Looking for CC

[STiZzle2010]

I went to a wedding this past weekend and my wife's cousin just proposed the night before. I do not have a flash and did the best I could with the natural light. Shot with a Nikon D5500, Nikkor 50mm 1.8G lens, and edited in Lightroom.
f/3.2
1/400th
ISO 100

 

[tirediron]

For ambient-only shots, I'd say you did very well on the exposure side. I'm not quite as fussed about the cropped arms & elbows though. Moving just a bit farther back would have avoided quite so many amputations.

 

[STiZzle2010]

Yes this is what I'm most disappointed with as well however, I'll tack it up as a learning experience and remember next time.

 

[Derrel]

For ambient-only shots, I'd say you did very well on the exposure side. I'm not quite as fussed about the cropped arms & elbows though. Moving just a bit farther back would have avoided quite so many amputations.

I'm more put off by the lack off top space...he is "crowding the top edge" pretty severely. I mean, with a 3:2 aspect ratio camera when you shoot from this close a distance, you will,most assuredly have to make some cropping/framing decisions, but one of the more important decisions is always how much top space to allocate; he's just too close to the top of the frame, which causes so much more visual tension than an arm crop, or a shoulder crop.

This is the kind of image that really is best shot LOOSE, and framed later.

 

[STiZzle2010]

I see exactly what you mean and normally I do not frame this way. I only had my 50mm with me and limited space which forced me to make some decisions. Despite this, I was really happy with their expressions. I wish I had a 35mm cause it would have been a better lens for me to have on my crop body that day.

Feedback and critique, along with experience help me improve. It was not long ago when I struggled with exposure and focus so thank you!

 

[frommrstomommy]

Cute shots for what they were.. #3 is adorable.. and #1 you can tell was just a genuine, happy moment. All of the above mentioned are points I have to agree with though on spacing/crops/etc.

 

[soufiej]

I went to a wedding this past weekend and my wife's cousin just proposed the night before. I do not have a flash and did the best I could with the natural light. Shot with a Nikon D5500, Nikkor 50mm 1.8G lens, and edited in Lightroom.
f/3.2
1/400th
ISO 100

IMO at times we become too obsessed with the technicalities of photography. Yeah, you cut off an elbow or placed the top of his head a bit too high. Yada yada ...

There are times when none of that really matters.


What you captured through your lens was the emotion of the moment and the hope for the future.

You managed to put into each image the joy that was abundant in your subjects.

In that, you touched a universal in all of us.

What criticism can be made of such awesome photographic power?

Bravo!

 

[STiZzle2010]

Thank you I appreciate that! I'm happy that the emotion came through cause these two, were glowing the entire day!

 

[Derrel]

I went to a wedding this past weekend and my wife's cousin just proposed the night before. I do not have a flash and did the best I could with the natural light. Shot with a Nikon D5500, Nikkor 50mm 1.8G lens, and edited in Lightroom.
f/3.2
1/400th
ISO 100

IMO at times we become too obsessed with the technicalities of photography. Yeah, you cut off an elbow or placed the top of his head a bit too high. Yada yada ...

There are times when none of that really matters.


What you captured through your lens was the emotion of the moment and the hope for the future.

You managed to put into each image the joy that was abundant in your subjects.

In that, you touched a universal in all of us.

What criticism can be made of such awesome photographic power?

Bravo!

I've never seen you being so totally magnanimous and jubilant in your praise. Basic framing is not a "technicality"...it's the most basic part of every,single photograph,shot with any camera, from an iPhone to a Brownie to a Leica to a Nikon to a Shin Hao view camera...framing each shot. That's not a technicality, in any way, shape or form. Is it great to capture big smiles on a newly wedded couple? Sure. But when the framing is bad, it impacts the picture.

The OP mentions being relatively new to photography, having not that long ago struggled with the basics of exposure and focus, so yes, these are at one level, good representations of happy, smiling newly wedded people, now man and wife. I get that. And it is great to have them in focus. And exposed well. But that doesn't change the compositions or the framing...all three images have visual tension in them...they don't "feel" quite "right" to somebody who has no personal connection to the people, or to the events, or to the photographs. For me, looking at the images, I experience visual tension, imbalance, awkwardness--despite the happy couple's facial expressions.

One of the things that C&C from people who have zero connection to the people, or the wedding, or the photographs themselves, is that you can get an honest, dispassionate (look the word up if you do not actually know for certain what dispassionate actually means) evaluation of photos. As personal snapshots (snapshot = memory cue, recording of fact/people/events) made at an event, it's often difficult to get beyond one's own, personal attachment and involvement with the people in photos. And that is the secret underlying social photography; the people who are involved in the images, and family members who see the photos, will evaluate the images based almost entirely on personal experience and love for or familiarity with the people in the images. All sorts of technical errors will be overlooked by family members and friends if the emotional connection to the people is strong. Bad focus, blurring, bad exposure, all those types of things can be off, and yet, friends and family can say, and rightly so I think, "Hey, that's a good picture of John and Carol! They look so cute together!" Many "good pictures" have one or more flaws. But if you want to improve, you want people to tell you honestly what is being done wrong or improperly or in a less than optimal way.

Like for example, in shots 1 and 2, his arm is moved AWAY from her...that's not good...his arm should be going toward her...it looks very much like his arm is being drawn toward his back, and deliberately away from her. That's a posing issue. At the base of the image, the bottom, where the two of them come together, he's not reaching toward her or drawing her toward himself. In #3 he's pointing toward himself. In a couple's pose, it's very common for you as a photographer to have to tell subjects how to pose. His arm on a strong diagonal going OUT of the frame is disconcerting. I don't sense joy on his part really.Body language.

 

[STiZzle2010]

I'm here looking for CC cause this is the only way I can get better. Sure I understand that my family and friend's opinions will be bias, especially when there is that connection but, that is why I'm here. I want honesty, I have thick skin and I can take it! Now just for clarification this couple did not get married. We were at a wedding and they just got engaged the night previous. These 3 shots were one after another. I did not pose them at all. I took these shots quickly to check exposure (the 1st shot is actually at 1/320th) as just a test. I was then planning to pose them however, when I saw these expressions on the back of the camera, I felt like I captured the expression I was after. I realize that there are some improvements needed and I'm happy to have them pointed out. I will continue to post my work and hopefully you guys will start to see an improvement.