Bridals at Riter Mansion

[twocolor]

1. Flickr gave this an odd color cast that isn't in the my final image . . .

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[Bitter Jeweler]

Straighten up ALL your verticals! (Please)

 

[twocolor]

Straighten up ALL your verticals!

k, notice on #1 the left side of the bridge is straight and the right side isn't; #4 the brick wall vertical is straight but the pillar in the far background isn't; #5 right side is, left side isn't; #10 left side is, right side isn't. I think that from your replies to my posts you must think I am a novice amatuer that has no idea what I'm doing. In these images, I chose to straighten the parts of the image that appeared more dominant to my eye. Maybe I should go back through and do some additional editing. Maybe use skew or transform to straighten the other lines in these.

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

They all seem tilted to the right, clockwise, to me. I use lens distortion correction, rotate, and perspective cropping to fix things like that.Formal shots like the windows (5,8) should be dead on perfect. But that's me and my attention to detail. I like my geometry squared up unless it aids in story telling.Sorry if I have offended you.

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

On number one, I can line up the left side of the bridge on the edge of my screen and it is not plumb. The horizontal of the bridge if off in the same way.

 

[joealcantar]

Where are her flowers?
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Feel like something is missing, shoot well, Joe

 

[Trever1t]

#2 Wins my vote for best of the bunch, she is glowing and her eyes are baaa-right!!!!

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

#4 suffers from barrel distortion, the brick wall looks curved. The pillars are tilted, the lamps are tilted, the horizontal of the brick sidewalk is tilted, the car is tilted.

#5 shows possible, slight barrel distortion. If we split actual hairs, the right side is off by a hair. Negligible. However, the left is noticeably off, and the floor molding and all the horizontals of the window panes are off. I think it really hurts a spectacular image.

#8 your horizontals are dead on, but it is showing convergence of the verticals. A quick perpective crop would fix it right up.


#10, I think could do without the framing of the doorway. It doesn't add much to the story other than you were in another room.

Your images are fantastic. I can't argue against that. I am detail oriented. It's how/what I see. It comes from my work.

 

[MohaimenK]

Sorry I would have never thought this was in a mansion if you haven't mentioned it. You should have taken pictures outdoor with the entire mansion in the background to show where you took the image. I am sure there are lots of nice rooms in there with 4 post beds and such, if so you should have taken pictures there also. Tight crop doesn't work always IMO. #7 is just a NO.

Sorry for being harsh and a dick but that's the way I learned to be better, by letting others tell me what I did wrong. I realized, practiced, learned. I hope you don't take it offensively.

 

[Robin Usagani]

#5 & 8 are screaming for black and white. Sometimes the blown out sky behind the trees still work on color photo, but these 2 I think need to be black and white. I also wish the bride have different expression everytime she smiles. She looks the same on all of them. I wish she closed her lips once in a while too and just smile a bit. I think you did pretty good.

 

[twocolor]

Sorry I would have never thought this was in a mansion if you haven't mentioned it. You should have taken pictures outdoor with the entire mansion in the background to show where you took the image. I am sure there are lots of nice rooms in there with 4 post beds and such, if so you should have taken pictures there also. Tight crop doesn't work always IMO. #7 is just a NO.

Sorry for being harsh and a dick but that's the way I learned to be better, by letting others tell me what I did wrong. I realized, practiced, learned. I hope you don't take it offensively.

The mansion had no emotional attachment for the bride . . . it also happens to be a bed and breakfast where guests stay in the rooms with the 4 post beds. I'm not allowed inside the bedrooms. I go there because of the gardens and huge windows for some nice natural lighting shots. So maybe I shouldn't have put "mansion" in the title.

I did #7 because of some "advice" I've gotten here on this forum to try and make my portraits less "static". I have plenty of images without a tight crop, but have chosen these as my favorite to post.

I appreciate your comments, and agree that critique is what helps us improve . . . I think we could all be a little more tactful in our critique sometimes!

 

[twocolor]

#5 & 8 are screaming for black and white. Sometimes the blown out sky behind the trees still work on color photo, but these 2 I think need to be black and white. I also wish the bride have different expression everytime she smiles. She looks the same on all of them. I wish she closed her lips once in a while too and just smile a bit. I think you did pretty good.

I'll go play with those two. I've found that the green trees keep pulling my eyes away from the bride. I'll post some of her straight faced ones, and I think you'll see why I chose the ones I did! With her mouth closed, her teeth made her lips protrude a little bit! She hated it!

 

[Robin Usagani]

I actually like the last pic you posted if you had more room to the left (i like giving more room to the left than right because she is looking to the left). I think she looks fine. She may need to smile just a tad. My preference is, if you want to blow the back ground either dont do it and use flash, or just make it completely blown. Nothing in the middle. For example I like #6 because it is completely blown. It is an awesome shot I think (kinda dig the texturing too). #5 and 8 I feel that you should have blown the background even more until it is completely white, or you should have exposed it down more and use off camera flash. Does that make sense? Thats why I think they look better in black and white.

 

[tirediron]

This doesn't seem quite your usual standard TC; a nice-enough set, but doesn't quite have the 'zip' I expect from your work. A couple of thoughts: Your "verticals" issue is not so much caused by have the camera out of level in the horizontal/vertical axis, but rather because it's not square to the background. In #s 4, 5 and 8 if you'd positioned yourself with the lens axis at 90 to the background elements, than things would look fine. In cases like this, I find it's best to straighten/level by eye rather than using a tool. Rotate the image by small increments until you basically middle the difference between the obvious vertical elements and the subject. Additionally, I think this is a girl who really should be encourage to use a smaller smile.

 

[twocolor]

I actually like the last pic you posted if you had more room to the left (i like giving more room to the left than right because she is looking to the left). I think she looks fine. She may need to smile just a tad. My preference is, if you want to blow the back ground either dont do it and use flash, or just make it completely blown. Nothing in the middle. For example I like #6 because it is completely blown. It is an awesome shot I think (kinda dig the texturing too). #5 and 8 I feel that you should have blown the background even more until it is completely white, or you should have exposed it down more and use off camera flash. Does that make sense? Thats why I think they look better in black and white.

Yeah, that makes sense. I edited her favorite 30 on a rush because her dress was delayed and her wedding is in a week. I'll go through and see what I can find of her NOT smiling and edit a few. I usually have my clients do a bunch of both, but she was so self-conscious about it.

Here's her favorite shot . . . one of the window ones, and I played with it in bw. I bumped up my exposure in post as well . . . maybe needs a little more to lose the leaves behind her???