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DPChallenge Forums >> Individual Photograph Discussion >> My first Wedding!! How did I do?
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05/31/2006 12:39:37 PM · #1
Hi everybody,

I have recently decided to start a Wedding photography business with my wife. Last weekend we had our first wedding, here is a list of the best photos. What do you think?, if you were the groom or bride would you be satisfied with a job like this?. In your experiencie how much could I charge if I consistently deliver this quality in my wedding photography?.

       



Here is a link to the complete portfolio, Jenn's Wedding Portfolio

Thank you very much for your comments, I am really looking forward to hear from you all.

Message edited by author 2006-05-31 12:44:38.
05/31/2006 12:40:30 PM · #2
Great Job,

these are just fine, keep it up
05/31/2006 12:42:45 PM · #3
I think you could sell these to even the worst bridezillas :-) good work indeed. Creative and fun.
05/31/2006 12:42:52 PM · #4
Very very good for you first wedding! I wouldn't dare delve into Wedding Photography....that's why I'll always be in this cubicle.

Good shots.

Originally posted by patrinus:

Hi everybody,

I have recently decided to start a Wedding photography business with my wife. Last weekend we had our first wedding, here is a list of the best photos. What do you think?, if you were the groom or bride would you be satisfied with a job like this?. In your experiencie how much could I charge if I consistently deliver this quality in my wedding photography?.





Here is a link to the complete portfolio, Jenn's Wedding Portfolio

Thank you very much for your comments, I am really looking forward to hear from you all.
05/31/2006 12:49:07 PM · #5
The pictures look very good. What did you do about lighting? Did you just use a flash?
05/31/2006 12:49:36 PM · #6
The pictures are absolutely stunning.. Keep up the good work. They will be so happy going through these beautiful pictures in the future :o)
05/31/2006 01:06:27 PM · #7
I agree, they are just great.

I think one of the keys of good candid wedding photography is to anticipate the natural smiles and catch them. When the best man is giving the toast get a few shots of him and then switch over to the groom. He'll be embarrassed at some point of the speach and the natural look he gives will be worth its weight in gold. You seem to have done a REALLY good job of that.

Two questions... first I ditto the question about lighting and would also be interested in your lens choices. Second, how did you get the job? My wife and I also have a fledgling business, but we're not sure how to snag our first bride. Did you second with an experienced photographer for a while first?

---A
05/31/2006 01:09:54 PM · #8
i say yo uhave a good eye - i wish i did. teh more weddings i shoot the worse i think i get in this regard. Each one poses new challenges.

question- what was the yellow BG? I like it.

comment in general - why in most of the yellow BG pics are the subjects not looking at you (the camera)? Looks like you were shooting over someone's shoulder.
05/31/2006 01:25:22 PM · #9
Looks like a very colorful wedding! Great pictures, congrats!
05/31/2006 02:31:47 PM · #10
These shots are spectacular! Way to go!
05/31/2006 02:32:42 PM · #11
Originally posted by cfischl:

The pictures look very good. What did you do about lighting? Did you just use a flash?


I used natural lighting as well as fill flash (Canon 380EX). I think I urgently need a new 580EX or something similar because right now I am limited at how I can bounce the flash.

I mostly used my 70-300 4.5-5-6

Thank you for your nice comments
05/31/2006 02:35:33 PM · #12
good stuff
05/31/2006 02:52:11 PM · #13
Absolutely stunning! You've captured the joy, the emotion....they're really special!
05/31/2006 02:54:34 PM · #14
I'm no expert, but I think you did a fantastic job. I especially like the shots with the yellow background. A lot of the wedding shots I've seen end up with coloring that looks too somber for what is supposed to be a happy occasion. The yellow seems to add a bit of life and happiness.

Well done!
05/31/2006 06:32:09 PM · #15
Originally posted by livitup:

I agree, they are just great.

Two questions... first I ditto the question about lighting and would also be interested in your lens choices. Second, how did you get the job? My wife and I also have a fledgling business, but we're not sure how to snag our first bride. Did you second with an experienced photographer for a while first?

---A


Hi livitup,

About the lighting: I used a single fill flash because most of the shots were taken during the day. My flash is a Canon 380EX, not really a great flash, I miss the ability to turn the head in more directions for good control on the bounce, also I haven't mastered flash photography, in fact what could have been a mistake in this photo:

turned out to be one of the most intimate and heartfelt photos of the shot. Of course I would rather learn how to have this kind of photos when I want them and not just by mistake. If somebody out there can help me with this topic you will be welcome.

About the lens choices: I have 2 soft :( lenses right now: a Canon 70-300 4.5 - 5.6 and the Canon kit lens. Mostly I used the 70-300 but had to post process a lot because it is really soft, I hope I can someday upgrade to a 70-200 2.8L IS. What I learned from this wedding is that I really like close-ups, I feel that you can express much more emotion with closeups, after all thats what I beleive the newly wed are wanting to get.

