# First time at wedding - feedback please



## cosminelfloricel (Aug 3, 2012)

Hello there!
Ia am an amateur and i got the chance to shoot some friends at their wedding. I want to improve my skills and seeing how nice the people arround here i wanted to ask for some feedback.

Here are some pictures
thanks!


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## RLPhoto (Aug 3, 2012)

As for compositions, These are fine for the fast pace of a wedding. 

The first photo is too tight IMO. The second photo chopped the hand off a bit on the child. Dutch framing is ok with proper context the third shot. The fourth one would be stronger if the frame was symmetrical with the door as a frame.

As for post-processing you RAW's. Clarity is easy to abuse, and it seems too much negative clarity has been used.

Experience comes with time, and this is very good for your first wedding.


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## sandymandy (Aug 5, 2012)

I think your at mid level. Photos dont look pro but they arent bad also. Thats cool ur on the right way. I like the dance photo the most. Please dont use too much softening especially with males


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## cosminelfloricel (Aug 5, 2012)

Thank you very much, i really was wandering about the softeness. It seemed right to me for a weeding, but i want overdo it in the futere. Thanks agaian for precious feedbak!


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## Toronto (Aug 8, 2012)

This is very mid level pro quality work, you said amateur I don't see that. I would back off the softness a touch, you want dreamy but not for everything and everyone, the first portrait try sharp overall with only soft skin and see if you would like that better.


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## Drizzt321 (Aug 8, 2012)

I love the dance one, and I think on the 3rd one you could have pulled back just a little bit, it feels a bit cramped. The 1st one is OK, but I would have tried to include a bit more, pulled back a bit.

This is not coming from a wedding pro, just someone who has done a decent job a few years back at my sisters wedding. Much less fancy than the one you went to.


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## michi (Aug 8, 2012)

That's some really nice stuff for a first wedding shoot. I did a wedding shoot once for friends who didn't have much money. Yours are better than what I did. It's obviously not my thing... Keep it up!


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## Brendon (Aug 8, 2012)

Nice work for a first wedding. It looks like you drew the short straw with the venue as well. While the wood work and lighting sets a nice tone and background, the wooden ceilings make it near impossible to get a decent bounce for a flash. 

I really like the dancing picture. You may try to warm and brighten the couple up with a brush in photoshop/lightroom. That is a hard lighting situation and some flash gels (very cheap) would have helped a lot to match the color temp of the incandescent lights. Also, if you weren't shooting at max aperture, it could help to separate the couple from the background and add a little light as well. It looks like you either pulled up the exposure on the picture or added a bunch of contrast/clarity. You might want to back off a bit from the contrast to see if you can get some of the DR back.


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## cosminelfloricel (Aug 9, 2012)

Brendon said:


> Nice work for a first wedding. It looks like you drew the short straw with the venue as well. While the wood work and lighting sets a nice tone and background, the wooden ceilings make it near impossible to get a decent bounce for a flash.
> 
> I really like the dancing picture. You may try to warm and brighten the couple up with a brush in photoshop/lightroom. That is a hard lighting situation and some flash gels (very cheap) would have helped a lot to match the color temp of the incandescent lights. Also, if you weren't shooting at max aperture, it could help to separate the couple from the background and add a little light as well. It looks like you either pulled up the exposure on the picture or added a bunch of contrast/clarity. You might want to back off a bit from the contrast to see if you can get some of the DR back.



Thank you so much! It's very usefull advice, just one question, if I may: you said i should use flash gels. I not shure, do i need to use warm gel or something cooler?
Thanks again very much!


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## philsv77 (Aug 15, 2012)

My fav is the shot with the dancing couple. However, it look to me that the shots are underexposed. Also, I would stay away from blurring the photos in post processing (pp) as they don't enhance your photos. Focus more on the technique and lighting., IMO.


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## frumrk (Aug 16, 2012)

cosminelfloricel said:


> Thank you so much! It's very usefull advice, just one question, if I may: you said i should use flash gels. I not shure, do i need to use warm gel or something cooler?
> Thanks again very much!



You want to use gels that will match the ambient light in the room... so that way you have a more natural look rather than that "Flash" look. 1/2 CTO usually works pretty good but usually depends on the lighting.


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## DB (Aug 16, 2012)

Perhaps you might want to use the Ruler tool in PS to straighten some of the images e.g. the ceiling in the wedding dance pic looks like it's about to collapse, also with the last pic shooting out through the pillars/archway. Just a minor thing really.

I like the composition on the 1st photo but cannot work out where your AF point(s) were. It almost looks like you were using a filter. You could make an adjustment mask on the young girl in PS then sharpen a bit (or even use smart sharpen with pixel radius of 1.5 to 2.5 and amount of 45% to 65% territory).


