First kinda, sorta wedding-ish photos...

[woodyracing]

So, a couple of my best friends got married a little over a year ago and the husband recently lost a bunch of weight. He had to get a tux to be in someone else's wedding this weekend so they got the idea to reshoot some of their wedding photos. I was thrilled when they asked me to do it because I really need the practice. I should mention, they aren't looking for professional photos, this was a spur of the moment deal and it's mostly just for the fun of it. We went out this afternoon (Sunday) and spent a good 3 or 4 hours shooting in downtown Meridian. It was a BLAST! We all had a great time and I wound up with around 400 shots (I'll admit, many of those are from goofing around).

I got some great practice and, I think, once I get done going through them all, sorting and editing, they'll have some good decent photos so I'm calling it a win-win.

Here are a few, not necessarily the best, just some that I liked. C&C is welcome
#1

upload5 by woodyracing, on Flickr
#2

upload3 by woodyracing, on Flickr
#3

upload2 by woodyracing, on Flickr
#4

upload1 by woodyracing, on Flickr
#5

upload4 by woodyracing, on Flickr


okay, now I'm going to sleep, it's been a LONG day!

 

[cnutco]

Need to work more on your composition and exposure. Just from what I see here, the exposure is up and down. The idea of using flash is to not be able to tell that you are using flash.

 

[cgipson1]

#1 overexposed badly on faces
#2 underexposed
#3 ok.. but kind meh! You should have been about 3 or 4 feet left
#4 way overexposed again
#5 underexposed

btw.. you are allowed to flip the camera on it's side.. and shoot in vertical format.. works well for people (people are kind of vertical!)

 

[mcap1972]

I would say that you have to watch your exposure (too much flash?) and work on your composition (like the last one is unbalanced).
Mario
Avangard Photography | Toronto Wedding Photography Studio

 

[woodyracing]

haha yeah I knew the overexposed ones would get ya'll, the two that were bad were the ones the "bride and groom" saw on my laptop and LOVED lol
I definitely need some more practice, with my equipment, with composition and with people but they're already thrilled and we all had fun. We talked about doing it again next weekend just for the hell of it lol. I had some difficulties getting the flash set up right, it was my first time using a flash outdoors at all but I'm getting there

here's a few more ya'll can tear into if you'd like haha
#6 yes underexposure, glare on grooms head, overall funky lighting (my "assistant" wasn't ready and the flash was aimed weirdly), another one they loved lol

upload6 by woodyracing, on Flickr
#7

upload7 by woodyracing, on Flickr
#8

upload8 by woodyracing, on Flickr

 

[cgipson1]

#6 too much flash.. not enough ambient. Lower your flash sync speed or lower flash output

#7 harsh sunlight.. skin color is very red... background sucks majorly!

#8 his foot cut off.. sky is blown.. building perspective is off..

 

[DiskoJoe]

Some rookie mistakes. Watch your light/flash and framing. The first shot has too much flash. Looks like pop up with no diffuser. On the second set the second pic has a odd ray of light hitting her on the chest by the necklace. If you are going to shoot in shadows make sure the shadow covers all of them or that if the light get through it hits them in a flattering way.

The shoot in the church looking place in the second set was probably the best of the bunch. I dont like his head bunch so close to hers but it was they best use of light.

One last thing. Turn the camera to portrait orientation sometimes too.

 

[woodyracing]

I did actually have the camera turned to portrait for a lot of them, just most of the ones I've posted happened to be landscape. They wanted to do it at a train station so there were a lot of bridges, old trains (and not the interesting kind of old), etc that I was trying to keep out of the shots.

Oh and I should mention, the grooms face was badly sunburned, like bright red, while the bride has really really fair skin so I'm sure that's coming out in the photos more than I'd like it to

as always, thanks for the critique, it'll definitely help a lot

 

[woodyracing]

#8 his foot cut off.. sky is blown.. building perspective is off..

it wasn't intended as a real shot, the sun had gone down a lot while we were walking from place to place so I just snapped it to get a feel for my camera settings and I just happen to like it so I threw it in there.

 

[woodyracing]

here ya go, still had lighting difficulties so it's not great

#9

upload by woodyracing, on Flickr

 

[cgipson1]

shadows on her face kill the photo... harsh highlight on face also. Shadow on dress really dark...

cutting dress off at bottom is usually a no no!

 

[tirediron]

You've got the right idea, you just need to fine-tune your execution, especially as it relates to the flash exposure. I would suggest spending some time over at the Strobist Blog, especially the 'Lighting 101' section and work on the basics of off-camera flash and exposure. If you want to do more of this sort of thing, learning how to balance flash and ambient is essential, and to do it well and quickly requires the use of flash meter, which can be had for as little as $100 on eBay.

 

[woodyracing]

Yeah I wish I had had time to do some more reading before we did this and a light meter is on my list for sure. I do have a shot like that with the whole dress but I shot it from too low of an angle so her face winds up being too far away I think. I was thinkin if I had something to stand on to get closer to her level ( and with better lighting obviously), it could have turned out a lot better

 

[Mygixxer]

#1 overexposed badly on faces
#2 underexposed
#3 ok.. but kind meh! You should have been about 3 or 4 feet left
#4 way overexposed again
#5 underexposed



btw.. you are allowed to flip the camera on it's side.. and shoot in vertical format.. works well for people (people are kind of vertical!)

I concur...

 

[manaheim]

Take that internal flash and snap it completely off the camera and throw it in the trash.

Get yourself an external flash and bounce it off something.