Note: Not lovin' the formals, myself... It was getting really dark already (I could barely see them with my bare eyes let alone through a viewfinder), and I didn't set up strobes outside because I was worried about it raining that day (not to mention I would have lost every bit of ambient light that was remaining had I spent the time setting the lights up there).
Good clean work. A bit traditional but it seems like that's what the bride is. Your arrangements are good as well. I find that this is just as important as individual shots. Knowing good placement for 2-3 images together is a knack.
Plastic hanger? Come-on mang. I carry a wooden one just in case.
Hahaha... yeah the friggin' plastic hanger... I hadn't ever thought of that but after looking through these photos with my assistant the first time, we spotted the hanger, and immediately jotted that down on our list of things we need to pack for weddings. A wooden and a nice satin style hanger. I may try to photoshop one in - I'm going to buy those anyways, so I can just photograph the hanger, isolate it, and replace the plastic one...
The ones you mentioned for possible B&W - I love the greens and reds in there... it's subtle, but I like it. When it comes time to do the album I'll spend more time on the processing and get the greens just a bit more saturated etc... that's what I love about those ones.
I think you being over critical of yourself. In total the set is quite nice. I do think you could dial a bit more contrast into most of the formals to punch them up a bit. The wedding shot dress isn't working for me, looks like a blown white explosion of white light on my monitors with no detail, guess it's personal preference but I would work on that one a bit. I would think the bride would be very pleased. I like your work.
I like the set. I don't see why you're hatin' on your formals. They're not going to be winning any awards but aren't noteworthy in their suckyness either. The last one with the chicks pointing their flowers down is nice... I wish the crop had been different.
Dood who commented on the dress needs a calibrated monitor as the dress looks spot on to me in every shot I looked at.
Thanks for all the kind words, everyone. As for the work being traditional, well... I wouldn't say I am traditional in my shooting and processing style usually, but I will admit this was a really conservative bunch and a pretty traditional wedding. I don't think the subjects really lent themselves to over-the-top editing, except for a handful of the shots.
For what it's worth, my favorites are:
02, 10, 11, 15, 19, 20, 34, 38 (bottom), 39, 45, 47
It's no coincidence that those tend to be the less traditionally styles ones. :P
Lumen01: Thank you. To address #9, it definitely does have a blown-out background, but the dress itself isn't over-exposed on my calibrated display. But I'm assuming you just mean the 'average exposure' so to speak is overblown, in which case I'd have to say I agree. The problem was that if I didn't blow out the background, it ended up being distracting. I have shots where I used flash to bring the light level inside to a similar level as what it was outside to equalize exposure for dynamic range, but the focus was supposed to be the dress and I found that to distract from it. Of course, being as bright as it is, it still ends up being a bit distracting... That's why I like #10 waaaay more than #9. Your point still stands, and I'm not being defensive, just explaining the process in my head and why I made the decisions I did.
TTLKurtis wrote:
Dave: Which wedding dress shot are you referring to? Or both?
Sorry to disappear for 12 hours, dress shot #9 is just brilliantly blown on both my 24 monitors, you almost cannot see the middle of the dress. Just walked over and used my son's MacPro's this morning and it looks the same as on my PC's. Entirely possible all 4 of our monitors are wrong but I don't think so.
davenfl wrote:
Sorry to disappear for 12 hours, dress shot #9 is just brilliantly blown on both my 24 monitors, you almost cannot see the middle of the dress. Just walked over and used my son's MacPro's this morning and it looks the same as on my PC's. Entirely possible all 4 of our monitors are wrong but I don't think so.
Dave
I agree the image doesn't quite work, but I guarantee the dress itself is not blown. I've got it open in Lightroom right now and the only blown highlights (according to the histogram and highlight clipping warning) are in the background outside.
Not that it really matters, because the image still doesn't work. I only mention it because you might need to re-calibrate your displays if the dress itself actually appears to be clipping in the highlights (I can see the details just fine, though there isn't a lot of detail in much of the dress to begin with).
I carry a wooden one just in case.
