What do you do with these pictures?

[MohaimenK]

If you're doing a small wedding and people are all over the place. Walking around minding their own business in the background but the subject is the father and the bride having their dance. Is there much you can do? Even moring to another direction wouldn't have doen much because then the father and bride would be facing their back toward me. Small budget wedding in a 10x10 dance floor. Didn't have much room to work with. I find the picture to be crap but I know it'd mean a lot to them.

 

[davisphotos]

Use off-camera flash to light just the father and daughter, underexpose the background so it falls to almost black, use the burn tool to remove any other elements out of the background.
I typically try to encourage guests to gather around the dance floor to watch the first dance, that way I get the reactions of the guests. I also usually take some closer shots focusing on just the father and daughter.

 

[c.cloudwalker]

Use the largest aperture you can to try and get the background as OOF as possible.

My very first wedding took place in a "normal" hotel room with about 50 people. I was shooting from the bed... To do portraits of the B&G I got them on the bed with me. You can imagine the kind of photos I got.

Sometimes, you just can't do anything :er:

Although I did revise my marketing strategy the very next day so as to not ever do another one like that :lmao:

 

[gsgary]

Use off-camera flash to light just the father and daughter, underexpose the background so it falls to almost black, use the burn tool to remove any other elements out of the background.
I typically try to encourage guests to gather around the dance floor to watch the first dance, that way I get the reactions of the guests. I also usually take some closer shots focusing on just the father and daughter.

+1 i was going to say that

 

[MohaimenK]

Actually here's the picture. it'll help showing how small the room was. Look how close the subjects are comapred to the background and the people walking around

Of course after they started dancing. I was able to get much better shots and use a zoom lens to created a blurred background

Anyway looks like a crappy snap shot. Thinking of not including it in the batch.

 

[MohaimenK]

The above image was taken at f/2.8

 

[GooniesNeverSayDie11]

A fast 50mm would have worked great here, if only you had that sigma 1.4

 

[GooniesNeverSayDie11]

Also, I would not include that shot. Aside from the background, the posing just looks awkward to me, it would have been better to get the shot as he takes her hand.

 

[MohaimenK]

hahaha! Soon. But wouldn't have done much because that shot was at 24mm and I didn't have space to move back

 

[bigtwinky]

A fast 50mm would have worked great here, if only you had that sigma 1.4

The problem when shooting a small venue is that you dont always have time to switch lenses and would normally have a wide to medium telephoto zoom lens on (24-70, 17-55,...). The 50 would be too tight in a small venue for alot of shots, so I would not think of using it.

This is where some experience might be handy... personally, I would not chose to shoot from an area where there is a high traffic place in back like the buffet table. Same goes for a door where people can come in and out of. Be mindful of the background at all times, plan where you are going to shoot critical times (like this dance) from. But keep in mind that while you plan, **** is still going to happen and you need to be able to adapt quickly.

I dont think a wide aperture would help that much more. The flash with a fast shutter to reduce the background might help some. But really, planning is probably the best thing.

When walking into a venue, take note of the main table, the door, the dj, chairs, setups, lights, exit signs (so you dont have to clone them out) and pick and chose shooting places.

I probably would not include that in my set of images, but again, it depends what else you are giving them. If they have plenty nice ones from the dance, might want to skip this one. If you feel this adds something to the story of their day based on your other images, add it

 

[MohaimenK]

Thanks big! Yeah that's what I'm stuck at. I need the shot to tell the story. But it's a crappy shot! Or else it'd just be like the father and daughter just suddenly dancing. I will check if I have anything else better than that. I shot them in multi shot instead of single so I had lots to choose from. I have my fingers crossed that I have something better in my server.

As for all the other advice, great advice. But I guess sometimes ****s just happen and there's not much you can do about it.

 

[bigtwinky]

not much you can do about it but learn from it and try and minimize the **** next time around

 

[gsgary]

You could have done an arty shot very slow shutter speed with flash

 

[MohaimenK]

Thanx yeah I'm learning more and more as I do weddings. So far it's only been 3 and I learned a lot about my mistakes I made.

 

[MohaimenK]

Ok, soooo I been thinking about this shot and trying to see if I can do anything to make them the focus of the image. Here are a few versions I came up with. I find #3 the best and much better than the original version....

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