I've been doing photography part time since November 2011, so I still consider myself pretty new to this. I've mostly done family photography with a few other things thrown in, though my camera comes with me to almost any event I attend - practice makes better On May 4th I shot my very first wedding (14 hrs!). I shot it basically as if I was doing it solo, my wife used a camera as well but she isn't a photographer (she did get several nice shots though). Here's a link to my blog post, and if you also go to the gallery page on my website there is a wedding photo gallery with a few more pictures. Being my first wedding, I'd appreciate some comments or mild critique so I can improve for my next one. I did discover that I absolutely love shooting weddings! Thanks!
I'd work on nailing your exposure, looks like in backlit situations you tend to underexpose, maybe relying too much on the camera metering. I find its helpful to just dial up some exposure compensation when I see heavy backlight if you don't have time to set to a proper manual exposure.
stevez32 wrote:
Not too shabby for just starting out.
I'd work on nailing your exposure, looks like in backlit situations you tend to underexpose, maybe relying too much on the camera metering. I find its helpful to just dial up some exposure compensation when I see heavy backlight if you don't have time to set to a proper manual exposure.
Thanks so much stevez32 for taking the time to look at my blog! Yes I often had some exposure compensation dialed in, but not enough. I still tend to rely too much on the ability to fix my nice D600 files in post. I want to find that good balance between having correct settings and quickly catching moments. There was a lot of backlighting during the day, perhaps I should also have been using spot metering.
I didn't put a link to my gallery page in my first post, there are a few different images in the gallery that are not in my blog post. The wedding gallery is the first one on the page, below it is a set of engagement photos for the same couple shot last fall:
NYstyles wrote:
I think you did great for a newbie!
Some images need some fill light and bring up some exposure a bit. Also some seem a bit cool and could use some warmth.
Thanks NYstyles! That warm/cool thing is a struggle for me. When I use my Spyder 4 pro to calibrate my Mac pro, it warms up my screen too much, everything gets quite saturated and way too warm which results in me making my files too cool, so I've been using either the built-in color profile, or just using the mac utility for calibrating - but I know that this is not very accurate either as when I view my files on anything else, they still look too cool. I'll adjust them a bit more and up the shadows a bit too. Thanks again!
I see a lot of shots "fighting the light" another words - shooting towards direction of the light and try to overcome it. It's ok for siluets but not too smart to do it all/most of the time. I see this bc I just noticed not too long ago that I can make that light my friend - by positioning myself accordingly as well as positioning my subjects. That will help with fill light as well (pay attention to direction of the main light source). Don't be afraid to ask them to move (when it's possible).
You got good creative ideas and yeah, congrats on your first wedd. gig! You're right - practice make it better. You did your homework and it paid off.
CMB Photo wrote:
I see a lot of shots "fighting the light" another words - shooting towards direction of the light and try to overcome it. It's ok for siluets but not too smart to do it all/most of the time. I see this bc I just noticed not too long ago that I can make that light my friend - by positioning myself accordingly as well as positioning my subjects. That will help with fill light as well (pay attention to direction of the main light source). Don't be afraid to ask them to move (when it's possible).
You got good creative ideas and yeah, congrats on your first wedd. gig! You're right - practice make it better. You did your homework and it paid off. ...Show more →
Yes I had a lot of backlit situations during the getting ready, ceremony processional, and the reception. I do have a bunch of getting ready shots that are not backlit, and some reception shots later in the evening after the sun set. For the reception shots, I think I should have used some fill flash to help my exposures. Thank you so much for taking the time to have a look and to give me feedback!
On May 4th I shot my very first wedding (14 hrs!). I shot it basically as if I was doing it solo, my wife used a camera as well but she isn't a photographer (she did get several nice shots though). Here's a link to my blog post, and if you also go to the gallery page on my website there is a wedding photo gallery with a few more pictures. Being my first wedding, I'd appreciate some comments or mild critique so I can improve for my next one. I did discover that I absolutely love shooting weddings! Thanks!