Shooting a sma wedding today

[mgrissomphotography]

Feel I'm butchering the wedding with a ton of amateur mistakes. Below are the pics I have currently taken. Feel free to edit or critique them as you see fit with your knowledge. And experience.

 

[Mtothepoweroftwo]

hey! great shots. i am not a wedding photographer so this is a just a very gut-feeling opinion:
to me 3, 7 and 8 are the strongest where i would say 7 and 8 are probably not classic wedding shots - but maybe they are.. i don't know the field that well.

it seems overall your focus is a bit soft in all the images. maybe that's intentional but i just felt like pointing it out.
for me 1 maybe has a too shallow depth of field.. it's hard for me to make out the plane of focus here.

overall really cool shots though!! looking forward to see more of these!

 

[JerryVenz]

Hey, this is what I do (my wife and I were Ritz Carlton preferred wedding photographers in California) and you butchered nothing here!
You've shown some strong work in these few images and if the rest of them are like these you should be proud.

I really like that you've done some natural light portraits here ( GREAT image of the bride! ...413.jpg)

You are seeing and using the light well...608.jpg and ...896.jpg

Did not like the pose (bride flat to the camera against the door) or the FLAT LIGHT ....818.jpg.

The detail image of the bride's hair was not interesting enough--how about details of her dress, shoes, garter, jewelry, etc. with her flowers?

Of course the images you've shown are the EASY STUFF--how about the group portraits, ceremony images (processional/recessional), the ring exchanges and the kiss?

Good job on what I've seen! Jerry V.

 

[mgrissomphotography]

So it was a court house wedding or same day marriage wedding I didn't to mention that in the Begining and in addition to that didn't want it to be a deciding factor in my quality of work. We had not picked up the flowers yet. And as far as the ceremony and other things questioned about. I failed. Horribly. At capturing them. The bride and groom by the time the ceremony was over were like "we love everything you have done so far but we are tired and wanna eat. Another factor is that it's my best friend of 15 years wedding so I had an ability to insist to let me get some traditional shoots. How ever my plea for that was still rushed. :/ any ways. All factors aside I really want to know what I could of done better. And side note I used a 50mm prime. At 1.8 or 2.8 and used a high shutter speed. That why the focus is soft I think. I don't know. Just help. Lol

 

[frommrstomommy]

I'm no wedding photographer, but I'm looking at these and thinking a lot could be "saved" so to speak if you shot RAW. The biggest stand out for me is they lack consistency in exposures and WB. I would try to get them looking more unison, and then try to address some of the odd crops if possible along with straightening some lines.

 

[Light Guru]

None of the images look sharp. Not sure if that's how they really are or if it's because of what you did to prepaid them doe posting on the web.

Also what is a "sma" wedding and how is it different from just a regular wedding?

 

[mgrissomphotography]

I'm no wedding photographer, but I'm looking at these and thinking a lot could be "saved" so to speak if you shot RAW. The biggest stand out for me is they lack consistency in exposures and WB. I would try to get them looking more unison, and then try to address some of the odd crops if possible along with straightening some lines.

I definitely shot all these in raw. So some of the inconsistency in white balance and expose. There were several changes through out. The shoot so the problem is me and how I shoot right?

 

[mgrissomphotography]

None of the images look sharp. Not sure if that's how they really are or if it's because of what you did to prepaid them doe posting on the web. Also what is a "sma" wedding and how is it different from just a regular wedding?

I didn't edit them but I shoot with a canon 6d and a 50mm 1.4 am I to low on my f stop being at 1.8? I have noticed the softness as well as I shoot and for the life of me can't get it sharper without post editing. As far a preparing them before posting to the web. These images are in edited and straight from the camera. When you save to the smart phone using the eps app there is some file compression a lot actually so none of them are high resolution either. But I want to know what I'm doing wrong while shooting. I'm curious to know how far off am I in choosing my shoots and how I execute them. I can't get super sharp images with my 50mm is it something I'm doing or could it be that it is damaged. I read that the focusing goes out very easily on these lens. All in all despite the client being ecstatic about the images I am not. I am a bit of a harsh critic on my own work. And it is supposed to say small wedding. By small I mean. Court house no reception. Only 10 people total.

 

[pgriz]

There are two reasons to shoot wide open with a bright lens: you need the light, or you want the thinness of the DOF. Either way, the very thin DOF that results means that focus placement becomes critical, and if you're allowing the camera to select the focus point, it's going to be really hard to get the right parts in focus. So you either go to a smaller aperture, which will give a deeper DOF and focusing errors become less critical, or you have to really nail the focus method you use.

