C&C Ring Shots

[Royal Photos]

My goal is to be the best wedding photographer EVER! ha So I'm practicing everything I can. C&C welcome!

 

[tirediron]

A laudable goal! If you succeed, that will certainly also make you one of the richest photographers ever. I'm afraid however that I'm not very fond of your work here for a couple of reasons.

One is that the 'ring in the flower' idea has been done to death; You need to find your own 'signature' shot. Aside from that, I find the use of the mirror confusing; that is, the mind and eye have to work much harder than they should have to see what is ring and what isn't. I'm not a wedding photographer, so I may be off base here, but none of the flowers you chose seem especially wedding-like to me. When I hear 'wedding flower' I'm thinking roses, lillies, and so on. From a technical standpoint, the images seem over-saturated and and to have too much flower for the amount of ring; in other words: Crop more tightly to the ring. Lastly, your lighting needs work. Esp. #4; you can't shoot this sort of reflective surface, especially on a mirror with a single flash. This is a multi-light diffuser/soft-box setup.

All of that negativity aside, I think you've made a good start, and you've definitely got some good ideas. I would approach this from two different tangents. One is to develop your own shot as I mentioned, something unique, which when viewed in an album will be recognizable as a Royal Photos image, and second is to improve your technical skills. This sort of work is actually quite difficult to get perfect, and the people that shoot jewellery for catalogues and advertising are skilled photographers.

Just my $00.02 worth - your milage may vary.

~John

 

[Royal Photos]

Thanks. This was in my personal "studio" with the low grade lighting. I have my first wedding as an assistant on Saturday and hope to have some good things to work with for the ring shots. I sort of took the pictures with what I had around the house.

The flowers were super bright and when I desaturated a little I didn't like the look too much. :/

Mirror does have to go, such a pain to deal with!

Here's one I did a while ago,

 

[tirediron]

I definitely like these better!

 

[Overread17 5]

I agree!
Very good shooting on all counts and I do like the texture that you camptuer in the second set of shots!
you might try using a layermask and editing the ring and leaf so as you can get a slight difference in brightness of the two - I would think the brigtness of the leaf in shot one, with a slightly brighter ring - so as it stands out a little more - would be an interesting shot.

 

[aprileve]

that's the best one...in my opinion. don't have any suggestions on how to improve...just telling you which one seemed most appealing.

 

[rubbertree]

This is by far my favourite one. The lighting is wonderful and the use of a leaf instead of a flower is much more unique. I think this would work wonderfully for a fall wedding.

I agree that the flower shots have been done to death, think of something different (the leaf works here).

That very last shot though... is that a fake flower? The texture in the petals seem fake. Don't use fake flowers.

 

[Royal Photos]

Ok so I took everyones advice to heart and did these today, c&C please!

 

[Overread17 5]

I rather like that first shot of the new set - the green and blue work well together, though I would prefer to see a slightly greener green - more vibrancy in the shot. The background too I think is not working well in that shot - I think you want either a natural setting or a "clean" background like in the leaf shots - though I think black is not the right colour for this.

The second shot does nothing for me (that hated line ) I just don't think it is saying anything to the viewer - its just a ring on a bit of bent metal - maybe give the metal some context (to me I am thinking of a fireguard setting)

Shot 3 I think might work, but again its not "working" for me and I can't think how to alter it.

Great work still - keep experimenting

 

[rubbertree]

ohhh I likey! Much more unique looking. When you are shooting weddings, look for interesting places to pose the rings. Like that 2nd shot? If that were the wrought iron doors of the church where the couple got married (just an example), then that would have a lot of meaning to them and not be just a ring on a bit of bent metal, kwim?
Are those someone's real wedding rings? They are very cool looking.

 

[manaheim]

Hey, way to take the ring in the flower shot and put a twist on it. I particularly like the leaf (though it seems a bit blown out EDIT: I also think the DOF on this one was too shallow) and the cast iron railing or whatever that is. I guess my only thought here would be to make sure to take from whatever was appropriate for the wedding... the leaf for the fall, for example. That may be obvious, but a dying leaf in summer would be kinda weird.

The one where you have the ring on the stamen or whatever of the flower doesn't look for me. Frankly my first thought was "looks like a clumsy penis penetrating a euphemism of a woman." I say this not to be insulting, but to bring attention to something someone else might think of.

Yeah, the flower ones in general are pretty cliche, though I think you did a nice job with the colors and exposure. I agree that the mirror made my brain hurt a bit, so I might omit that, but still... nice.

All in all very neat. I look forward to seeing more of your shots. I don't have the nerve to personally ever shoot a wedding, but I'm fascinated by the process and results of people who do it.

 

[realitycheck3907]

I like 1 and 2 of your last set. I really like the ring hung on the iron I think thats a pretty unique idea. The stone thing could be pretty cool also just using some different rocks maybe, something to make it pop more. And maybe more natural lighting.