before my cousin's wedding...

Rrr3319 · Jan 11, 2009

ok first i just want to explain: my cousin hired a friend-of-the-family to photograph her wedding ceremony and do some formal portraits. since he was not going to take any pictures of her getting ready i asked if she minded if took some to get a little practice in (and you know, so she could have some pictures) just wanted to make that clear so i don't get thrown into the "so i bought a big camera last year and i'm ready to do a wedding" crowd. :wink:

anywho, i can use some c&c on these, any advice or comments are appreciated.

1.

2.

3.

Thanks for looking! :blushing:

jlykins · Jan 11, 2009

What were your settings on these photos? They look noisy to me... Also number one and two have an orange tone to them, maybe a WB adjustment was in order.

stsinner · Jan 11, 2009

The third one is the only one I like.. The first two are very unflattering.. I don't think she will want to see that second one.. I think it's all about timing, but Big Mike may disagree.. . You should really appeal to his expertise..

Not trying to be mean, but sympathetic-that dress was awful, and you would be hard pressed to get good pictures of her in that dress.. I don't know if I'm alone in this opinion, but IMO, it's hard to take a good picture of a bad subject.. That dress and her spilling out over it is hard to capture in a flattering way. There are ways to dress heavy women that are actually flattering, but her tailor didn't seem to realize that. Not trying to be insulting in any way, but if you want real, then you'll understand that my eyes are drawn in the second one to her roll of fat over the back of her dress... And I'm not being judgmental, because I'm a fat guy myself, but the way I dress addresses this issue..

Great idea, common to get her applying makeup, putting on shoes, etc..

Rrr3319 · Jan 11, 2009

jlykins said:
What were your settings on these photos? They look noisy to me... Also number one and two have an orange tone to them, maybe a WB adjustment was in order.

not sure on the settings, i'll have to go back and check, but yeah my camera is all noise, all the time.
you know, i did a "remove color cast' and now that i am looking at them again, they still don't look right.

Rrr3319 · Jan 11, 2009

stsinner said:
The third one is the only one I like.. The first two are very unflattering.. I don't think she will want to see that second one.. I think it's all about timing, but Big Mike may disagree.. . You should really appeal to his expertise..

Not trying to be mean, but sympathetic-that dress was awful, and you would be hard pressed to get good pictures of her in that dress.. I don't know if I'm alone in this opinion, but IMO, it's hard to take a good picture of a bad subject.. That dress and her spilling out over it is hard to capture in a flattering way. There are ways to dress heavy women that are actually flattering, but her tailor didn't seem to realize that. Not trying to be insulting in any way, but if you want real, then you'll understand that my eyes are drawn in the second one to her roll of fat over the back of her dress... And I'm not being judgmental, because I'm a fat guy myself, but the way I dress addresses this issue..

Great idea, common to get her applying makeup, putting on shoes, etc..

yeah i get what you are saying, this was a problem for me as well. i love my cousin so i don't want to say anything mean about her, but i was not sure what made her choose the dress. and to be honest, these were not at all the worst. i guess it really led me to wondering what to do in a situation like this. i mean, i wanted to get a picture of her with her niece because they are very close, but i don't want her to look at the pictures and think "oh my gosh i look fat!" so i guess the question is: what do you do when the bride herself doesn't choose a flattering dress? i'm sure this isn't uncommon. this is just my first go at anything like this.

stsinner · Jan 11, 2009

Rrr3319 said:
yeah i get what you are saying, this was a problem for me as well. i love my cousin so i don't want to say anything mean about her, but i was not sure what made her choose the dress. and to be honest, these were not at all the worst. i guess it really led me to wondering what to do in a situation like this. i mean, i wanted to get a picture of her with her niece because they are very close, but i don't want her to look at the pictures and think "oh my gosh i look fat!" so i guess the question is: what do you do when the bride herself doesn't choose a flattering dress? i'm sure this isn't uncommon. this is just my first go at anything like this.

You have valid questions. I feel, however, that the second picture in your post may depress her.. I know it's too late, and I know you had no choice, and therefore I have no answers for you.. I think your quest is noble and will require work, but at the end of the day, they give you what you have to work with, and you can only get the shots you can get.. Do your best and the rest is on them.. They knew they'd be photographed, and they also had mirrors..

There are little tips all over the place.. One tip I've read is that when photographing groups or individuals is to instruct your subject to look at the camera like they think they shood and then to look up a bit.. This reduces the presence of, "Turkey neck" and double chins.. Just a simple tip, but very effective. . I know you didn't pose her, but there are ways to photograph heavy people that are more flattering, and that will just take some research..

Rrr3319 · Jan 11, 2009

i appreciate the input. i think going into this i hadn't considered the unflattering dress issue too much, but it's just a good example of why it's necessary to get plenty of experience before jumping headfirst into doing a whole wedding or something else serious (i know i'm wayyyyyyyyyy far away from being ready for that) because without this experience i probably still wouldn't really be concious of that kind of thing. when i first starting looking through the pictures though, i was actually a feeling a little lost because there are some other ones that i didn't know what to do with like one that shows the decorative buttons on the side of the dress. the buttons are kind of all over the place and not in a straight line. i had wanted to get a pictures of little detiails like that but if she hadn't noticed how it looked i didn't want her to see the pictures and hate it. i guess it's something i need to be more aware of in the future.

NateS · Jan 11, 2009

ISO 1600 according to the EXIF. Any reason you chose to shoot that high? My advice for next time is to get either a fast lens like the inexpensive 50mm f1.8 or get a hot shoe flash that you can bounce. Grain kills it. f1.8 could have let enough light in to shoot a low enough ISO to prevent most grain.

stsinner · Jan 11, 2009

In the second picture you should crop out her abut at the armpit, but in the first one her face is in the shadows, and there is a blue board in the background..

Rrr3319 · Jan 11, 2009

"ISO 1600 according to the EXIF. Any reason you chose to shoot that high? My advice for next time is to get either a fast lens like the inexpensive 50mm f1.8 or get a hot shoe flash that you can bounce. Grain kills it. f1.8 could have let enough light in to shoot a low enough ISO to prevent most grain. "

i definitely need some fast glass. i was alternating between my 50/1.8 and the kit lens that came with my camera. i should have shot them all with the 50 in retrospect, but i think the urge to zoom in and out was too much for me to resist putting the other back on. a flash is next on my "to buy" list.

stsinner · Jan 12, 2009

You know, 1 and 2 would both be very nice cropped, now that I look again.. The hug is precious, and she'll want to remember that one.

bigtwinky · Jan 12, 2009

Sometimes, taking the time to setup a shot may make the difference. I love the feeling in picture #2, but having that toy/yellow box thing between them is distracting. Also, there is a person who appeared in the mirror that you probably didn't see when you were taking the picture.

If the dress is not flattering, trying getting some close ups of her face. The same hug picture with her and her niece would of been nice zoomed in alot and having only their two faces fill the frame

Aggressor · Jan 12, 2009

#1 & #2: Crop to a portrait format and you would have a nicer photo. Apart from the white balance issue that was already mentioned, I also notice that you shot at 1/100. With good technique, you can decrease the shutter speed and bring your ISO down.

#3: Not a huge fan of selective coloring but have seen it used well before. In this case, this may actually be better without it. The softness of the petals compared to the grain on the arms may have an interesting look to it.

General comments:
- At the cost of some detail, you may want to try to use something like noise ninja to reduce the noise.
- Try running your images through an unsharp mask to gain back some of the sharpness