About my first job: This is a difficult topic, and I can't really give you a decisive advice. I guess it depends a lot on where you live and market conditions there. I live in Mexico City (largest city in the world), and fortunately every week a dozen couples who might be willing to pay for a good photographer are getting married and have every single church appointed since 6 months or more beforehand.
My wife and I decided to build a portfolio with 2 or 3 interesting weddings, and decided to face those 'portfolio' weddings as if they were the 'real' stuff. Last week we attended this wedding from my wife's friend. Jenn (the bride) is her friend, we talked with her and told her our gift would be the best photos from her wedding. She had already chosen a very very expensive photographer who seemed very good and had great equipment! (I was salivating and even had the chance to hold her 70-200 2.8L IS!!) that's the closer I have been to that lens.
Anyway, this wedding was a training wedding but I can't wait to compare my photos with those of the 'professional' photographer, I have the feeling that we may have captured 7 or 8 great shots that the couple will love.

We plan to go to a beautiful church to look at future weddings, we hope to get beautiful couples (I think that's important for a portfolio, I wish to show expertise as well as beauty) and go there to take photographs for free. Once our portfolio is built we plan on doing several things:
-Build a webpage with our portfolio
-Market ourselves through word of mouth by giving away great prints from our weddings (prints from this wedding should come out pretty well)
-And cross our fingers!! ;)

I got married 3 years ago, back then I knew less about photography than I know now, and I remember that we hired a photographer whose photos seemed really boring to my wife and me. When we got the photos from our wedding we were really happy about them because we could see happy faces and our most important moments. Now that I look back I notice those are not really 'good' photos but rather good moments 'captured'. We have decided to produce the best of both worlds: 'great photos and great moments'. I think that for the general public, the 'untrained eyes' of couples getting married most photographers will seem good (depending on the marketing spent), and depending on how much they charge (I beleive cheap is not necessaryly better). I hope that by delivering rich-colored, happy photos with a great print quality will give us a great advantage over photographers who just don't post process because the market hasn't realized there is much that can be done about photos only if they are correclty PP.

I have another advantage in this new project: My wife and I earn money from different things, we don't really 'need' the money from wedding photography. Earnings should be considered for better equipment and traveling. We plan on having few weddings with a good revenue (perhaps 10 weddings a year could be a good number) so we are not really stressed.

I wish you luck in your new project, let's keep in touch to learn from each other, I hope that this loong post helps you decide how to start and where to start from. From my point of view my wife and I are getting really closer to getting our first wedding assignment. I hope so.

And thank you for your kind coments.

Any other wedding photographers out there who can help us beginners?
05/31/2006 06:41:40 PM · #16
Let us know what the bride says. That's the opinion that really matters.

I think you did some good work capturing the moments. Some of the shots seem like they were smoothed quite a bit in the face.

FWIW, If you want a good lens upgrade for this kind of work that doesn't cost a fortune, the Tamron 28-75 f2.8 would be much sharper than either of the lenses you have now.

Message edited by author 2006-05-31 18:44:53.
05/31/2006 06:50:09 PM · #17
Originally posted by Spazmo99:

Let us know what the bride says. That's the opinion that really matters.

I think you did some good work capturing the moments. Some of the shots seem like they were smoothed quite a bit in the face.

FWIW, If you want a good lens upgrade for this kind of work that doesn't cost a fortune, the Tamron 28-75 f2.8 would be much sharper than either of the lenses you have now.


Thank you Spazmo, I just bought the Sigma 17-70 f2.8-4.5, I read it has received a great rating. Of course I would love to have the Tamron 28-75 2.8, let's see how well the Sigma turns out to be.
05/31/2006 07:06:28 PM · #18
Originally posted by Spazmo99:



FWIW, If you want a good lens upgrade for this kind of work that doesn't cost a fortune, the Tamron 28-75 f2.8 would be much sharper than either of the lenses you have now.


I just ordered that lens a few hours ago : )
05/31/2006 07:17:17 PM · #19
The photos are really wonderful.

I wish you the very best in your new venture.
05/31/2006 07:43:22 PM · #20
Originally posted by Prof_Fate:

i say yo uhave a good eye - i wish i did. teh more weddings i shoot the worse i think i get in this regard. Each one poses new challenges.

question- what was the yellow BG? I like it.

comment in general - why in most of the yellow BG pics are the subjects not looking at you (the camera)? Looks like you were shooting over someone's shoulder.


Hi Prof Fate,

Thank you for your nice comments :) The yellow BG was a wall, I liked the yellow color there and bumped it up in PP. The subjects are not looking at me because they were looking at different cameras. I prefered the photos where I did not get a direct look, it somehow feels more natural to me. Besides there already was a hired photographer as I say in my earlier post
05/31/2006 09:22:31 PM · #21
These are beautiful!

These are my favorites



05/31/2006 10:22:23 PM · #22
I really like this one:

I think the only thing that could make it any better would be a sharper focus on her face, but I love the pose and the black background, nice work!
06/01/2006 07:45:14 AM · #23
great colours and great expressions! Well done!
06/01/2006 08:11:56 AM · #24
Oh sheesh. When I see wedding photos like this it just pisses me off. When I got married over 15 years ago we had a pro photographer at an exorbitant rate. These photos are SO much better I bitterly wish we would have had a photographer like you at our wedding. >:-(
06/01/2006 08:17:30 AM · #25
You definately captured the right moments.
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