Shall I open a can of worms?...

Eventer · Apr 19, 2011

...With a "My first wedding" thread? I think i shall. Why not! I can handle the outcome...

Hmmm some background info... First wedding, for a fried. Very casual wedding - so casual they wernt even going to bother hiring a photographer. i was volunteered to do it. I was going to turn it down. but they would have no one. So i figured- any wedding photos are better than no wedding photos? I did it for free of course, as i pretty much have no portrait photography experience at all, I do equestrian sports.
Critique? the couple are happy with the outcome. But what does TPH forum think?

Dont now about the editing on this one... I gave the originals with all the ones i edited too...

sierramister · Apr 19, 2011

9 times out of 10 I try to get that focus point on the brides face because she is the most important in most of the shots. If someone else is equally important, I get that person the same distance from the lens to get them both in focus! One needs cropped in. Two could lose the vignette and give her back her left arm. I would've cloned the dude out of the back on three, it looks kind of creepy/stalkerish. And on 4, I would have gone wide angle and gotten closer to the flowers with my camera, which would have left her out of focus with an appropriate aperture setting. Overall though, I could see why they would happy with them, nice work!

manaheim · Apr 19, 2011

Were you going to post results?

Sonoma · Apr 19, 2011

The only question I have is if these were all shot outside and at very fast shutter speeds, why f1.8 0r f2.0?

Eventer · Apr 19, 2011

Thanks Sierramister - I think your right on all accounts, I agree witht her guy in tha background, unfortunalty i dont actually have photoshop and none of my editing programs would let me clone that out.
Sonoma i was using a 50m 1.8 lens fro all of these shots, the weather was very bleak and dark. the faster the shot the better the outcome - i dod play around a bit but ireall had to stick to about f2 more or less.

MissCream · Apr 19, 2011

I would have set my f# higher and lowered my ISO to 100. Your shutter speeds are fast enough to do that.

Ginu · Apr 19, 2011

I think pictures are better than no pictures, but I dont see the point of shooting outside at f1.8 and high ISO

the guy in photo #3 is super creepy

xjoewhitex · Apr 19, 2011

I really think you captured some good moments, and have a great eye and composition on the photos you posted. But the quality on the other hand is quite low, super wide aperture and high ISO would be the cause, it seems the focus was missed in all of them throwing them a bit out. Outside in the day light, there is no reason to make either one of those decisions, your shutter speed would have been well above what was required for a 50m. Anything over 1/60 could have been handled easily hand held. But this was your first, I understand something out of the norm.

Eventer · Apr 19, 2011

Thanks for the feedback, I was worried about a slow shuter speed with a dark day so i think i over reacted and went to the other extreme of wide aperture and highish ISO.
Definatly somthing out of the norm, I was also using this camera.lens fot the first time! probably not the smartest idea. I borrowed the camera from a friend as I have a 75-300mm zoom on my camera. Used that as well. but mostly used the 50mm

shufti · Apr 19, 2011

Everyone's technical input sounds very valid to me. I think you did ok...It isn't like you went in there giving it the big-i-am-pro (i hope, lol) They've got some keepsakes now which they otherwise would have missed out on. It's a bit harsh comment on that guy imo.

DerekSalem · Apr 19, 2011

Eventer said:
Thanks for the feedback, I was worried about a slow shuter speed with a dark day so i think i over reacted and went to the other extreme of wide aperture and highish ISO.
Definatly somthing out of the norm, I was also using this camera.lens fot the first time! probably not the smartest idea. I borrowed the camera from a friend as I have a 75-300mm zoom on my camera. Used that as well. but mostly used the 50mm

Err...you were worried about it being a dark day so you shot the shutter speed up through the roof? That's counter-intuitive. If you were worried about it being a dark day you would have *lowered* the shutter speed.

EDIT: Sorry, didn't really give anything useful. Ideally you should have had the shutter speed around 1/100 of a sec. There's no action going on so there wouldn't have been any motion blur with that speed. The ISO is fine at ISO400 but I'd have dropped it to ISO200. The aperture would have been perfect around f/8 or even f/11 to capture it all in perfect focus...as it stands very little of the shots are actually in focus. The bride's face isn't in focus in a single picture, which should be the most important thing.

The composition is acceptable for someone that's never done it before, but you have to take control if you're going to be a portrait photographer (which a wedding photographer technically is...just with more movement lol)

gsgary · Apr 20, 2011

The settings you used where probably the worst you could have gone for, none of theses are keepers especially for a wedding

Ccauceg · Apr 20, 2011

Theres nothing wrong with shooting f1.8 outside. Bokeh looks good in the background most of the time.

Ccauceg · Apr 20, 2011

gsgary said:
The settings you used where probably the worst you could have gone for, none of theses are keepers especially for a wedding

I would say that its up to Eventer and the family of the bride to decide whats a "keeper" and whats not. You don't even know if they liked the shots or not.