We thought of doing an engagement session first so the couple has some confidence in us, considering we had never shot a wedding before! The session lasted about four hours because it took them a while to get comfortable around the camera and us, the photographers. You can almost see the smiles changing from awkward to genuine, towards the end
A good start I think. Please bear in mind that I myself have only ever done 1 engagement style session before, so take this with a pinch of salt, but hopefully it will be useful.
1) Nice. Feels a little tight on her though, I'd prefer a little more space at the top and bottom. The balance and space between the two is nice otherwise, good clean composition.
2) Colours have suddenly changed. I'm not so keen on 2a, but worth it for variety I guess. You see that composition quite often, and it just feels a bit too contrived to me personally.
3) 3a is nice, but a little close on the top again. 3b doesn't do anything for me.
4) Simple, nice and clean again. But not as well balanced, the half cut off hand/elbow, combined with the wall (space) on the right doesn't learn your eye naturally into the photo.
5) Again good, but too tight on the bottom (almost cuts off shoe)
I'll leave the rest for others. Overall I think you chose a nice location for lighting but a couple of simple things could help improve it for me:
(a) take an extra step back so that you're not too tight on the edge of the frame, you can always crop in a tiny bit later if needed, but you obviously can't really create space that is missed out.
(b) #2 suggests you might need to work on being more consistent with exposure/processing. Perhaps it was intentional, I'm not sure.
A good start. I know you didn't ask for critique, so I can remove this if you want. Working late, too much coffee...
I really like #4, just wish the elbow wasn't cut off, and #6 is nice as well, but his right hand is a little awkward, like unnatural. Would have been better with a close fist or sticking the tips of his fingers into the crack in the wall...would have looked more natural that way, but still a nice set nonetheless!
ricardovaste wrote:
2) Colours have suddenly changed. I'm not so keen on 2a, but worth it for variety I guess. You see that composition quite often, and it just feels a bit too contrived to me personally.
3) 3a is nice, but a little close on the top again. 3b doesn't do anything for me.
4) Simple, nice and clean again. But not as well balanced, the half cut off hand/elbow, combined with the wall (space) on the right doesn't learn your eye naturally into the photo.
5) Again good, but too tight on the bottom (almost cuts off shoe)
Yup, aware of those mistakes, esp the elbow one. Point noted :)
KibblesNbitz wrote
I really like #4, just wish the elbow wasn't cut off, and #6 is nice as well, but his right hand is a little awkward, like unnatural. Would have been better with a close fist or sticking the tips of his fingers into the crack in the wall...would have looked more natural that way, but still a nice set nonetheless!
Yeah, #6 was still in the early stages of the shoot and the couple were very conscious, which clearly shows. I'll keep it in mind next time :) Thank you!
I would have to say you are off to a good start, biggest thing I learned starting out is to remember to leave some breathing room when shooting to accommodate for cropping when printing
sherijohnson wrote:
I would have to say you are off to a good start, biggest thing I learned starting out is to remember to leave some breathing room when shooting to accommodate for cropping when printing
