Couples shoot at an old bleachery

dsiglin · Feb 25, 2014

There's this really cool, very large (800k sq ft) mill near my house that is slowly being converted into artist studios and a very nice coffee shop. One of the artists there does tintype photography. Anyways, I have some friends who haven't had couple photos done in ages so I offered to take their photos with some film I've been itching to try. The lighting in the mill is beautiful especially in the top room known as the ballroom. Giant windows everywhere spilling in light. Here's a few of the resulting photos. These were taken on Kodak ProPhotoXL. C&C welcome. They were married on the 20th so that's why that random 20 is in there. And yes the last one is an homage to "American Gothic".

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Bo4key · Feb 25, 2014

Nice set but I especially love the windows in the first one.

runnah · Feb 25, 2014

First one is great. 2nd one is good but the switch of genders is a bit confusing to the norm.

Tiller · Feb 25, 2014

An awesome set!

Gavjenks · Feb 25, 2014

#1 is awesome. Great composition and feel. I would reduce contrast on that pipe in the upper left in post if it were me, and the light on the floor mid left. Very minor nitpick. Great photo!

#2 Mleh. Has a lot of problems. Chiefly the problem is that there's a HUGE, super high contrast line going directly in between your couple separating them. NOT the impression you want in a romantic shoot. Also that + the lines of the stairway etc. really distract the eye since they are equal in salience to the actual subject in silhouette. Even if they were alone in the frame, the silhouette needs to either be more complete, or have a fill light. You're fence-sitting on the exposure here and it comes across as wishy washy.

#3 Looks nice. Well done, and the integration of the 20 is great.

#4 Is pretty good. Lighting is a bit harsh to me. Could have benefited from a reflector to the right, and maybe a brighter aperture to blue out those lines in the back to make it pop more. I would also suggest him not leaning into her as much, she feels a tad bit on the defensive almost.

#5 Seems drab contrast/color, and pose/expression feel a little awkward to me.

#6 Not a huge fan of either. I assume you're trying to do an American Gothic spoof? Not sure, doesn't communicate strongly, even as a joke photo. The background is distracting too (in general a lot of these would have benefited from a wider aperture I think. I like the all-over crispness of #1, and I like very blurry backgrounds. I generally advocate committing though either way. The in between f/5.6ish look never looks very great IMO)

dsiglin · Feb 25, 2014

That line in #2 kills me as well. Like a laser cutting them apart. Generally these were shot wide open but without exif data (being film) I can't say for sure. Some were f4. Wide open in this case is 2.8 (was using the Canon 28-70 L 2.8).