My brother in law got married a few days ago to his wonderful fiancé. Even though I wasn't the main photographer of the wedding (I wanted to sit back and enjoy the day with them) I knew I wanted to get to capture some memories of their special day at least.
1. My daughter was the flower girl for the first time (she did great).
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
1- Shooting straight down like that is hard to pull off. All I see are the tops of people's heads.
2- Not bad but the shot would be stronger is it was cropped a bit tighter.
3- A nice overall look the the ceremony but an otherwise uninteresting shot.
4- When I crop this shot down to just wider than the elevator door I like it a lot more.
5- Direct flash = no
6- See #5
After they're cropped, 2 or 4 aren't too bad.
I've only shot a handful of weddings, either friends' as the primary or as a second for pros, and I'm pretty much just a lurker on the wedding forum, so take my advice for what it's worth. The quality of wedding photos here on FM is outstanding and, no offense, but your work is a bit amateurish. I wouldn't expect a lot of comments one way or another from the pros, especially when uncle bobbing is a huge pet peeve of mst wedding photographers.
Jeralds comment, especially the last paragraph, is a bit tough. But seems true nonetheless. Not being at the Pro's level yet I comment and take my comment for what it's worth too
1 - like, but crop away the people, change orientation.
2 - nice perspective. Try and wait for the showmaster to lift his head - looks nicer.
3 - like it a lot. overview, but with a view
4 - hmm, cropping might help indeed. Seems strange. Can you add a bit raw-fill-light to their faces?
5 - bounce. your. flash. or at least balance it with ambient light
6 - see 5. plus: they're both smiling. but you see only their backsides. if possible, avoid to much backsides
Processingwise, the color work is okay, wb looks okay. Perhaps a bit boring because it has a plain jpg look. That _does not mean_ that you go down the preset / vsco / whatever route. But play a bit with curves, the sliders in your raw converter and stuff to seperate your images from the images out of every snappy cam. B&W: I'd try to reduce the toning as I find it distracting.
Hope that helped. A bit Your work looks (no offense, by all means!) a bit amateurish, but 1+2+3 show that you can pull it off. You'll no doubt get a lot better - if this was not your last wedding!
First off thank you for the replies, I do really appreciate the critiques. Secondly, I guess I should have mentioned I am nowhere near pro level. Perhaps I should have put this in the people section instead since this area is dedicated to the "Professional" wedding photographer. My apologies for that.
I was never or nowhere near in the way of the primary photographer, I was up in the balcony for most of my shooting and she was fourth row from the front. I do resent the uncle bob comment but thanks for pointing that out Jerald.These were no paid fun shots I took for them. The brides mother seen them and said they will be treasured for life. Sounds like she was really impressed.
I will take the critiquing on each picture and go back and see how I can fix them up some. I do appreciate you both taking the time out of your day to give me these detailed critiques. Thanks guys! I just need to keep trying my best.
As for Image 6 I did bounce the flash on that one off the ceiling. I agree with 5 though , it was an in the moment "quick look here" pic and I didn't have my flashed aimed at the ceiling.
mosabi wrote:
I do resent the uncle bob comment but thanks for pointing that out Jerald.These were no paid fun shots I took for them. The brides mother seen them and said they will be treasured for life. Sounds like she was really impressed.
Let me start off by saying that you definitely have talent, as demonstrated in your "First official wedding solo" thread. This work just isn't as strong but that could be due to the fact that you were trying to stay of the primary's way.
Secondly, I've uncle bobbed a handful of weddings myself (all immediate family) so I don't think the term "uncle bob" necessarily has a pejorative connotation. There are good uncle bobs (ones who introduce themselves, know the rules, stay out of the way, don't shoot the posed shots and post them on Facebook the next day, etc) and bad uncle bobs. But in my opinion, if you bring a dslr to a wedding and do anything more than a few shots from your seat, you're an uncle bob. Lying down in the middle of the isle during the ceremony definitely falls into that category.
I apologize if you took offense to me calling you an uncle bob. You may have been extremely well behaved but there is no way of knowing, which is why people may have been hesitant to comment. Most wedding photographers here on FM are going to encourage guests who bring dslrs to weddings.
If these are your best, you'd have been better off enjoying the day and enjoying their photographer's work with the rest of your family. Whether you want to hear it or not, you're the Uncle Bob this time. Not too many people on this forum, including me, have anything good to say about UBs.
The term "uncle bob" to me is an inconsiderate individual with a camera getting in the way of the primary photographer, since there is another meaning besides that I guess you could consider me one since I had a camera in hand taking a few pictures. I really don't understand why the hatrid with these types of uncle bobs who respect the main photographer. I was there for the ceremony and reception only, not even there for the pictures prior to the wedding nor was I ever taking a shot directly behind the primary who grouped them together. I was basically a fly on the wall and for that ground shot I was behind the last row and set my camera on the ground, I wasn't laying down.
