First Time: Engagement Shoot (Teaser)

[Geaux]

EDIT -- **8/2/2010 Added New Shots in Post #17**

EDIT -- **7/27/2010 Added New Shots in Post #14**

EDIT -- **7/26/2010 Added New Shots in Post #10**

I posted a thread earlier this week with test shots of my wife as practice for my first engagement shoot today. The weather was beautiful, clear ... but the sun was AWFUL! lol. Some cloud cover took over for the second part of the shoot, but I had a rough time with shadows in the early going. It was a 2 and half hour shoot ... 2 location in other parts of the city, it was crazy lol. I did 4 shots as teaser shots to get the 'bride to be' throughout the night tonight since she was excited to see them. Here it goes.

1. Blown out sky like CRAZY, couldn't salvage it one bit, but for some reason, it doesn't bother me too much.

2.She needed to have her dog in it, talk about a wild beast lol. Figured I couldn't let me tell him how to shoot, I had to wait for him to let me shoot. Finally had an idea to lay on ground and have 'grandma' talk to the pup. Worked out excellent.

3.

4. One of my favs of the day ... excellent idea by the 'bride to be', but it suffers from some noise issues, but she never said anything about it lol.

I'll load more as I finish post-editing them. We have about 100 good shots, with 48 getting royal pp treatment

 

[Rekd]

1 is cool, could use some color. 2 is awesome, great shot. I like 3 a lot, but feels too tipped over. The left side looks straight but looking from center to right it leans. I'd try to balance that one out just a bit. Gonna be a hard one, but the composition is worth it!

Good job.

 

[Dieselboy]

Really like 2 and 4, great work!

 

[SecondShot]

#2 is cool, love the vibrant color in the dog.

#4 is great too.

Where I'm having a problem is 1 and 3.

#1 seems a little...flat to me. Maybe it's the monotone nature of the shot. She's wearing white, he's in grey pinstripes, the church in white and grayish blue, sky is gray. I don't quite know what to suggest, it just doesn't have an oomph I was expecting.

#3 is problematic in my eyes because with dramatic backgrounds like these in engagement or wedding shoots, they get to be so visually interesting that they very well 'frame' the shot, and when it's not straight, it's very noticeable. Also, he looks very disinterested in this shot.

Looking forward to seeing more

 

[Geaux]

Thanks for the comments guys!

As for #1, I think secondshot hit the nail on the head. I don't think there is much (at least colorwise) I can do to the shot b/c they are wearing gray and white, it has a total lack of color everywhere you look, besides the grass lol.

I noticed that shot 3 was a little bit crooked while post editing, but I think the uneven-ess of the bottom of the door, threw me off while shooting it (and made me think it was a illusion of being crooked while pp)

 

[cailinp]

I love 3 so much, the noise isn't even issue! Great photo!

2 is another great shot...kuddos for the idea with the dog!

I think 1 could use a lot more color, it seems a little drab and gray. I love the composition and the spirit you captured in the photo, it really exudes love. The blown out background isn't bad either! I just would like to see this photo with a little more warmth and color added to it.

 

[shutterbugsdesign]

nice job! everything looks great.
#2 is my fave. i luv dogs! =)

 

[edouble]

Wow wow wow. First time??? Good job!

 

[Geaux]

lol, thanks. Yeah, it was my first time shooting engagement shots, just days after my first attempt at shooting in RAW and first time doing people.

http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...157-first-time-shooting-raw-portraits-cc.html

 

[Geaux]

Just finished up a couple more, figured I'd add them as I go (just some of the special ones)

5.

She sent me some other photographers websites with different types of edits she wanted, and she wanted some 'vintage' type photos. After a lot of trial and error and google searching, I figured it out .... I think lol.

6.

And just because I thought the pose was cute. It was actually them laughing about the pose ... its actually a natural laugh lol.

7.

.

 

[IceEateer]

Very nice. Digging the post work. These pics easily look like the kind that you have to pay for.

What sort of post did you do on 6?

 

[Geaux]

#6 was interesting in post proc lol. I ran my edit as usual to get colors and levels correct, then it goes as follows. Added an adjustment layer on Brightness/Contrast (brought contrast up around 20), added another adjustment layer on Hue/Saturation (brought saturation up around 20), added a curve adustment layer (messed with the Red, Green, Blue curves seperately, added a smart filter onto the image layer, did lens correction to add vignette (droped it to about 70% opacity), added ANOTHER adjustment layer of Hue/Saturation (colorize) and changed sliders to get a yellowish color to give an 'old' look to it. Final step, to add the pinkish hue, I added a Solid Color adjustment layer and selected a hot pink color, then brought the opacity down to around 2-3% to give a slight hinting of the color.


It's a lot of steps and playing around b/c every picture wasn't meant to be done like this, but the end product is niiiiice

 

[Geaux]

Couple more edits completed tonight.

8.

9.

10.

11. My favorite edit of the night and one of my favorite shots... by FAR

 

[IceEateer]

Like them all except 10. Didn't really like the pose.

You've got some good post processing skills.

 

[Geaux]

Thanks iceeater, I have a couple more poses from that spot to edit still. It wasn't one of my favorites, but it was worth an edit for their collection. Ya know?

And thanks all for your comments on the shots and my post processing skills. I'm starting to get more comfortable editing the Raw shots now, compared to the first shots I started editing.