My first wedding shots

[atseeyob]

Ok..... I thought I knew everything before I was shooting my first wedding. Thank God I was a backup. I am not satisfied with the pictures, and here you can see samples. Please give me any critics. Please be merciless as I am trying to learn from my mistakes and weaknesses.

Oh, the reason I post it here is because I would like to get a critics from the pros.

Here is the link to the pictures - http://yagerphoto.wordpress.com/category/hiwotie-and-wonde/

Thank you

 

[prairiewindlady]

Personally? I love them! I think you have done a very good job and you are very aware of your background in most of your shots.

 

[Big Mike]

You will certainly get more feedback if you post the images directly on the forum, so that we don't have to go to your site to view them.

I had a look and there they do show some pretty good potential. I'll point out a few things that I can see, hopfully it will help.

#1. It's crooked. That's not always a problem, but with water in the background, it usually is a problem. A water line is almost always horizontal, and when a photo is tilted like this, it really looks off. You can't always get it perfect when shooting but it's pretty easy to fix with an editing program.
Also, there needs to be more light on her face. There is not catch light, here eyes are just dark holes. Also, look at how much darker the whites of her eyes are, than her dress. They don't have to be as bright...but they should be brighter & sharper. After all, the eyes are usually where you want to draw the viewer's attention to.

#2. This one is tilted again...but it's harder to notice and doesn't really look to bad. There is water but it's pretty dark and hidden in the top corner. You cut off the dress at the bottom, but left some space above their heads. Always try to include things like the bottom of the dress, people's feet & hands etc. Especially if you have room to spare. You can crop the shot later but you can't get back the part that's cut off. Also, you left more room on the right than on the left. With group shots like this, you should try to even out the space around them, atleast on the sides. Again, you can crop later but give yourself some extra room when you shoot. This is also important if you need to make 8x10 prints for example. The aspect ratio is different for different sized prints, and you may need extra room to avoid cutting things that you don't want to.
They are not all looking at you or in the same direction/spot. I take it that you were not the primary photographer, which can make it hard to get everyone's attention...but for it to be a good shot, you should have all the people looking at you...or else looking at something (preferably in the shot, the B&G for example).
The highlights (top shirts) look like they may be blown out...as do parts of the dress. I can understand the difficulties of shooting darker skinned subjects with bright white clothes...but you still need to watch for the highlights. It's not really too bad though, and it should be judged on a print, not my monitor.

#3. Nice shot. It has a few of the aforementioned problems though. The dress is cut off, the faces & eyes are a bit too dark and they aren't looking at you.

#4. Another nice shot. Looks like it is a bit too tilted though.

#5. Nice one. This one is cropped too tight, IMO. The veil is cut off and the top of the frame is right at the top of her head. A little more space would be nice...or else just cropp it tighter all around.