 

[mgrissomphotography]

There are two reasons to shoot wide open with a bright lens: you need the light, or you want the thinness of the DOF. Either way, the very thin DOF that results means that focus placement becomes critical, and if you're allowing the camera to select the focus point, it's going to be really hard to get the right parts in focus. So you either go to a smaller aperture, which will give a deeper DOF and focusing errors become less critical, or you have to really nail the focus method you use.

Thank you Pgriz so use a more selective focus method when shooting because the auto focus feature will select details that may not be as important. Again these images I have posted are on my phone and I have not edited them yet but I used snapseed to sharpen the image. Is this a better look or no. It needs to be corrected with the shot when it is taken. Granted if I was to put this in photo shop I would correct the blemishes and correct the darkening of her elbow. But on the bright side I shot all these in raw so how much can I correct. How far off am I from getting it right. I know in life it doesn't matter how good you are it matter if you deliver what the clients want and deliver something they are dazzled by. But as an aspiring professional I want to be on a different level than I am currently. It takes time I know

 

[pgriz]

Be careful not to over-sharpen in post, and if you have photoshop, you can use the layering technique to sharpen only those parts that need it. If you're doing editing, do it on a calibrated monitor so that the colours you get are "real". This is very important when adjusting for the WB. In the above images, you may also want to correct the slight slant to the right.

As for focusing, that depends on your camera's abilities. My camera (T1i) has the cross-sensors only at the middle focus point, which is what I use to get the focus right. Your camera may have much better focusing abilities, so you will need to explore how to get the focus right on the parts that matter most (usually, that's the eyes). As well, some time with the DOF calculator should let you know at your typical shooting distances, what f/stop you need to use to get adequate DOF to get all your subject into focus.

Another thing to keep in mind is the background. It's going to be invisible to you until you start looking at your shots after the fact, and then you'll see all kinds of extraneous stuff that detracts from your main subject. It's a hard thing to learn but controlling the background appearance is a key difference between OK shooters and really good shooters.

 

[mgrissomphotography]

Be careful not to over-sharpen in post, and if you have photoshop, you can use the layering technique to sharpen only those parts that need it. If you're doing editing, do it on a calibrated monitor so that the colours you get are "real". This is very important when adjusting for the WB. In the above images, you may also want to correct the slight slant to the right. As for focusing, that depends on your camera's abilities. My camera (T1i) has the cross-sensors only at the middle focus point, which is what I use to get the focus right. Your camera may have much better focusing abilities, so you will need to explore how to get the focus right on the parts that matter most (usually, that's the eyes). As well, some time with the DOF calculator should let you know at your typical shooting distances, what f/stop you need to use to get adequate DOF to get all your subject into focus. Another thing to keep in mind is the background. It's going to be invisible to you until you start looking at your shots after the fact, and then you'll see all kinds of extraneous stuff that detracts from your main subject. It's a hard thing to learn but controlling the background appearance is a key difference between OK shooters and really good shooters.

Can I private message you? DOF calculator what's that? Sounds amazing and like something I need and want. How much does it cost to get a monitor calibrated I edit on a 27inch mac from 2009

 

[The_Traveler]

dofmaster.com

 

[pgriz]

Be careful not to over-sharpen in post, and if you have photoshop, you can use the layering technique to sharpen only those parts that need it. If you're doing editing, do it on a calibrated monitor so that the colours you get are "real". This is very important when adjusting for the WB. In the above images, you may also want to correct the slight slant to the right. As for focusing, that depends on your camera's abilities. My camera (T1i) has the cross-sensors only at the middle focus point, which is what I use to get the focus right. Your camera may have much better focusing abilities, so you will need to explore how to get the focus right on the parts that matter most (usually, that's the eyes). As well, some time with the DOF calculator should let you know at your typical shooting distances, what f/stop you need to use to get adequate DOF to get all your subject into focus. Another thing to keep in mind is the background. It's going to be invisible to you until you start looking at your shots after the fact, and then you'll see all kinds of extraneous stuff that detracts from your main subject. It's a hard thing to learn but controlling the background appearance is a key difference between OK shooters and really good shooters.

Can I private message you? DOF calculator what's that? Sounds amazing and like something I need and want. How much does it cost to get a monitor calibrated I edit on a 27inch mac from 2009

PM? sure, any time. Keith has already pointed you to the on-line version. There are also versions you can download to your smart phone, which is really convenient in the field. Google "DOF calculator".

I don't know much about Macs, but if you google "monitor calibrator + MAC" you should have a list of possible vendors and tools. Also there have been several threads on monitor calibration, so use the search tool on this forum to dig up those threads.

 

[mgrissomphotography]

ok so update here is my attempt at editing but i dont now how to exactly edit her cracked lips and or the slight lines under her eyes without it looking obvious any links or advice would be a great help...!!!