate. People seem to like my b/w stuff. I'm working on my 2013 brochure at the moment and thinking of offering a b/w only wedding approach a bit like the all PJ all b/w wedding I posted last year. Not sure going all b/w would help me win more clients but I'm sure I'd get to work with more I really liked. But hey, gotta pay bills!
More interestingly, what is it about my colour that you think could use improvement? There's a few in here that I think aren't fantastic colour wise, but if the colour issue is more systemic then maybe I can make some improvements.
I'd tend to agree on the colours... I think colours are a bit out of kilter. Too much of some colour and too little of others and the wrong amount of saturation / brightness at different parts of the histogram.
For example:
38 is really dominated by the yellow/green of the grass.
37 seems to have too much contrast for my taste.
23 seems a bit overexposed and the colours haven't coped well with it.
12 the skin tones aren't "attractive" under that light.
5 looks too blue.
1 seems very high contrast but instead of the colours being subtle, they're really strong - especially the green.
Hope this helps some! Only a personal opinion. Nice shots though
Cheers guys, think my colours are a bit more varied here than normal and how I'd like them to be. Phil, agree with nearly everything you've said, very fair. The grass was pretty close to that however, it's very lush due to all the rainfall and the light was very diffuse, but quite bright which seemed to make it pop a fair bit.
I'm shooting on Saturday so going to work on getting better colour.
tonyhart wrote:
Cheers guys, think my colours are a bit more varied here than normal and how I'd like them to be. Phil, agree with nearly everything you've said, very fair. The grass was pretty close to that however, it's very lush due to all the rainfall and the light was very diffuse, but quite bright which seemed to make it pop a fair bit.
I'm shooting on Saturday so going to work on getting better colour.
Don't do it Tony! Grow a pair and become a B+W shooter, you'll be grateful in the long run!
Instead I'm going to grow a pair and stick to my guns. I recognise that my b/w is one of my strengths but my clients seem to like the mix. This is my busiest season yet by a long chalk and so I'm disinclined to suddenly move to an all b/w on the strength of a forum thread!
P.S. My nuts are already massive. The doctor has suggested reductive surgery.
I agree Tony you should be shooting in BW. It suites you and I think you Brits need a good BW shooter ... so you are just what the doctor ordered!
I so wish people dressed like you guys for weddings over here in the states...so good
Cheers for all the thoughts guys. Think there's already some great b/w shooters here. Ascough is mostly b/w and he's someone I've looked up to since the beginning. I think all b/w is right for some clients, but not all. Over the next two years I hope to be booking some clients who are interested in a fully b/w approach, but not all. I don't think it's right for all my clients and I don't think it's right for me. Nonetheless, your viewpoints are taken on board. It's interesting reading this in relation to the 'wow' thread because it comes back to the dichotomy between what satisfies photographers and what satisfies clients.
