Fall Harvest Wedding C&C welcome

[KAikens318]

2nd wedding!

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

More to come as I edit along...

 

[Big Mike]

The detail shots look good, but the shot of the couple needs improvement.

The cause of the problems, is the harsh light that you are shooting in. If you can, it's often helpful to shoot in shade rather than out in the direct sunlight. But if you are going to shoot in the sun, you should think about the light and the shadows. In this case, the brights are very bright and the shadows are rather dark. Also, their position is causing a streak of light to fall across the bride.

Of course, if you expose for the highlights, the shadows will be very dark (and likely the background as well)...but if you expose for the shadows, the brights would even more blown out than they are now.

The solution, if you can't find a better location to shoot) is to add (or subtract) light to the scene. A simple way would be to use flash, which I think you did use...but the problem is that in this scenario, you need a very powerful flash to compete with the bright ambient light.
Another option would be to use a reflector to bounce some light back onto them.

Also, consider the angle at which the sun's light it hitting them. What you have here isn't bad...but because of the strong ratio between the highlights & the shadows, the bright areas cover more of their faces than could have been.

Looking at the scene as a whole, the grass is fairly bright. Brighter than the subjects, which usually isn't what you want. The sky & clouds are also fairly bright.
You could have used a lower exposure setting, to keep the grass & sky under control (and getting deeper color), then use flash or a reflector to light up the subject.

Since you probably can't re-shoot this, I'd suggest burning the background a bit and maybe trying to lighten up the subjects a bit.

Oh ya, I wanted to mention the pose. It feels rather stiff, the groom especially. The bride looks more comfortable. You usually want to avoid shooting people head on, unless you want to emphasize their size. Having them turn a bit, can help to make them look slimmer.

 

[KAikens318]

The detail shots look good, but the shot of the couple needs improvement.

The cause of the problems, is the harsh light that you are shooting in. If you can, it's often helpful to shoot in shade rather than out in the direct sunlight. But if you are going to shoot in the sun, you should think about the light and the shadows. In this case, the brights are very bright and the shadows are rather dark. Also, their position is causing a streak of light to fall across the bride.

Of course, if you expose for the highlights, the shadows will be very dark (and likely the background as well)...but if you expose for the shadows, the brights would even more blown out than they are now.

The solution, if you can't find a better location to shoot) is to add (or subtract) light to the scene. A simple way would be to use flash, which I think you did use...but the problem is that in this scenario, you need a very powerful flash to compete with the bright ambient light.
Another option would be to use a reflector to bounce some light back onto them.

Also, consider the angle at which the sun's light it hitting them. What you have here isn't bad...but because of the strong ratio between the highlights & the shadows, the bright areas cover more of their faces than could have been.

Looking at the scene as a whole, the grass is fairly bright. Brighter than the subjects, which usually isn't what you want. The sky & clouds are also fairly bright.
You could have used a lower exposure setting, to keep the grass & sky under control (and getting deeper color), then use flash or a reflector to light up the subject.

Since you probably can't re-shoot this, I'd suggest burning the background a bit and maybe trying to lighten up the subjects a bit.

Oh ya, I wanted to mention the pose. It feels rather stiff, the groom especially. The bride looks more comfortable. You usually want to avoid shooting people head on, unless you want to emphasize their size. Having them turn a bit, can help to make them look slimmer.

Yeah the lighting was not the best. When she said it was a 10am wedding I was less than excited. Lol. We were on a golf course, no trees, no shade, and we weren't allowed on the actual golf course because there were people playing. I will give the burning a try and see what I can do with that. She was nice, but had some very specific requirements...no closeups at all, shots of her had to be from far away...but not too far away. No B&W treatments, all color.

 

[IgsEMT]

I like the details but as you know the couple wasn't that good.
1st - you shouldn't position people standing straight w/ respect to the camera - when you see two shoulders at equal length it doesn't look good (you have 2 ppl standing like that).
2nd (this is where preference kicks in and what I'd do) - based on EXIF you shot at ISO500; I'd be on 200 (knock the ambient by a the stop) and faster shutter speeds (faster then 1/500) - that's another stop from what you shot. Then add a flash to fill in the shadows but just a bit and get a decent ratio.

But the big thing that bugs me is your composition #1, you need to work on it.

 

[dzfoto]

I agree to previous comments. You need to workout with lighting. Try to see the light before you make a shot. There can be good and bad light. Teach yourself

Good luck

 

[GeneralBenson]

Alot of the problem with the couple photo could have been mitigated by shooting a different direction. You kind of picked the worse direction possible. Side light like that with is almost never good, especially with two people in it. It would have been much better to put them looking right towards the sun, since the light angle looks relatively low and would have probably been some nice light; or put the sun behind them and lit them up with off-camera flash or a reflector.

 

[KAikens318]

Alot of the problem with the couple photo could have been mitigated by shooting a different direction. You kind of picked the worse direction possible. Side light like that with is almost never good, especially with two people in it. It would have been much better to put them looking right towards the sun, since the light angle looks relatively low and would have probably been some nice light; or put the sun behind them and lit them up with off-camera flash or a reflector.

Oh I tried that, trust me! This was one of the worst places to do a shoot at at this time. If they were facing towards the sun, there were dumpsters behind them. If they were in front of the sun, I got a wicked glare and couldn't get their faces light enough. If they turned a complete 180 degrees, more dumpsters and a highway. If this had been a sunset wedding, it would have been amazing. But no. Worst possible time of day.

I love taking photos of inanimate objects, they are so much easier to light and they can't talk to tell you what they want even though you are telling them the light is too harsh!