Here's a real quickie I shot somewhat recently. We only had a little time (their lunch break) to shoot on either side of a residential street. Looking forward to shooting their wedding in a couple weeks. CC is always welcome.

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#2 is excellent... great series!

favorites are shots 2 and 4-nice, simple shots with little distraction

shot 1, not a fan of the (slightly) lower angle-result is up the nose-overall a bit stiff as well

shot 2, would like a little less space in this-i really like the crop and positioning of the couple but maybe a little bit too much space is left for my eyes to wander around in-i'm on the fence with this one

shot 3, all those hands are really distracting and busy-might help to hide some of them so that the attention is drawn and held at their faces and expressions-i do like the intimacy of this shot, though

hope this feedback is helpful-thanks for sharing your work

daniel

#2 is nice, cropped a little tighter would make it even nicer. he "done" good for "hisself" I reckon.

#2 shows his hair is thinning. A little bit of ps to help out? Watch the poses and lighting for him. It doesn't seem like he has much of a problem here, or maybe you've just made it look that way.

Nice work - especially considering the time constraints. I really like the emotional connection on #3. The texture on #4 seems a bit much over the bottom half - as if they're disintegrating? Just what I thought when looking at it. Sorry!

When I looked at these shots, the first thing that came to my mind was how in love they are. I think you did a wonderful job of capturing that.

Sharon

Nice shots! It's never easy to work under pressure but these came out nicely.

I'll have to echo Linda's comments on #4 - the blur over the bottom half is a touch strong for my tastes. YMMV.

Saad - Thank you.

Daniel - Haha...Yeah, #3 looks like they each have five hands. I really liked the hand he had on her arm, so I just decided to keep them. May try a crop. Thanks!

Scott - Maybe there is a bit too much space. I wanted something with more environment, though. Thanks! And yes, he did well for himself; they are both excellent people.

Linda - #4 is a bit overdone. I was trying something different. Actually, I didn't even show this version of the image to them originally, because I usually don't add blurs. Thanks for thoughts on that though. I appreciate it. #2 hair thinning...yeah. Honestly, I don't do any work on that type of cleaning up unless they want it. I've been fortunate to have people who are really comfortable with how they look.

Sharon - Thanks. I'm not sure how much credit I can get...they really are in love and show it well.

Oasis - I definitely agree with you and Linda on #4. The bottom was distracting, though, so I may try doing a custom vignette and see how that looks. Thanks!

Very nice!

#2..... love this shot. Someone mentioned how in love they look. In this one, it looks like her eyes just can't get enough of him.
#5..... I really like their expressions in this one. Question though... when did dudes start wearing engagement rings?

-Marianne

Awesome set. I think you did a stellar job of posing them in a way to flatter the both of them. He's a big boy and placing him in the rear of the majority of the shots created a nice balance. Did you suggest the black coat? that worked also.

Marianne - Thanks. I noticed he had a ring on, too, but it didn't strike me as out of place until you mentioned it. That said, I think most guys could probably use a visual reminder that they are, in fact, engaged to be married.

Sam - Thank you. He is a big guy (not in an obese way), and not as expressive usually, so I was really surprised at how well he was able to show how he felt about his fiancee. He had the coat at his office, and I made sure he wore it for the shoot. It was to set contrast with his fiancee (his shirt was almost the same color as her coat) and to keep him a bit warmer (his cheeks were pretty red from the cold).

I am really curious how you achieve the cracked canvas effect that I see often on images posted here. Is it a PS filter?

Martin.

Martin - I layer a texture image over the photo image, then use a blend option of choice, changing opacity as needed. Depending on the color tone of the texture image, I may need to tone down the saturation of the texture image. Then I will make a mask and remove texture from the focal area of the image, usually the faces, with a gradient and/or brush. Hope that helps.

You did a great job on 2 and 4 with the textures. I use them fairly often and it drives me nuts when people use the wrong texture on the wrong image. Thank you for doing it right!

Number 2 is nice also.

Thanks for posting,
Jonathan Consiglio

gillyohan wrote:
Martin - I layer a texture image over the photo image, then use a blend option of choice, changing opacity as needed. Depending on the color tone of the texture image, I may need to tone down the saturation of the texture image. Then I will make a mask and remove texture from the focal area of the image, usually the faces, with a gradient and/or brush. Hope that helps.

ok makes sense, I guess it is just a matter of a having a good texture to blend in. I imagine they are abundant on the web?

Textures can be pretty tricky. Nicole Van, Parker J and Jesh de Rox make some great ones, especially Jesh's. You can download from the web some free ones, but you'll be going through them forever to find ones that work right.

On Jesh de Rox's website, he said the 35 in the set are the best out of 2,500 or more. Some work, most don't. I love them if they're used right, you just see some many throwing them on and it just looks wrong!

Jonathan Consiglio

mpaul73 - The most time efficient way to get good textures is to buy them from people like those mentioned by Jonathan. The cheapest way (not counting the cost of your time) is the find them on the web or create your own. Trying to find good ones on the web sucks. Shooting your own can be difficult, but it may be a productive learning experience for you.

Jonathan - Jesh de Rox's stuff is pretty cool. Thanks for the recommendation.