Slightly Frustrated - What am I doing wrong?

[Mike_E]

The basics are what so many people new to the industry seem to lack, and choose to rely on the technology of the cameras to 'fix'.
Exposure, composition and white balance are the keys to making a great image. Post processing is OK for a few images from the day, but you don't want to go crazy with them.

Yep! No doubt, the fundamentals have to be mastered before one can effectively use advanced techniques. With the advent of digital photography the photographer has had to become much more involved in the post production work, and more importantly has a much more complex pre production learning curve to master.

Image editing is it's own specialty, and is akin to film photographers learning how to develope, process. and print in a wet darkroom. Photoshop and similar aplications are based on wet darkroom techniques. I highly recommend putting together an image editing (Photoshop) reference library.

What is see from so many new photographers today is a poor understanding of how to control depth-of-field, a poor understanding of how to effectively use light, and an general lack of understanding technical things.

You haven't given permission to edit your photos but please check your PM. Whenever the bride is in the shot, the bride is the prime subject and the dress is second. Everything else lines up after that.

Notice the crop, before you had the breezeway as the main attraction, now even though the groom is on the third line the bride is on center stage and her dress is is not cutoff and is given room to breath behind her.

This was just a quick touch (notice that I didn't get rid of the green cast to her skin or do any retouching to the blemishes or freckles) but I popped a white balance off of one of the painted signs (I didn't know if she was wearing white or off white otherwise I'd have made her dress more white.

Also notice that I increased the contrast to better show the detail of the dress (way important!), one of the quickest ways I know to upset a bride with her wedding photos is to show her dress as just another white dress. (you might as well tell her that the most important thing she could tell you is very interesting but just skip the details, dangerous).

Anyway, if you'll excuse the pun, always focus on the main things, even when you're illustrating with the mundane as crazy as weddings get they really are simple things. Focus.

 

[Siflan]

In your gallery, (Couple, Friends & Engagements) there's a coupe in a tree. If you look at it carefully, you'll see that the back of the guys head is completely cut off, due to light. That's processing work needed. Look into the Photo Shopping courses. They are a help.