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## philsv77 (Aug 16, 2012)

My sincere advice to the beginner is to learn how to get it right out of the camera, not with PP. You still need to learn Photoshop skills but that takes time. Focus on technique, composition, lighting, and the rest will follow.


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## Brendon (Aug 16, 2012)

cosminelfloricel said:


> Brendon said:
> 
> 
> > Nice work for a first wedding. It looks like you drew the short straw with the venue as well. While the wood work and lighting sets a nice tone and background, the wooden ceilings make it near impossible to get a decent bounce for a flash.
> ...



I agree with the other poster that a 1/2 CTO would be the best for that particular situation. Beware though, that this will cause the out of camera photos to be overly warm if you use auto white balance because it will be set to match the un-geled flash color temperature. You can do a manual white balance but will most likely have to touch each photo in post to get it just right.

I also agree with the post related to getting things right in the camera so that there is little work needed in post. If you are taking 1000s of photos at a wedding, you certainly don't want to have to custom touch each one!


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## sb (Aug 16, 2012)

cosminelfloricel said:


> Thank you so much! It's very usefull advice, just one question, if I may: you said i should use flash gels. I not shure, do i need to use warm gel or something cooler?
> Thanks again very much!



Warm gel, then cool down entire scene via custom WB setting, and off you go. Yes it will never be exactly perfect, but it will be a LOT better than with no gel, and one click Lightroom fix across the board should take care of that.


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## dawgfanjeff (Aug 16, 2012)

To OP, advice for first wedding: Make sure you have the right girl, so you don't have to have a second wedding!


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## scotthillphoto (Aug 16, 2012)

So I know that this is your first wedding so take what I say with a grain of salt. Personally I'm not a fan of any of the photo's minus the dancing shot just a little... Like said early the photo's are too soft, which maybe your shots were slightly out or blurred and thats a way to hide mistakes but for me if the shot isn't in focus or blurred it 99.9% of the time get deleted or in PP I fix it to where its sharp... Next now currently I'm on my laptop which I do not trust color wise but your skin tones seem off which SOOC canon sometimes has a hard time getting it right... So a simple color correction would help that. The first picture, assuming its the flower girl personally I don't seem how the shot is set up. I see she is holding the flowers but there is something else in front of it don't be afraid to pose her the way you want. Which also many wedding photographer may call themselves PJ but sometimes you the artist need to take control and make the shot (I come from a background in corporate/commercial photography). So I think that shot could have been posed to look a little better. Second image now this one was posed but when you pose it like this the people in the back look smaller, so aim to get everyone together so you don't have this problem and try to make it look a little more natural... When people are posed uncomfortable it shows... Now the third image, this one has a lot going for it but it could have been executed better. Now it looks like you were using a flash and not sure it you were bouncing but my guess is that you were shooting directly at them, but the killer is the bright wood on the left corner, just crop that out and straighten the image up (my OCD). Now on to the fourth image, again like the last one this one really could have been better.... Instead of putting them behind the potted plant put them in front and use a [email protected] to get the image compressed and maybe use a little OCF to fill out the light... With doing those adjustments the people would be bigger and the house in the background might be blown out a little better...

So just take what I said and work towards the future, we all had to start somewhere and my first wedding pictures I deleted them I was soo ashamed, so take it as a learning experience and go on from there.

And below are some of my shots: (All shot with the 5D3)
The top one was shot without flash at 11pm at high iso
The second one was shot with an flash off to the right through an umbrella to add just a little extra light
And lastly this one was shot in a VERY dark reception during the dancing with a high powered bounce flash
All three shots I told the couples what to do and made the shot I wanted, use your eye and make the art you see.


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## cosminelfloricel (Oct 12, 2012)

Thank you all so much! I learned a lot from you and can't wait to put those advices to use.

Cheers!


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## Menace (Oct 12, 2012)

After taking all this feedback in, do share your next wedding pics with us


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## cosminelfloricel (Oct 12, 2012)

Menace said:


> After taking all this feedback in, do share your next wedding pics with us



Shure will!


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## RuneL (Oct 12, 2012)

I'd work seriously on your colours and colour balance. Also your photos are hazy. I personally do not like the lack of sharpness in them.
I think the compositions are fine, you just need to work on your post processing.


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## K-amps (Oct 12, 2012)

RuneL said:


> I'd work seriously on your colours and colour balance. Also your photos are hazy. I personally do not like the lack of sharpness in them.
> I think the compositions are fine, you just need to work on your post processing.



I agree with your observations but maybe not the conclusion.  I think this is his style! and it is fine... some of the best artists had hazy / defocussed work... nothing wrong with that. It is more important to "have" a style than be generic IMHO.


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## cosminelfloricel (Dec 14, 2012)

Menace said:


> After taking all this feedback in, do share your next wedding pics with us



Some new shots. Any progress?


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