It makes sense to me now why there were no comments initially. There are some very well respected individuals here and some that have that been in business for decades which I truly envy. Everyone starts from somewhere, right?
Mods: Can this be moved to the "People Photography forum"? Thank you!
There's nothing wrong with direct flash. #5 could have been improved by using a slower shutter speed to let the ambient light levels build up. It removes the bright subject in a dark cave effect that you've got here.
Also for #6 it might work a bit better with a bit lower light levels. You still want them lit, but not the wall so much that there no ambiance. It looks like it was taken in a brightly lit room.
I wouldn't take it personally. This forum can be very cold sometimes. But it's also a good place to give yourself a kick in the butt and push you to improve.
The term 'Bob' have so many meanings that I don't think, in the context of this forum anyway, you should let it affect you. I personally agree with the rest, whenever I see a GWC ( guest with camera ) I immediately checked off in my mind, "oh, there's a bob." Whether or not that person is in my way that day will greatly influence how I feel about bob. Some nights I even hang out with bob during reception and talk gear.
Now for crits -
Overall the exposure / colors are fine, which shows you are technically good. I'm not a fan of sepia tone processing because I think it's a little outdated.
1) In my opinion the focal length doesn't work in this case. You can't see the 2 kids' faces so what do you want to see? The people awww-ing at them. Go wide. I have an example of this from one of my recent weddings I shot for another FM-er, will post later.
2) I think center crop would work better. But my bigger issue is the content. Their expressions do not say anything to a viewer who don't know them personally. What is the story here? I think content will go a long way in improving the quality of an image.
Take this image from one of my recent weddings for example.
The wedding was moved literally last second from a gorgeous outdoor venue to this little dinky hallway room in this hotel due to the storm. I literally can't move because people are standing all around me. The backdrop for the location is hideous. The light was terrible ( so bright outside, dark inside,) and my composition sucked because of where I was standing. But the shot works imo, because it tells a story.
3.Try editing this in B&W with contrast boosted. I think it will look better.
4.Outside of the processing (again, I think B&W will work better here), I think the image can be improved all across the board. The cropping for example. the stuff on the bottom left and on the right ( the buttons, signs,) all distract and give the image that amateur look. Cut all of that out.
The second thing you can do is give the image a little flair. Ok the couple is kissing in an elevator. So give it a voyeur-ish feel. Step all the way back and burn everything around them and highlight the elevator and them kissing. Or maybe have the door partially closed and snap as it' right about to close, maybe even use slow shutter to show that the door was closing. These are the things that separate so-so images from good ones.
5&6 are snapshot-ish to me. If anything at 5 I would try pulling in a little ambient light and tone down the flash. Also step back and zoom in a little.
Here is the exif info for #5 "Manual exposure, 1/200 sec, f/10, ISO 800" I will try what you suggested next time. The room was actually very dim. Like I said though with the shot, it was spur of the moment.
mosabi wrote:
Here is the exif info for #5 "Manual exposure, 1/200 sec, f/10, ISO 800" I will try what you suggested next time. The room was actually very dim. Like I said though with the shot, it was spur of the moment.
Since it was spur of the moment, maybe it's not fair to comment but you did put the photo up, so... You probably could have gotten away with 1/60 at f/4. You gain 2 stops with the shutter and 2 2/3 from the aperture change. The addition of that much ambient would make it an entirely different photo. You're clearly comfortable shooting manual so when you know you're going to be in those dim lighting situations meter for ambient, adjust as necessary for DOF, camera shake, subject movement (ghosting), and let your flash do the rest.
And you paid for a 2.8 lens, don't be afraid to shoot at 2.8.
widjayaman wrote:
I wouldn't take it personally. This forum can be very cold sometimes. But it's also a good place to give yourself a kick in the butt and push you to improve.
The term 'Bob' have so many meanings that I don't think, in the context of this forum anyway, you should let it affect you. I personally agree with the rest, whenever I see a GWC ( guest with camera ) I immediately checked off in my mind, "oh, there's a bob." Whether or not that person is in my way that day will greatly influence how I feel about bob. Some nights I even hang out with bob during reception and talk gear.
Now for crits -
Overall the exposure / colors are fine, which shows you are technically good. I'm not a fan of sepia tone processing because I think it's a little outdated.
1) In my opinion the focal length doesn't work in this case. You can't see the 2 kids' faces so what do you want to see? The people awww-ing at them. Go wide. I have an example of this from one of my recent weddings I shot for another FM-er, will post later.
2) I think center crop would work better. But my bigger issue is the content. Their expressions do not say anything to a viewer who don't know them personally. What is the story here? I think content will go a long way in improving the quality of an image.
Take this image from one of my recent weddings for example.
