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DPChallenge Forums >> Business of Photography >> My first wedding
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 06/10/2007 08:49:22 PM · #1
Shot my first wedding last night. I did not have much notice, but I think it went pretty good. They had no rehersal. The wedding had a Hawaian theme. It was very untraditional. I took 3 gigs of memory and left with almost six hundred photos all raw. I tossed out the bad ones last night then did all my editing today. I ended up with 240 useable photos. Should I get that down to 150, or just leave them. They had the ceremony on a deck it was full of people no room for me. I had to shoot between the railings. Oh well I had fun. I wana do another. I do admit that I have alot to learn. I was not stressed out at all and I felt pretty comfortable.
I welcome any comments or sugestions. thanks enjoy.


Message edited by author 2007-06-13 14:31:13.
 06/10/2007 08:57:25 PM · #2
was this a paid gig? If it were and you plan on doing them in the future, you should be up on the deck. You are there to do a job, people need to move for you.
I always give my wedding clients as many photos as I can. If there is 240 good ones, give them 240 good ones. But, before you do give them all to them, leave it a day and look at them again. You will see things you didnt see before which may make the difference.
I personally like it that I am giving the clients as much as possible without going to the extreme. It makes them happy to know that they got a decent amount for their money.
Hope this helps you a tad
 06/10/2007 09:07:13 PM · #3
They are gona buy some prints and a disk from me. I tried to get up on the deck but there was just no way to get a good angle from the angle they were standing.
 06/10/2007 09:25:45 PM · #4
I'm not to great a post processor. But, how does this look? Those colors/hands just seemed a bit flat.
Before After

Message edited by author 2007-06-10 21:37:23.
 06/10/2007 09:49:16 PM · #5
I took a stab:

B&W


Color
06/10/2007 10:01:49 PM · #6
Originally posted by TCGuru:
I took a stab:

B&W


Color


Thanks, I wish I could edit like that. How did you get those colors?
 06/10/2007 10:17:13 PM · #7
I hope you don't mind .. I tried to get the yellow out .. came up with this

06/10/2007 10:21:55 PM · #8
I dont mind if you play with them. I would like a little feedback on what you guys think of the overall shots and what I might do to improve.
 06/10/2007 10:31:06 PM · #9
Here are some of my edits. I think that getting rid of some of the noise might help.
06/10/2007 10:31:35 PM · #10
Did you shoot these in RAW aka Manual mode? Don't always rely on AWB, it doesn't work well with low lighting.
 06/10/2007 11:20:04 PM · #11
Originally posted by mystopia:
Did you shoot these in RAW aka Manual mode? Don't always rely on AWB, it doesn't work well with low lighting.

RAW doesn't necessarily mean manual mode. But, white balance can easily be corrected using the RAW converting program.

Added: Snake...remember the edits above are done from the JPEG's you uploaded, not the original RAW's.

Message edited by author 2007-06-10 23:38:00.
 06/11/2007 09:45:46 AM · #12
In general I'd say you've got to a) get your subjects into some decent light, or compensate for the existing light with flash or bounce- they look like they're under some kind of tent with bright sunlight behind them, which brings me to: b) You have to get them against a background that's not busy, ugly or distracting.

If they won't allow you to get decent shots during the ceremony you should set up a shoot afterwards that allows you to control your lighting and background.

I added some suggestions to the portrait of the two gentlemen.

On a positive note, your subjects look like they're relaxed and having the time of their lives, something you certainly can't say about all weddings.



Message edited by author 2007-06-11 10:25:56.
 06/11/2007 09:13:08 PM · #13
Thanks for the replies everyone.
 06/13/2007 02:47:37 PM · #14
Wow Snake SOme nice Shots.... nice work for your 1st gig =)
 06/20/2007 10:05:39 PM · #15
A few things jump out at me. this is definitely not meant as a hack, just a technical examination from my limited experience.

First, lighting. Second, Light temperature. Third, contrast. Fourth, Bokeh.

The subjects are underexposed in almost every frame. this is largely due to unbalanced light in other parts of the frame. For example, the brightest areas of the frame in a few shots are the sunlit plants behind the people. That's bad for a lot of reasons, not least of which is that your eye is naturally drawn to the brightest area first...

Light temperature, well you know this already, but I would say that the problem is a fair bit more severe than you might think. I personally would consider none of the photos you showed as 'keepers' except possibly the one where they are together in front of the book. Even still, it would take a heavy edit and likely go into B&W

Contrast - this is another result of having bad lighting. Colors are washed out and faces look flat and drab. The expressions are nice, and the moments are well timed, but nothing really stands out... Makes it feel like the viewer has to do the work that the camera should have.

Bokeh/sharpness - well the good news is that with that super-deep DOF, it's pretty obvious that you were able to shoot closer to the 'sweet spot' in the lens regarding aperture to get better sharpness, but the bad news is that the shots could have been taken just as easily with a couple hundred dollar P&S camera. OK, a P&S would probably have a few more blown highlights... but the couple wouldn't know.

So my first recommendation would be to pick up a lens capable of delivering attractive bokeh... next, you need to know how to force it in strong light... For this, you might be able to use some filters, ND 2, 4 and maybe even an 8. These don't cost too much, but be careful how you buy them if you are going to expand your lens collection. A cokin P series filter system should work nicely for almost any lens collection with just a few adaptor rings.

You might have been able to make do with the 60mm macro lens in your kit...

Definitely need to get some flash stuff working too. Nikon has an excellent wireless flash system... not sure if the D50 can use it, but an old D70 wouldn't cost much and I believe that it does have wireless flash via radio... a single SB600 could do wonders for your pics.

Finally, you need to do some more straight portraits... I'm going to be making a thread about this in a few minutes. yeah, there's room for the unconventional, but you still have to provide the bread and butter IMHO.
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