First attempt at bridal portraits

[cherylynne1]

Wow...stewed prunes? Ouch.

Thank you for the links. They really help me to envision the "look" you're talking about. Many of them have really interesting compositions using negative space, which is something I've always struggled with and need to learn better. A lot of the posing also appears very natural and modern, which is another thing I'm working on.

But I'm not so sure about the lighting and the coloring. I used to go for really bright images. However, every single time I would put it up for critique it felt like the highlights were all anyone could focus on. I wouldn't get any feedback, positive or negative, on anything else in the image because every person would talk about how nothing should be brighter than the subjects and I need to go back to basics to learn lighting so I won't do that anymore.

I'm not saying the photographers you linked to are bad...I'm completely aware that they're far more experienced and talented than I am. I'm just saying that if I tried to emulate them, I'd get raked across the coals. Maybe it's another of those "learn the rules before you break them" things.

Anyway, thank you very much for the critique and the time you put into finding those links for me. I appreciate it.

 

[robbins.photo]

I'm not saying the photographers you linked to are bad...I'm completely aware that they're far more experienced and talented than I am. I'm just saying that if I tried to emulate them, I'd get raked across the coals. Maybe it's another of those "learn the rules before you break them" things.

Anyway, thank you very much for the critique and the time you put into finding those links for me. I appreciate it.

I guess it sort of depends on personal taste. Honestly I don't like strongly backlit images where the subjects are washed out. I've seen a few captures where it actually works, but for the most part to me it's more of a distraction than an artistic statement of some sort.

So find what works for you and of course more importantly find what works for your clients, because in the end what anybody here says doesn't amount to a hill of beans. What's important is that the clients like the end results.

 

[cherylynne1]

I'm not saying the photographers you linked to are bad...I'm completely aware that they're far more experienced and talented than I am. I'm just saying that if I tried to emulate them, I'd get raked across the coals. Maybe it's another of those "learn the rules before you break them" things.

Anyway, thank you very much for the critique and the time you put into finding those links for me. I appreciate it.

I guess it sort of depends on personal taste. Honestly I don't like strongly backlit images where the subjects are washed out. I've seen a few captures where it actually works, but for the most part to me it's more of a distraction than an artistic statement of some sort.

So find what works for you and of course more importantly find what works for your clients, because in the end what anybody here says doesn't amount to a hill of beans. What's important is that the clients like the end results.

Haha, the "clients" (in the loosest sense of the term...I'm still not charging) are the easy part. They love all of it. I've only ever had one request for a change, and it was just to swap one head for another, which was no problem, and then they were happy. One of the main reasons I moved from a 16 mp camera to a 24 mp was because I kept getting requests to print 30x40 canvases, which doesn't work so well if I cropped at all.

But yeah, my photos are all over social media, displayed in homes, used on graduation/baby/wedding announcements, you name it. It's where all of my joy in photography comes from.

But of course, those things are meaningless in the world of photographers. Every MWAC out there has hundreds of likes on Facebook, right? It's just hard to know what to do sometimes.

 

[robbins.photo]

Haha, the "clients" (in the loosest sense of the term...I'm still not charging) are the easy part. They love all of it. I've only ever had one request for a change, and it was just to swap one head for another, which was no problem, and then they were happy. One of the main reasons I moved from a 16 mp camera to a 24 mp was because I kept getting requests to print 30x40 canvases, which doesn't work so well if I cropped at all.

But yeah, my photos are all over social media, displayed in homes, used on graduation/baby/wedding announcements, you name it. It's where all of my joy in photography comes from.

But of course, those things are meaningless in the world of photographers. Every MWAC out there has hundreds of likes on Facebook, right? It's just hard to know what to do sometimes.

Best piece of advice I can give?

New coke sucks.

Ok, might sound weird - but it's true. Coca Cola used the same formula for years. People liked it. They sold a lot of it. Then somebody got a wild hair someplace a wild hair shouldn't be and bam, they changed the formula.

It was a disaster. So they went back to the old formula and people liked it again. Change for the sake of being trendy isn't something I recommend. It rarely if ever works out well.

Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with learning new techniques and other styles and expanding your knowledge base as a photographer. But at the end of the day all that really matters is that when people drink the coke, they smile.

 

[chuasam]

I'm not saying the photographers you linked to are bad...I'm completely aware that they're far more experienced and talented than I am. I'm just saying that if I tried to emulate them, I'd get raked across the coals. Maybe it's another of those "learn the rules before you break them" things.

Anyway, thank you very much for the critique and the time you put into finding those links for me. I appreciate it.

I guess it sort of depends on personal taste. Honestly I don't like strongly backlit images where the subjects are washed out. I've seen a few captures where it actually works, but for the most part to me it's more of a distraction than an artistic statement of some sort.

So find what works for you and of course more importantly find what works for your clients, because in the end what anybody here says doesn't amount to a hill of beans. What's important is that the clients like the end results.

As a wedding photographer, your job is to capture the feeling and memories, not accurately document a product. It all boils down to this : find your innate voice and sense of aesthetics and follow that.

Most of the advice here (including my own) can be happily ignored. Find your story. It took me a decade to learn to not fill the frame with the subject. Yeah 10 years and a 36 megapixel camera.

Photography isn't a sugary soft drink. It's a form of visual communication. It is an art. Evolve or die.

 

[robbins.photo]

As a wedding photographer, your job is to capture the feeling and memories, not accurately document a product. It all boils down to this : find your innate voice and sense of aesthetics and follow that.

I thought I just said that.. Well without all the new agey philosophical hooha.. But ya, pretty much what I just said. Lol

Sent from my N9518 using Tapatalk

 

[tirediron]

As a wedding photographer, your job is to capture the feeling and memories, not accurately document a product..

If that's what the client wants. There's no point in going in guns a'blazin' capturing all these wonderful, light, airy nebulous and wildly artistic images if the client's taste runs to posed formals. There is no 'one size fits all', and while what you're doing works for you, it won't for everyone. In my area, I'm the only one shooting "classic" studio portraiture in a studio. There's a market for that. Maybe not a huge market, but a market. All that to say it's rather unfair to make blanket statements about how unexciting someone's work is if it is what their clients demand.

 

[chuasam]

In summary, shoot how you like, be the best that you can be. Let them come to you because they like what you do.

Also, do note that the Wedding Photographers mentioned charge around $5,000 a wedding on average.