The wedding was moved literally last second from a gorgeous outdoor venue to this little dinky hallway room in this hotel due to the storm. I literally can't move because people are standing all around me. The backdrop for the location is hideous. The light was terrible ( so bright outside, dark inside,) and my composition sucked because of where I was standing. But the shot works imo, because it tells a story.
3.Try editing this in B&W with contrast boosted. I think it will look better.
4.Outside of the processing (again, I think B&W will work better here), I think the image can be improved all across the board. The cropping for example. the stuff on the bottom left and on the right ( the buttons, signs,) all distract and give the image that amateur look. Cut all of that out.
The second thing you can do is give the image a little flair. Ok the couple is kissing in an elevator. So give it a voyeur-ish feel. Step all the way back and burn everything around them and highlight the elevator and them kissing. Or maybe have the door partially closed and snap as it' right about to close, maybe even use slow shutter to show that the door was closing. These are the things that separate so-so images from good ones.
5&6 are snapshot-ish to me. If anything at 5 I would try pulling in a little ambient light and tone down the flash. Also step back and zoom in a little.
Awesome post! That's a great capture you got there. The color is actually called "paper toner" but its similar to sepia like you mentioned. I will definitely need to try B&W
jeraldcook wrote:
Since it was spur of the moment, maybe it's not fair to comment but you did put the photo up, so... You probably could have gotten away with 1/60 at f/4. You gain 2 stops with the shutter and 2 2/3 from the aperture change. The addition of that much ambient would make it an entirely different photo. You're clearly comfortable shooting manual so when you know you're going to be in those dim lighting situations meter for ambient, adjust as necessary for DOF, camera shake, subject movement (ghosting), and let your flash do the rest.
And you paid for a 2.8 lens, don't be afraid to shoot at 2.8. ...Show more →
It's fair game since I put the photo up at the time I didn't realize I was still on f/10. It seemed to happen so quick. At 1/60 I'd be afraid of motion blur. I guess my lens has IS so I shouldn't be afraid to go that slow.
mosabi wrote:
It's fair game since I put the photo up at the time I didn't realize I was still on f/10. It seemed to happen so quick. At 1/60 I'd be afraid of motion blur. I guess my lens has IS so I shouldn't be afraid to go that slow.
The flash would compensate some for subject movement. If they aren't moving, and you can hold the camera reasonably still, they should come out fine.
It's a balancing game based on the actual lighting conditions. If 1/60 is still below ambient then the flash's short duration will help freeze the motion. In a dark room you could shoot that shot hand-held at 55mm and without IS at at 1/10 and it would probably be okay if you're using flash. As ambient becomes a greater source of the overall amount of light you need for proper exposure, a faster shutter speed becomes necessary. if you're shooting your 17-55 IS I'm willing to be that shot will come out fine at 1/60 99% of the time.
Also, keep in mind that IS will not stop motion blur; it only stops camera shake. If your subjects are moving the you'd have to increase you shutter speed.
I think you have every right to post in this forum since your post is wedding related. I think, it is not overwhelming but shows potential. You are aware of the sometimes amazing sets posted here and posting yours anyway shows that you want to improve and are ready to take critique.
Take your time to develop, try out the suggestions to your images and see how the change the look, test if you like it. I can only encourage you to post your sets. I for one do and hope at least someone takes the time to criticize
Plus: take a bunch of sets from the big names and a bunch of sets from the no-names, change watermarks, post under different nicknames. I bet more than a few people won't notice it and congratulate the supposed-to-be big names on their sets and ignore the other ones. Community, for my taste, is way to much about buddy-ism. But that's live. Perhaps, one day, I'll be one of the big names No offense in any direction because some people are beyond the skill of other people. They're just not way beyond ...
D. Diggler wrote:
Uncle mosabi couldn't resist playing with his toys.
What a thoughtful comment ...
JoeMelzer wrote:
I think you have every right to post in this forum since your post is wedding related. I think, it is not overwhelming but shows potential. You are aware of the sometimes amazing sets posted here and posting yours anyway shows that you want to improve and are ready to take critique.
Take your time to develop, try out the suggestions to your images and see how the change the look, test if you like it. I can only encourage you to post your sets. I for one do and hope at least someone takes the time to criticize
Plus: take a bunch of sets from the big names and a bunch of sets from the no-names, change watermarks, post under different nicknames. I bet more than a few people won't notice it and congratulate the supposed-to-be big names on their sets and ignore the other ones. Community, for my taste, is way to much about buddy-ism. But that's live. Perhaps, one day, I'll be one of the big names No offense in any direction because some people are beyond the skill of other people. They're just not way beyond ...
Thank you Joe! That really helps my motivation. It seems a bit different here than on other forums I am a member on. I have met great people here though and do really appreciate the critiques whether bad or good. I can take a little heat, heck I'm no where near pro level, I admit that.
I comment and take my comment for what it's worth too 
