Here's the link:
<http://www.pbase.com/louise_2>
They're not perfect, but the couple, their families and everyone I've shown them to loved them and that's all that matters, I guess. There's no fancy backgrounds or anything. Just regular shots. But it's my first wedding, using a basic automatic SLR with no tripod (so they might look a little unsharp), no flash gun, no reflectors, no filters and just a little work in PSE.
So critique away! Oh, and I know everyone has huge shadows across their faces. Maybe I should have used flash, I don't now. Or a reflector, as Leen suggested. I just dodged the worst affected faces, but there's probably a more effective way of getting rid of shadows.
Louise,
I couldn't open them. The link works but the PBase screen that comes up is black.
Dick
Does this work?:
<http://www.pbase.com/louise_2/wedding>
Louise, it still doesn't work. I've checked my gallery and it's working. It says you have 13 images, but no galleries. But when I look at the root, there's nothing.. :(
Ray
Still blank for me, Louise. 8^(
Louise,
Working fine for me now.
Dick
Is this your root gallerie?
<http://www.pbase.com/louise>
No, I finally got to your actual wedding one. It is lovely.
Jane
LOL! I have no idea! I don't know what I'm doing.
Can't you say something bad about them, though? That's why I posted them. lol!
Jodi, can you post the link again ? I can't see them :(
Ray
Right here <http://www.pbase.com/louise_2/wedding>
Thank you, Jodi!
Thank you! It's working! And the little girl with the basket of flower (top row, right corner) is lovely! Nice pictures in general, this one in particular!
Ray
The 3 of the bride and groom are all natural poses. I didn't tell them to pose like that, I just managed to catch them like that.
Thanks Ray. :o) You mean the colour one? Pity she didn't hold her head higher. We were all shouting to her "Put your head up!" :o)
The one of the bride, groom and bridesmaid - is it obvious that the bridesmaid has been pasted on, or can't you tell?
Louise,
They really are very nice.
I just downloaded the little girl with the basket of flowers (B&W) and was
looking at it in PSE.
Have you tried using "levels" adjustment on this one? I found that
adjusting to 13 - 1.6 - 200 gets rid of a lot of the shadows and the girls
face becomes very clear.
Pete
As I said earlier I'm on a laptop, and worst, the laptop is displaying in 16 bits (missing a great deal of colors) and the details level is not that good. But so far, they look wonderfull, all of them!
Ray
Thanks Pete, thanks Ray.
Pete, no I haven't tried that, but I will do, thanks!
Oh wow, I see what you mean. But it looks beter if I burned the face back to what it was like before, as it looks abit washed out after being dodged.
(Before I start criticising a little, I should say I liked these - but think that they could be improved a little in the post-production stage!)
Louise I was going to make a similar suggestion as Pete did but I had to go out.! I think that several of these images would benefit from a basic levels adjustment before fine tuning with dodge and burn - which tends to be the last thing I do(if I do it at all) for fine tuning of the detail, rather than for overall light and shade adjustment. If you want to get fancier then there are tricks like contrast maksing that allow shadow detail to be brought up while not burning out the highlights, and I find these give a more even effect, without distorting the colours in the way that dodging and burning can. The amount of contrast in the original images limits what you can do, though - fill flash might have helped a bit.
I like the flower girl - and the downward glance makes rather a nice image, although it would be nice to have her face-on as well! You've done a good job dropping her into the shot with the bride and groom - the extraction is very nicely done, the only give-away the slight difference in lighting on the bride and flower girl's dresses.
I think that the really best wedding shots are where the lighting is perfect - either by skill (hard to achive for an amater without expensive equipment) or by luck. These are good, but conventionally lit shots, but the colours work well. As a package I really like the feel - they have a slight retro look about them - even with the colour shots, with the soft brown of the sandstone walls and the very intense reds of the roses .
I got lucky with my wedding photos (the original photographer was snowed up and couldn't get into Oxford where we were married ...so I had to run around town trying to find a photographer on the morning of my wedding......literally run as I was staying in college and didn't have a phone!) While the guy we ended up with wasn't that good - he did some classic howlers like lamp standards growing out of my mother's head... he got three or four amazing shots - indoors, no flash, with a soft-focus filter just lit by sun light reflecting from the snow outside through the window. Absolutely beautiful.
I'm back again.
At image #1 you apologise for cutting the arm and part of the bouquet. I don't care very much for the arm or the bouquet, but look what a lovely expression in this kiss. Compare this emotion to the kiss in #3. Which one evokes the strongest emotion? Right! the other is a posed kiss without any love; the first one is definitely spontaneous amd full of passion.
Sometimes it is not important wether you stick to the rules or not; emotion is the key word.
The formal #2 has one big problem; They try to look at each other in a way they try to show their love. When people are interested, they always tilt their heads.
But in this image they tilt their heads exactly the wrong way. As people usually have two ears (except for Van Gogh - glad he didnot need glasses) always ask them to lower the ear on the camera side. Else, like here, you are looking right inside their nostrils.
But, to comfort you a little, many, probably the majoriy of the socalled professionals make exactly the same "mistakes".
Moreover, these aren't the shots that get your inspiration flowing. This is just only a matter of knowing the rules of posing and if you aren't a pro photographer, nobody can expect you to deliver like a pro.
They were happy with the results and that 's all that matters. Often, the way people happily react to these images is worth more than all the money in the world - unfortunately, be it for only a short period of time.
Leen
Many photographers stick to medium format for quality purposes although they know a lot of images will not be printed any larger than 5x7".
Several years ago I decided to travel light and to use just only 35 mm. as I had to cover an overseas wedding in the US (NH)and couldnot take so much lugage on the plane. Ever since I stuck to 35 mm. cameras.
Nowadays I'm shooting digital. The only heavy weight I still have to carry is a sturdy tripod.
Randy, I don't quite agree on your item about losing spontaneity with medium format cameras. If you are a professional photographer -and unfortunately many think they are- you can produce lovely shots with any camera.
Just have a look at my wedding galery and you will see what I mean.
Weddings aren't about spontaneity -although some spontaneous moments are wonderful- but about the love between two people. It is a pity many people don't realise that and can get upset about totally unimportant things like the right colour of flowers in the church. They just only care about what people might think instead of the beauty of the moment when two people decide to share their love.
Leen